Movie-A-Day #335: Backbeat

[KingLouieLouie]

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Continuing w/the music theme, I decided to post one of the most underrated flims in recent memory.... Again... per usual... I must thank my friends at Amazon.com for the following:

Ian Hart's second performance as John Lennon (the first was the little-seen The Hours and Times) commands attention in this marvelous musical bio of the Beatles in Hamburg directly before their stardom. The focus is on the "5th Beatle," Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff), a bluesy bass guitar player who finds Germany has more interesting things (art and a woman) than music. The woman, Astrid (Sheryl Lee), chronicles the early years of the Beatles, and she falls in love with Stuart, a move that would influence many aspects of the Fab Four. Nearly overpowering the film is Hart in a great, energized performance of an artist on fire. The music was adapted for the movie, rediscovering the raw sound and ballistic energy in the back street clubs. These scenes of rock and genius intermixed with a nervy lead singer evoke similarities to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Directed by Iain Softley. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
Iain Softley's movie tells the story of Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff), who was John Lennon's best friend at the Liverpool College of Art and, for a short time, the bass player of the Beatles. The picture doesn't quite succeed in turning this obscure sideman into a pop-culture myth in his own right. In the period that the screenplay covers-roughly, from August, 1960, when the group played its first night-club gig in Hamburg, to April, 1962, when Sutcliffe dies of a brain hemorrhage-the Beatles were unambiguously John Lennon's band. And, despite all Softley's efforts to deflect our attention to the tragic ironies of Stuart's brief career, Lennon (Ian Hart) dominates the movie, too. When the picture concentrates on Lennon's edgy wit and on the fierce, joyful music that his band is making, it's terriffc. But when it focusses on its nominal hero and his love affair with a worldly German bohemian (played by Sheryl Lee) it seems very ordinary. The script is by Softley, Michael Thomas, and Stephen Ward. The Beatles' music is re-created by a wonderful group of alternative-rock all-stars assembled by Don Was, including Thurston Moore, Mike Mills, Dave Grohl, and Greg Dulli. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Personal Note:

I've been a Beatlemaniac for practically my entire life and seldom did anyone document the events of the pre-Fab years of the Beatles venturing over to Hamburg, Germany to attract a cult following and hone their act... Also, rarely did any movie or anyother form of media really document Stuart Sutcliffe and the immense impact he had on the Beatles artistic side....

This film did an excellent job in bringing everything into complete perspective, especially through the spectaculor performances of Ian Hart and Stephen Dorff.... Sheryl Lee did a marvelous job in the role of Astrid, who in fact is responsible for the Beatles mop-top hair-styles that many emulated throughout the earlier stages of their career until when they became Psychadelic in late '66 when they embarked on what eventually resulted in the "Sgt Pepper" recording sessions....

True.. Sutcliffe was an earlier day version of a Sid Vicious, someone who lacked musical talent/ability, but just had a profound impact on the Beatles in an assortment of ways... He was a visionary and had such artistic talent that it was unreal....Just unfortunate on how he ultimately perished way too prematurely, which had a profound impact on Lennon for the rest of his life.. It was a void that he never overcame... Thru the film you gathered a sense that he bonded more closely w/Sutcliffe than he did w/Paul McCartney.... John and Paul had a more competitve based relationship, but John and "Stu" had quite a close kinship....

I recommend this film to anyone.. doesnt matter whether or not you love or hate the Beatles..because it's a story of a couple of friends going thru several transitions together and how even after death the relationship still remained intact.....