Cotton Candy

My friend and I watched this cheesy movie because we were 14 and had our own band together. My Dad was watching it with us, and being the experienced professional singer he was, he was pointing out the importance of vocal harmonies. We listened and related to the shaky starts and ruined rehearsals...but I was most interested in the drums, as they were the popular Vistalite series made by Ludwig. I had my own set of them, the same era too, only mine were not the spiral pattern like those used in the film; they were "smoke" black (thus, my kit was cooler). We realized it was a bit of a stupid movie, but we were early high-schoolers and inspired by anything we could catch on TV that involved bands (of course MTV changed that soon after). I loved Smith in American Graffiti but he was MORE of a dork in this one. We howled laughing when he resents his nosy old neighbor complaining about the noise and says disgustedly, "rinky-DINK!" We knew WE would have said something far worse! Corny music, some fair acting, but a pleasant film. But I always wondered...was "I Shot The Sheriff" the only damn song Rapid Fire even knew? I couldn't figure out why they had FANS, when they knew only one song and were lousy at it to boot!

Look...yes this movie is dated, silly and at times sickeningly sweet, but darn is it ever fun! I was a kid when this was first aired, and not surprisingly just starting out on the bass guitar myself, so ANYTHING that remotely had anything to do with music on television in those dark days before MTV was very welcome. Watching it now, of course, I see how cheesy it was, but I also realized how well it was done. It is easy to look at Ron Howard now and take for granted that he always had talent but who, at that time, could have foreseen how far his career path would have taken him? It is actually quite remarkable to look at this film and see how ambitious it actually was. Not only did he direct the movie to tell an interesting and fun story, but from a technical standpoint, he had to deal with film making situations that demonstrate how much faith the network put in him to pull this off. I am sure that it must have been difficult for him to, not only direct large crowd and concert sequences, but also do it while being nearly the same age as all of the actors themselves. There have been many rock and roll movies made over the years. Some have been great (8 mile, Almost Famous, This is Spinal Tap,) some have been simply good and fun (Rock and Roll High School, Eddie and the Cruisers,) and some have been terrible (You cant Stop the Music, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.) But Cotton Candy is a R-n-R movie that tells a heartfelt story and simply entertains. It is nothing terribly fancy, mind you, but since I don't think that Ron Howard was trying to change the world with this movie, its shortcomings can easily be overlooked when weighed against its fun-factor!

I actually haven't seen this movie in several years, but I do remember enjoying it. The story is cheesy at best, but entertaining nonetheless. There are two things most notable to myself. Firstly, the rival band in the flick repeatedly delivered an interesting rendition of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff." Secondly, the Battle of the Bands scenes were shot at Town East Mall, which is about 3 miles from my home. I was 10 years old when the film aired, and I thought that featuring a local "monument" was pretty cool. Ron Howard did the directing, and, of course, his brother Clint has a part. In this case, Clint has a lead role. It's a far cry from the bit part that Clint played in "Apollo 13."

"Cotton Candy" is typical of most 1970s juvenile movies: bad clothes, bad hair and a typical plot. Ron Howard's first attempt at directing fared well, and this story of B.M.O.C. vs. regular Joe to get the girl is predictable. "CC" was filmed in Dallas in June, 1977 at Town East Mall and Lake Highlands High School to enormous local fanfare (remember that this is before "Dallas" and the Ewing family gave the town an identity!) Unfortunately, "CC" is not available on tape; it rarely is shown but will most likely pop up on an independent TV station's "Afternoon Movie" or the like. Great piece of history for Dallasites, but not much else there for a moviegoer seeking an intriguing story.

I attended Lake Highlands in '84-'86 and some of the staff extras in the Movie were still working when I went through. I still love to watch the movie because of the nostalgia when I see all my old haunts. The school still hasn't changed much and I can place almost all the scenes of the school. I was lucky enough to get a decent VHS recording off of it back in 84 and I still drag it out every few months to watch it commercial free. It's just not in good enough shape to try to transfer it to disc. I'm hoping they release Skyward on DVD eventually as well. Another film right here in Dallas...mostly Mesquite this time though. Man, Bette Davis. Some high power acting for such a small film and director (at the time).