Leningrad Cowboys Go America

This is not so much a movie as it is a test of your campiness quotient. The CQ has a mean of 100. If you fall below 85, you live in a really sad world and as you advance above 100 you are able to extract the comical and farcical aspects of life with increasing ingenuity. After auditioning for a Russian apparatchick (who listens stony-faced to their music, then says "no good - try the US" and departs) the band departs for the US. As they travel from New York to the South, the music changes through a range of pop/rock genres. As another reviewer noted, the music is far more enjoyable than it has a right to be and the dead-pan stoicism of the characters is a hoot. From Steppenwolf to Mariachi music, you will hear and see it all. Try the movie again a year later and it will be even more enjoyable because now you can attend to the hilarious detail which you have missed first time around.

Siberian rock band Leningrad Cowboys go to the USA in pursuit of fame.

After the film was released, the fictional band transformed into a real band, complete with ludicrous hairstyles. This seems to be something that happens... if I am not mistaken, Spinal Tap also ended up touring following the popularity of their film.

American director Jim Jarmusch has a cameo as a car dealer. The film also includes cameos by blues guitarist Duke Robillard and American Rockabilly Hall of Famer, Colonel Robert Morris, with his wife Irene. I recognized Jarmusch instantly, and he seems like the sort of person who would show up in these films. I cannot imagine anyone else who was so supportive and synonymous with independent film in the 1980s.

My wife Irene, and myself, (Robert Morris) owned "The Lonesome Bar" in Memphis where part of the movie was shot. This is where they performed "Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay" and my buddy, George Kunkle played the banjo and sang one of his songs. The barber was Bill Robertson, who was a real barber next door to the bar. He passed away shortly after the film came out, but it allowed him to sing in a international film.

The whole cast and crew was wonderful! We played pool and got drunk every night after shooting. One night we sat on the curb out front and took turns picking and singing our favorite songs. That was a experience I will never forget.

We hope you like the movie, as we will never forget it.

Colonel Robert morris

One of my favourite films, ever. The idea of a dreadful Soviet rock band flogging their music around the USA appeals to me, especially as I liked the music that was supposed to be so dreadful. The humour is deadpan and droll, much like Kaurismaki himself. Also interesting for an outsiders look at America. Definitely up there in the Top Ten of Finnish Rock Band Road Movies!

The most politically inclined and intellectual viewer would analyze this movie as a political satire, and they would be right. However, this movie is more enjoyable if seen as a road movie and a look at America through the eyes of a foreigner. Funny and poignant.