jimj409
Joined Aug 2006
Badges2
To learn how to earn badges, go to the badges help page.
Reviews6
jimj409's rating
Back when I was 21, I went with a few friends to see another film (I forget which, now) that had sold out, leaving us with this film as an option that we took.
I was so pleasantly surprised that a film I would otherwise never have bothered with turned out to be so resonant with me.
I expected a teenybopper rock'n'roll picture. This film is nothing close to that. This is a gritty, hard-edged slice of life. It is full of realistic human emotion and genuine observation of actual "rock'n'roll" lifestyle, which for the vast majority of rockers means nightly sharing of a van and a motel room and splitting up a few hundred bucks five or six ways before expenses. The scene in "Motel Hell" where Fox doles out the money (after enumerating the expenses including "forty-five dollars for that tire, and eighteen for the Chinese feast") just struck such a ringingly true chord with me.
The secondary drama, which plays out as you understand that the primary drama (will the band make it?) is already moot (Fox knows that the Barbusters have no chance; Jett continues to chase the dream regardless) commences with the discovery of their mother's illness.
The interplay between Jett and her mother in the hospital as the mother lays dying and they reconcile their long-hardened differences is surprisingly well-played, especially on Joan Jett's part. I expected great acting from the superb Gena Rowlands; I expected zero from Jett and was blown away instead. I'm surprised she never got any other real roles; I found her to be extremely easy on the eyes and quite a lovely and talented actress. Whatever.
The film has a terrific ending. No, they don't make it to the big-time, but you never expect that to happen anyway. It is simply a satisfying ending that matches the size and scope of this terrific film, which was never intended to be anything more than a look at a Cleveland family who has two members who happen to play in a road band.
Catch it once in your lifetime.
I was so pleasantly surprised that a film I would otherwise never have bothered with turned out to be so resonant with me.
I expected a teenybopper rock'n'roll picture. This film is nothing close to that. This is a gritty, hard-edged slice of life. It is full of realistic human emotion and genuine observation of actual "rock'n'roll" lifestyle, which for the vast majority of rockers means nightly sharing of a van and a motel room and splitting up a few hundred bucks five or six ways before expenses. The scene in "Motel Hell" where Fox doles out the money (after enumerating the expenses including "forty-five dollars for that tire, and eighteen for the Chinese feast") just struck such a ringingly true chord with me.
The secondary drama, which plays out as you understand that the primary drama (will the band make it?) is already moot (Fox knows that the Barbusters have no chance; Jett continues to chase the dream regardless) commences with the discovery of their mother's illness.
The interplay between Jett and her mother in the hospital as the mother lays dying and they reconcile their long-hardened differences is surprisingly well-played, especially on Joan Jett's part. I expected great acting from the superb Gena Rowlands; I expected zero from Jett and was blown away instead. I'm surprised she never got any other real roles; I found her to be extremely easy on the eyes and quite a lovely and talented actress. Whatever.
The film has a terrific ending. No, they don't make it to the big-time, but you never expect that to happen anyway. It is simply a satisfying ending that matches the size and scope of this terrific film, which was never intended to be anything more than a look at a Cleveland family who has two members who happen to play in a road band.
Catch it once in your lifetime.
Rather than rehash the plot, I want to discuss something I think I noticed about the atmospheric setting of this film.
Many reviews here have noted that the Nazi officials consumed fine wines and food while creating consensus to continue the perpetration of the Holocaust.
However, I think some may have missed the backdrop; "There is wine, but no beer" notes one corpulent attendee. See the manner in which the servants preparing the food seem to lust for it; note the reaction of Eichmann when a tray of meats is dropped on the floor accidentally.
The supporting columns of Nazi society had just begun to teeter when this conference was held, and here you see the ever-so-subtle hints toward this downturn, and how it is just beginning to creep into the conversations of the highest officials who, until this point, had experienced nothing but victory and the concomitant spoils of war.
The point being made in this film is that DESPITE this new encroachment upon the highest of the Nazi elite, they were so filled with irrational hatred toward the Jews that they were determined to carry out their extermination in the face of it, regardless of cost, regardless of the fact that the Jewish laborers they annihilated might have provided slave production that may have tipped Germany's balance scales back toward favor.
It's a very subtle undertone that to me, at least, turned this effort from a fairly standard dialogue piece into an exquisite examination of the very worst human coldness.
I consider this to be the very best dialogue picture ever made, barely edging-out the Jack Lemmon/George C. Scott version of Twelve Angry Men.
Many reviews here have noted that the Nazi officials consumed fine wines and food while creating consensus to continue the perpetration of the Holocaust.
However, I think some may have missed the backdrop; "There is wine, but no beer" notes one corpulent attendee. See the manner in which the servants preparing the food seem to lust for it; note the reaction of Eichmann when a tray of meats is dropped on the floor accidentally.
The supporting columns of Nazi society had just begun to teeter when this conference was held, and here you see the ever-so-subtle hints toward this downturn, and how it is just beginning to creep into the conversations of the highest officials who, until this point, had experienced nothing but victory and the concomitant spoils of war.
The point being made in this film is that DESPITE this new encroachment upon the highest of the Nazi elite, they were so filled with irrational hatred toward the Jews that they were determined to carry out their extermination in the face of it, regardless of cost, regardless of the fact that the Jewish laborers they annihilated might have provided slave production that may have tipped Germany's balance scales back toward favor.
It's a very subtle undertone that to me, at least, turned this effort from a fairly standard dialogue piece into an exquisite examination of the very worst human coldness.
I consider this to be the very best dialogue picture ever made, barely edging-out the Jack Lemmon/George C. Scott version of Twelve Angry Men.