American Pop
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American Pop
Plot
The rise and growth of American popular music through the 20th century is reflected in the lives of four generations of one family in this animated drama directed by Ralph Bakshi. Zalmie (voice of Jeffrey Lippa), a Russian Jew, emigrates to America, and tries to struggle along as a comic and musician in vaudeville, until an injury suffered in World War I ends his singing career. Zalmie's son Benny (voice of Richard Singer) inherits his father's love for music, and when he grows to adulthood, he joins a jazz combo as a pianist; his career is cut short, however, when he's killed while fighting in World War II. Benny's son Tony (voice of Ron Thompson) is also bitten by the music bug and is determined to make his mark as a songwriter; he becomes involved in the Beat poetry and music community in San Francisco, and later falls in with a pioneering psychedelic band. Along the way, Tony fathers an illegitimate son named Pete (voice of Eric Taslitz), and ends up becoming Pete's guardian in New York City without realizing he's the boy's father. After Tony's death, Pete supports himself by dealing drugs, while struggling to make his dream of becoming a rock star a reality. Ralph Bakshi achieved American Pop's unique look through a process called "rotoscoping" -- shooting the scenes with live actors, and then tracing their movements onto animation cells.~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Review
American Pop is an ambitious and groundbreaking work of storytelling that also just happens to be animated. For years, love-him-or-hate-him director Ralph Bakshi pushed the envelope of animation as far as he could, which more often than not, resulted in some rather racy material (Streetfight, Fritz the Cat). Then came American Pop, which in 1981 ushered in not only a new style of animation for the masses (rotoscoping -- something Bakshi had played around with years before), but a soundtrack that covers almost 80 years of popular music, from Scott Joplin to Hendrix. It's a lofty goal, and even more so because of how utterly serious the sprawling story line is. This isn't loud and flashy like Heavy Metal, nor was the music as hip as Rock & Rule two years later. American Pop is a heavy drama that deliberately takes its time while trying to do justice to each character and their time period's music. That said, it tends to drag in some parts, focusing in on this or that person for too long -- but when the rock & roll revolution starts to take over, it knows when to turn it up and let the crazy visuals flow. The end, for instance, shouldn't work. Bakshi's been putting his audience through the emotional ringer for almost 90 minutes, but by the time Bob Seger starts blastin', you're there, fist in air, ready to preach the gospel. It's a great close to a daring animated film whose ambitions have to be respected, whether you enjoy it or not. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, RoviCast
- Ron Thompson - Tony & Pete
- Marya Small - Frankie
- Jerry Holland - Louie
- Lisa Jane Persky - Bella
- Jeffrey Lippa - Zalmie
Credit
Ralph Bakshi - Director, David Ramirez - Editor, Richard St. Johns - Executive Producer, Lee Holdridge - Composer (Music Score), R&B Efx - Cinematographer, Ralph Bakshi - Producer, Martin Ransohoff - Producer, Ralph Bakshi - Screenwriter, Ronni Kern - Screenwriter| American Poop (2007 Film), American Pluck (1925 Film) | |
| American Presidents: John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1996 Film), American Presidents: Richard Nixon (1996 Film) |
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American Pop
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American Pop
For the musical term, see American pop.
| American Pop | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Ralph Bakshi |
| Produced by | Ralph Bakshi Martin Ransohoff |
| Written by | Ronni Kern |
| Starring | Ron Thompson Lisa Jane Persky Jeffrey Lippa Richard Singer |
| Music by | Lee Holdridge |
| Editing by | David Ramirez |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Hebrew Russian Yiddish |
| Box office | $6,000,000 |
American Pop is a 1981 American animated musical drama film produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film tells the story of four generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family of musicians whose careers parallel the history of American popular music.
The majority of the film's animation was completed through rotoscoping, a process in which live actors are filmed and the subsequent footage is used for animators to draw over. However, the film also uses a variety of other mixed media including water colors, computer graphics, live-action shots, and archival footage.[1]
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Contents
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Story
In Imperial Russia during the late 1890s, a rabbi's wife and her young son Zalmie escape to America while the rabbi is killed by the Cossacks. Shortly after their arrival in New York City, Zalmie is recruited by Louie, a performer at a burlesque house, to hand out chorus slips. As Zalmie grows into adolescence, he spends more time with Louie backstage at burlesque shows. When Zalmie's mother dies in a sweatshop blaze, he begins working with Louie fulltime at a small theatre. Though Zalmie aspires to be a singer, he is beginning to enter puberty and his changing voice becomes a significant obstacle. When World War I strikes, Zalmie travels the globe performing for the troops as the bottom half of a pantomime horse and sustains a wound to his throat.
When Zalmie returns to New York, he briefly continues performing as a clown, and falls in love with a stripper named Bella, vowing to make her a famous singer and getting involved with mobsters in order to do so. After Zalmie impregnates her, he uses money from mob boss Nicky Palumbo to pay for their wedding. Bella achieves modest success, but she is killed after opening a package containing a bomb intended for Zalmie. Their son, Benny, who is already an introverted child, focuses all of his efforts into becoming a talented jazz pianist. Benny marries Palumbo's daughter at Zalmie's request and enlists to fight in World War II seeking redemption for his family, despite pleas from his father. Benny is killed in Nazi Germany. Benny's wife and son now live in a suburban Long Island town, and Zalmie testifies against Palumbo on television.
A teenage Tony steals his stepfather's car and drives across the country for four weeks, ending up in Kansas, where he spends the day washing dishes at a diner and spends the night with a waitress. In California, Tony takes another job dishwashing, but soon grows tired of it and quits. A six-piece rock group invites him to write songs for them after hearing him playing harmonica under their doorstep. The band becomes successful but slowly starts to decompose because of the heroin addictions of female lead singer Frankie Heart and Tony himself. Frankie and the band's drummer, Johnny Webb marry, but divorce after two weeks, and Frankie begins an affair with Tony. In Kansas, the band is set to perform after Jimi Hendrix, but Frankie overdoses backstage, and Tony meets a blonde, blue-eyed boy, Little Pete, whom Tony realizes is his son.
Tony and Pete move to New York City, where Tony deals drugs. Pete makes a small amount of money playing the acoustic guitar, but Tony takes any money that Pete earns to buy drugs for himself. Tony gives Benny's harmonica to Pete, then takes Pete's guitar to pawn it, telling Pete to wait on the bench. The next morning, a man approaches Pete and gives him a small package of drugs to sell and tells Pete that Tony said goodbye to him. After years of selling drugs to punk bands, Pete refuses to sell the band members any more cocaine unless they are willing to listen to his music. His talent stuns both the band and the management and they agree to record and hire him on the spot. The film ends with Pete performing in concert with the band.
Cast
- Ron Thompson as Tony Belinksy / Pete Belinksy
- Lisa Jane Persky as Bella
- Jeffrey Lippa as Zalmie Belinksy
- Richard Singer as Benny Belinksy
- Jerry Holland as Louie
- Marya Small as Frankie Hart
- Hilary Beane as Showgirl
- Robert Beecher as Hobo #2
- Gene Borkan as Izzy
- Beatrice Colen as Prostitute
- Frank Dekova as Crisco
- Ben Frommer as Nicky Palumbo
- Roz Kelly as Eva Tanguay
- Amy Levitt as Nancy
- Richard Moll as Poet
- Elsa Raven as Hannele
- Vincent Schiavelli as Theatre Owner
- Leonard Stone as Leo
- Eric Taslitz as Little Pete
- Lynda Wiesmeier as The Blonde
Production
Following the production struggles of The Lord of the Rings, Ralph Bakshi decided that it was time to work on something more personal.[2] He pitched American Pop to Columbia Pictures president Dan Melnick. Bakshi wanted to produce a film with an extensive soundtrack of songs which would be given an entirely new context in juxtaposition to the visuals in a film.[2] While the film does not reflect Bakshi's own experiences, its themes were strongly influenced by individuals he had encountered in Brownsville.[2] The film's crew included character layout and design artist Louise Zingarelli, Vita, Barry E. Jackson, and Marcia Adams, each of whom brought their own personal touch to the film.[2] Bakshi once again used rotoscoping, in an attempt to capture the range of emotions and movement required for the film's story. According to Bakshi, "Rotoscoping is terrible for subtleties, so it was tough to get facial performances to match the stage ones."[2]
Music
The score for American Pop was composed by Lee Holdridge. As the result of his reputation as an innovator of adult animation, Bakshi was able to acquire the rights to an extensive soundtrack, including songs by Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Doors, George Gershwin, The Mamas & the Papas, Herbie Hancock, Lou Reed and Louis Prima, for under US$1 million in permissions fees.[2] Due to music clearance issues, the film was not released on home video until 1998.[3]
Reception
The film was a success upon its February 12, 1981 release.[2] Jerry Beck called it "one of Bakshi's best films".[3] The film currently holds 56% on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]
Legacy
Michael Barrier, an animation historian, described American Pop as one of two films that demonstrated "that Bakshi was utterly lacking in the artistic self-discipline that might have permitted him to outgrow his limitations."[5]
In 2008, director Hype Williams and Kanye West paid tribute to the film in the music video for West's single "Heartless", which featured use of rotoscoped animation and references to scenes and backgrounds from the film.[6]
References
- ^ Vincent Canby (February 13, 1981). "'American Pop' Grown-Up Animation". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A06E3D81038F930A25751C0A967948260. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g Gibson, Jon M.; McDonnell, Chris (2008). "American Pop". Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi. Universe Publishing. pp. 148; 160; 164; 169. ISBN 0-7893-1684-6.
- ^ a b Beck, Jerry (2005). "American Pop". The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-55652-591-9.
- ^ American Pop at Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ Barrier, Michael. Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford University Press US, 2003. 572. Retrieved on October 15, 2009. ISBN 0-19-516729-5, ISBN 978-0-19-516729-0.
- ^ Kaufman, Gil (May 13, 2009). "Kris Allen's 'Heartless': The Story Behind The Cover". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1611249/20090513/west_kanye.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: American Pop |
- American Pop at the Internet Movie Database
- American Pop at AllRovi
- American Pop at Box Office Mojo
- American Pop at Rotten Tomatoes
- American Pop at Ralph Bakshi.com
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