Themes: Ladder to the Top, Musician's Life, Bohemian Life
Main Cast: Sheryl Lee, Stephen Dorff, Ian Hart, Gary Bakewell, Chris O'Neill
Release Year: 1994
Country: UK
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
The Beatles' early days as a struggling bar band are depicted in this fact-based drama, which tells the little-known story of original member Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff). A close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe acts as the band's original bassist, accompanying them on their early gigs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. The friendship becomes strained, however, when Sutcliffe falls in love with a German art student and starts to question his commitment to the band. With Sutcliffe's story taking center stage, the stories of the more famous Beatles largely fade into the background. The exception is John Lennon, thanks to a fierce performance by Ian Hart, who had previously portrayed the musician in the more intimate and provocative The Hours and the Times. While Backbeat does provide a new perspective on the band's beginning, and numerous opportunities for a group of modern rock musicians to recreate the band's energetic early performances, it never makes Sutcliffe's story seem more than a footnote to musical history. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
The trick to making a good rock & roll movie is to get the music right. On that note, Backbeat is a resounding success. By having an all-star band of modern musicians (Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore on lead guitar, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills on bass, Nirvana's Dave Grohl on drums, Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli singing John Lennon's parts, and Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner singing Paul McCartney's parts) record the songs on the Beatles' Hamburg set lists ("Long Tall Sally," "Please Mr. Postman," and "Rock and Roll Music" to name just three), the filmmakers have succeeded in approximating the enthusiasm, speed, and talent the Beatles themselves played with during this period. Ian Hart's performance captures the emotional tumultuousness as well as the genius of John Lennon. Watch the tricky scenes about two-thirds of the way through the film when John's wife Cynthia comes to visit. The two of them spend a day at the beach with Stewart and Astrid. These scenes are about how John and Cynthia do not want the same things in life. Hart communicates both the restless spirit and the self-hatred within John. He doesn't want to hurt Cynthia, but he knows he will leave her one day. Hart makes it easy to believe that such an emotionally complex man could make such a powerful sound while on stage. A person doesn't just hear great music. A person feels great music. The all-star band makes the music sound right. Hart's interpretation of John Lennon makes it look right. The film is not completely successful, but it triumphs in the area that is most important. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Kai Wiesinger - Klaus Voormann; James Doherty - Tony Sheridan; Wolf Kahler - Bert Kaempfert; Gertan Klauber - Pimp; Spike Lee; Albert Welling - Doctor; Charlie Caine - Lord Woodbine; Paul Humpoletz - Bruno; Rob Spendlove - Arthur Ballard; Sharif Rashed; Carlton Williams; Scot Williams - Pete Best
Credit
Sheena Napier - Costume Designer, Mary Soan - First Assistant Director, Paul Gray - First Assistant Director, Iain Softley - Director, Martin Walsh - Editor, Nik Powell - Executive Producer, Hanno Huth - Executive Producer, Don Was - Composer (Music Score), Pat Hay - Makeup, Ian Wilson - Cinematographer, Paul Cowan - Producer, Finola Dwyer - Producer, Stephen Woolley - Producer, Michael Thomas - Screenwriter, Iain Softley - Screenwriter
The film is based on the book The Real Life Story Behind Backbeat - Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle by Alan Clayson and Pauline Sutcliffe (ISBN 0330335804, 1994).
The soundtrack to the movie includes no songs written by members of the Beatles, but various songs the group performed in Hamburg, written and recorded by other artists.
Rather than re-create the period sounds, iconoclastic, rebellious musicians were recruited (as a producer noted, The Beatles' pre-recording stage act was "the punk of its day"). This was done to better convey the way the music came across to the audience, at the time. The musicians were all members of well-known American rock bands:
Additionally, the film's distributor, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, was then under common ownership with the label which owned the rights to release and distribute the Beatles' music from the Hamburg days, Polydor Records.
Hart also played Lennon in the film The Hours and Times.[1] Bakewell later reprised his role as McCartney in the television film The Linda McCartney Story, as Williams again played Best in the television movie In His Life: The John Lennon Story.
Response
Paul McCartney was not impressed with the movie, stating:
One of my annoyances about the film Backbeat is that they've actually taken my rock 'n' rollness off me. They give John the song "Long Tall Sally" to sing and he never sang it in his life. But now it's set in cement. It's like the Buddy Holly and Glenn Miller stories. The Buddy Holly Story does not even mention Norman Petty, and The Glenn Miller Story is a sugarcoated version of his life. Now Backbeat has done the same thing to the story of The Beatles.[citation needed]
