Themes: Single Parents, Sibling Relationships, Mothers and Sons
Main Cast: Michael J. Fox, Gena Rowlands, Joan Jett, Michael McKean, Thomas G. Waites
Release Year: 1987
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
A brother and sister grapple with family and lifestyle issues in this rock-n-roll drama. Real-life rocker Joan Jett stars as Patti Resnick, an unwed mother who sings and plays guitar in a Cleveland bar band with her brother Joe (Michael J. Fox). Estranged from her parents and struggling to make ends meet, Patti decides to dive headlong into a carefree rock-n-roll lifestyle. Good-guy Joe pulls away from music to provide some stability for her tiny son. It takes a family crisis to bring Patti back home and force her to face the prickly past with her devoutly Christian mother (Gena Rowlands). Despite a somewhat thin story, the film has solid performances all around, most especially from the refreshingly compelling Jett. Bruce Springsteen penned the title song. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
Review
Although marketed as a Joan Jett rock & roll movie, Paul Schrader's thoughtful family drama harks back to the working-class angst of his earlier Blue Collar (1978). Focusing on the conflict between Joan Jett as a passionately dedicated rock & roller/unwed mother and her equally fierce holy-roller mother (Gena Rowlands), the film is a tragedy of locked wills. As Michael J. Fox, Jett's factory worker/bandmate brother, tries to mediate between the two to hold the family together, the film charts shifting relationships among the three. One of the very few films to dwell on the grimy realities of the rock & roll life, Light of Day is a parable on the cost of ambition. Fox works hard here, but is typically out of his depth with dramatic material, and looks as though either of these woman could have him for breakfast. Rowlands is exceptional as the rigidly dogmatic, slyly manipulative mother, and Jett, especially in her final scenes with Rowlands, shows a surprising ability to hold her own with the veteran actress. Schrader opts for his characteristically static compositions, which seem unsuited to the dynamic nature of the material. Despite the presence of Jett and Fox, the film didn't fare well commercially. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Cherry Jones - Cindy Montgomery; Michael Dolan - Gene Bodine; Paul Harkins - Billy Tettore; Billy L. Sullivan - Benji Rasnick; Jason Miller - Benjamin Rasnick; Del Close - Dr. Natterson; Ron Dean - Mourner; Jerry Gideon - Sean; Yvette Heyden - Laurie; Tom Irwin - Reverend Ansley; Maureen Mueller - Trainee Nurse; David Pasquesi - Sophomore; Barbara Robertson - Arguing Woman; Michael Rooker - Oogie; Ann Whitney - Older Nurse; Lisa Fischer - Woman at Garage Sale; Linda Reisman - Young Clerk; Kim Wilson - One of the Fabulous Thunderbirds; Alan Mark Poul - Cashier; Trent Reznor - Musician
Credit
Alan Mark Poul - Associate Producer, Bonnie Timmermann - Casting, Jodie Lynne Tillen - Costume Designer, Paul Schrader - Director, Jacqueline Cambas - Editor, Doug Claybourne - Executive Producer, Thomas Newman - Composer (Music Score), Bruce Springsteen - Composer (Music Score), Bruce Springsteen - Songwriter, Trent Reznor - Songwriter, Jeannine Oppewall - Production Designer, John Bailey - Cinematographer, Keith Barish - Producer, Rob Cohen - Producer, Lisa Fischer - Set Designer, Monte Merrick - Screenwriter, Paul Schrader - Screenwriter
Fox and Jett play a brother and sister who are lead performers in a rock band, The Barbusters, in Cleveland, Ohio. The sister, Patti Rasnick, is an unmarried mother and has a troubled relationship with her own mother, who is deeply religious. Estranged from her parents and struggling to make ends meet, Patti decides to dive headlong into a carefree rock music lifestyle. The brother, Joe Rasnick, pulls away from rock music to provide some stability for her young son. It takes a family crisis to bring Patti back home and force her to face the prickly past with her mother.
The film is best known as the first real attempt for Fox to escape his image as a slacker that he created in films such as Back to the Future. Light of Day is one of the very few projects where Fox has smoked in front of the camera; although a chain smoker,[1] he avoided being photographed with a cigarette out of fear that it would encourage smoking.
Former 1984 Miss Teen USACherise Haugen had a small role as the girl Fox's character brings home as a one-night stand. A young Trent Reznor appears, with other members of Exotic Birds in the film as a member of fictional band The Problems as well as local teen band, The Pelicans, as The Bubblegummers.
Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day" for the film; Joan Jett performed the song for the film's soundtrack. Schrader's original working title for the film was "Born in the USA." He showed the script to Springsteen to make sure he got the details right about a blue-collar bar band. Springsteen ended up stealing the title for a song he'd been writing about a Vietnam veteran, and in order to make it up to Schrader, he volunteered to provide the Barbusters' signature song, which gave the film its new title. In the 1990s, Springsteen himself began using the song to close his concerts.
Schrader has expressed dissatisfaction with Light of Day, particularly its plain visual style: "I had progressed from being a person with a literary vision to a person with a visual vision, and in that film I tried to... suppress my new literacy" and the casting of Joan Jett: "it's a good performance, but... that piece of casting just did not work."[2]
