Word: backbeats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...marginalization of the older generation in Softley's film appears to have been a deliberate choice. Softley, who previously directed the youth-centered, youth-targeted films Backbeat (chronicling the Beatle who dropped out) and Hackers, makes no bones about adapting The Wings of the Dove for the same age sector: "There was the danger that an audience, though about the same age as these characters, would feel alienated [from them]...I wanted to make something that would appeal to them...
...panting exploitation of all our worst inclinations. We see the cult of slut chic in which Madonna has been such an influence across all lines of race and style that video after video looks like a combination of film-school virtuosity and bimbo routines with a backbeat. We see films in which dramatic intensity is replaced by the shock of gore that takes place in a ruthless universe of amoral one-liners derived from James Bond...
...budding painter and middling bassist, may seem a long shot for rock immortality. He died at 22, months before the group, which he had earlier quit, cut its first record. But according to Backbeat, Stu was the dreamboat heart of the combo and John Lennon (Ian Hart) was its soul. Paul McCartney (Gary Bakewell) and George Harrison (Chris O'Neill) only whined and purred, respectively, while Lennon and Sutcliffe did the heavy lifting. John, you see, was Liverpool's own angry young man and the sole creator of this proto-punk, ur-grunge band (don't you love revisionism...
...Backbeat has an attractive cast and a passionate rock-'n'-roll score (played by some top young musicians). But with its attention to the posturings of Lennon and the untalented Stu, the movie succumbs to the post-Madonna notion that pop success is all a matter of attitude. That's so misguided. If you have any doubt, listen to the songs...
...Cinema: Backbeat - we hate it, yeah, yeah, yeah...