Word: soundtrack
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...this Dutch version of Saturday Night Fever would have to cross many cultural barriers to be accessible to American youth. Riding motorbikes with glee, munching french fries and mustard, and wrangling with Calvinist consciences, the Spetters (translated Aces) are rebellious youth who "live like there's no tomorrow." The soundtrack consists of second-rate juke box numbers from the Johnny Rotten timevault, but it is probably the flaunted flesh in Spetters which has made it a box office success. There are masturbations, erections, girl-swappings, older women, and a penis-measuring contest, all apparently dear to international punks...
Debbie Harry's performance is an analogue for the psychological violence of the cold war days, all pouty and conformist. She invests her love in new shoes and a blonde bleach job. The soundtrack is credited to Chris Stein, the other Blondie personage, but his electronic accompaniment resembles a melodramatic mix of Robert Fripp and Bernard Herrmann, not the band's dance beat...
Much about Stardust Memories, even the ugliness, is beautiful. Having passed through his Brown period (Interiors), Allen emerges in his Black & White period as a spectacular director who masterfully designs long takes and exciting compositions. He enjoys the metaphorical blank screeen, toys with soundtrack blasts and whispers with the control of a superb cinematic technician. One shot, a wide landscape that turns Allen's dancing silhouette into a contemporary fiddler on the roof, is absolutely gorgeous. Allen's expert eye and ear are matched by the steady hand of Gordon Willis (who shot Manhattan) behind the camera...
...they dispense with such trivialities as plot, character, and thematic development, in favor of the juicier and more exploitative aspects of the story. The film is a two-and-a-half-hour parade of gruesome tortures and unexciting sex to the tune of strange wailing and chanting on the soundtrack. So much for artistic and social significance...
Very few recent films have been as successful as Rockers at integrating a collection of period music with worthwhile screen footage. American Graffiti did it for the 50s, Coming Home tried to do it for the 60s, and Saturday Night Fever is close as we dare come to a soundtrack for the 70s. Of these, Rockers most resembles American Graffiti, a film where the music weaves in and out of the story, and the story--what little there is--bobs and darts through the music...