Review * Fifty years of rock and roll movies
June 8th 2010 04:30
Original Creative Writing:
Garry Mulholland
Popcorn
Fifty years of rock and roll movies
by Garry Mulholland
Mulholland has managed to bring a comprehensive list of celluloid dreams onto the page in a reasonably well defined breakdown, not what I'd suggest is the first and last word on the rock movie, but it's a fair cop at it, although it did not chowder my potato so to speak.
Quite unconsciously Mulholland touches on his own foibles while writing about the Ken Russel film Tommy, when he suggests it is possible to be so powerfully dismissive of alternative cultural possibilities that one can deprive oneself of truly nourishing input.
Mulholland starts off on the wrong foot in his introduction by degrees; his opinions around music journalism verses film criticism (the most hermetically sealed boys' club this side of the Freemasons and the Magic Circle) are curious and his personal tastes (as a music journalist) sneer in the same way any film critic might at something uncool.
I found it quite revealing for example when he deposited Barbra Streisand (A Star Is Born) and Diana Ross (The Wiz, Lady Sings the Blues) into the dumpster while keeping ABBA: The Movie and Hair.
Mulholland may not like Streisand's movie but it is certainly worthy of a mention in a book on the last fifty years of rock and roll, particularly if ABBA are appearing, or the stage musical Hair. Not only are Streisand's musical interludes with Kris Kristofferson significant for the gender twists in the film, it really does say something about the music industry that hadn't been said in this way until the time this film was seen.
The Wiz, a film adaptation of a stage production (like Hair) is not included nor is You Can't Stop The Music. These films were critical failures but popular successes in their own right and it's curious to drop them; particularly when so many paragraphs are dedicated to his own experiences when he first saw the various films. It shows that Mulholland is sticking to a narrow mainstream of his music journalist's taste. Fair enough; but something to be kept in mind if you are looking for a deeper coverage and analysis of the subject; and it's a much bigger subject than he shows.
There is plenty of material to look at.
In most cases the writer's breakdowns about a movie title are about him and his memory of how this film is contextualised in his life in the United Kingdom, while in other cases it is more a description of his opinion of the film and story around it.
While he describes swimming pool discos in 1978 Peterborough he mirrors his own life with shades of life etched onto the screen through Saturday Night Fever.
In the end I found myself growing weary of his particular experience when he doesn't really provide a great deal of insight into some of the films he has selected for his list of fifty top films.
If you know Mulholland's writing and enjoy it, there are bound to be things here you will find amusing, but I found myself growing quite frustrated and disinterested by him and his opinion. That does not mean it is a bad book, it simply means I did not really get anything new out of it aside from a growing annoyance. For example he pretty much rants about The Blues Brothers as a distillation of bad taste when it comes to whites trying to own black music, yet he gives 8 Mile a big thumbs up. Curious.
In the end it is all quite a curious combination of many of the elements he bemoans about film writers in his introduction and some autobiographical aspects that are of little, if any interest to me.
Readers in the UK are much more likely to enjoy. Most film books in my personal collection get pulled out for a browse on a regular basis; this one would definitely collect dust.
David Jobling
Fifty years of rock and roll movies
by Garry Mulholland
Mulholland has managed to bring a comprehensive list of celluloid dreams onto the page in a reasonably well defined breakdown, not what I'd suggest is the first and last word on the rock movie, but it's a fair cop at it, although it did not chowder my potato so to speak.
Quite unconsciously Mulholland touches on his own foibles while writing about the Ken Russel film Tommy, when he suggests it is possible to be so powerfully dismissive of alternative cultural possibilities that one can deprive oneself of truly nourishing input.
Mulholland starts off on the wrong foot in his introduction by degrees; his opinions around music journalism verses film criticism (the most hermetically sealed boys' club this side of the Freemasons and the Magic Circle) are curious and his personal tastes (as a music journalist) sneer in the same way any film critic might at something uncool.
I found it quite revealing for example when he deposited Barbra Streisand (A Star Is Born) and Diana Ross (The Wiz, Lady Sings the Blues) into the dumpster while keeping ABBA: The Movie and Hair.
Mulholland may not like Streisand's movie but it is certainly worthy of a mention in a book on the last fifty years of rock and roll, particularly if ABBA are appearing, or the stage musical Hair. Not only are Streisand's musical interludes with Kris Kristofferson significant for the gender twists in the film, it really does say something about the music industry that hadn't been said in this way until the time this film was seen.
The Wiz, a film adaptation of a stage production (like Hair) is not included nor is You Can't Stop The Music. These films were critical failures but popular successes in their own right and it's curious to drop them; particularly when so many paragraphs are dedicated to his own experiences when he first saw the various films. It shows that Mulholland is sticking to a narrow mainstream of his music journalist's taste. Fair enough; but something to be kept in mind if you are looking for a deeper coverage and analysis of the subject; and it's a much bigger subject than he shows.
In most cases the writer's breakdowns about a movie title are about him and his memory of how this film is contextualised in his life in the United Kingdom, while in other cases it is more a description of his opinion of the film and story around it.
While he describes swimming pool discos in 1978 Peterborough he mirrors his own life with shades of life etched onto the screen through Saturday Night Fever.
In the end I found myself growing weary of his particular experience when he doesn't really provide a great deal of insight into some of the films he has selected for his list of fifty top films.
If you know Mulholland's writing and enjoy it, there are bound to be things here you will find amusing, but I found myself growing quite frustrated and disinterested by him and his opinion. That does not mean it is a bad book, it simply means I did not really get anything new out of it aside from a growing annoyance. For example he pretty much rants about The Blues Brothers as a distillation of bad taste when it comes to whites trying to own black music, yet he gives 8 Mile a big thumbs up. Curious.
In the end it is all quite a curious combination of many of the elements he bemoans about film writers in his introduction and some autobiographical aspects that are of little, if any interest to me.
Readers in the UK are much more likely to enjoy. Most film books in my personal collection get pulled out for a browse on a regular basis; this one would definitely collect dust.
David Jobling
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David Jobling
