Backbeat (film)
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| Backbeat | |
|---|---|
 UK film poster |
|
| Directed by | Iain Softley |
| Produced by | Finola Dwyer Stephen Woolley |
| Written by | Iain Softley Michael Thomas Stephen Ward |
| Starring | Sheryl Lee Stephen Dorff Ian Hart |
| Music by | Don Was |
| Cinematography | Ian Wilson |
| Editing by | Martin Walsh |
| Distributed by | PolyGram Filmed Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 14 April 1994 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Backbeat is a 1994 movie that chronicles the early days of The Beatles in Hamburg, Germany. The movie focuses primarily on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff) and John Lennon (played by Ian Hart), and also with Sutcliffe's German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr (played by Sheryl Lee).
The movie is generally more accurate, both about Sutcliffe's life and the early Beatles history, than the 1979 TV movie Birth of the Beatles, which covers mostly the same period. It also has a darker, more detailed storyline, and Beatles history per se is background to the main story.
Sir Paul McCartney, however, 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 Glen Miller stories. The Buddy Holly Story does not even mention Norman Petty, and The Glen Miller Story is a sugarcoated version of his life. Now Backbeat has done the same thing to the story of The Beatles".
The soundtrack to the movie features not Beatles songs, but the cover tunes they used to play 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:
- Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum): vocals
- Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs): vocals
- Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): guitar
- Don Fleming (Gumball): guitar
- Mike Mills (R.E.M.): bass guitar
- Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters): drums
[edit] Trailer
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