Musical Mondays Week 100 Light of Day

[Cameron H. 23786]

2 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

 My idea would be what I even think Jett and Fox should've done... they should have been a couple, not siblings.

Then you can have Bruce/Joan wanting to go on the road and his wife/her husband who rocks and writes better songs than him/her (ha) wanting or needing to sacrifice and stay home. Not great, but I think that presents some drama at least. 

 

Yeah, that feels a little more real, but then you lose the whole "overbearing religious mom playing favorites with her children as she battles ovarian cancer" storyline.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Yeah, that feels a little more real, but then you lose the whole "overbearing religious mom playing favorites with her children as she battles ovarian cancer" storyline.

We also lose the Uncle having a bath with his nephew scene

[grudlian. 4725]

4 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

 My idea would be what I even think Jett and Fox should've done... they should have been a couple, not siblings.

Then you can have Bruce/Joan wanting to go on the road and his wife/her husband who rocks and writes better songs than him/her (ha) wanting or needing to sacrifice and stay home. Not great, but I think that presents some drama at least. 

 

Exactly this. Make this a Springsteen song come to life.

A guy grew up trapped in a blue collar town. Works at the factory his dad worked at and his dad got him a job. He married his first serious girlfriend out of high school (or high school sweetheart) maybe because he got her pregnant. That's been his life for however many years and will be until he retires...unless his band gets big. It's the only possible escape. He's been playing local bars in his dead end town. The movie could probably just end with them deciding to go on the road. It doesn't matter if he's successful, just that he finally took a chance in his life.

Nothing ground breaking. Maybe not even particularly great depending on how well Bruce can act. But it already sounds better than this (although, what we got sounds like a good movie in theory).

[SlidePocket 707]

Before Joan Jett was cast as Patti, a forgotten singer named Fiona Flanagan was offered by Paul Schrader to play the part. It didn't work out, but later in 1987, Fiona would soon star in her own movie alongside Bob Dylan and Rupert Everett called "Hearts of Fire", which is something we can do down the line eventually.  

[grudlian. 4725]

2 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

Take a really famous rocker, an actor known for being a somewhat nice guy, make him swear and them both clash with each other and their parents.  We watched

I'm glad Joan Jett was relegated to third billing.  She hogged the spotlight, away from the real star.

This poster is terrible. It has two taglines. I really hate the tagline "He's back from the future and having a hell of a time!!" Because, he's largely having a lousy time. Also, the O in "Light Of Day" is way too skinny.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Here's Trent Reznor's band doing a pretty decent cover of Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways."

 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

8 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

Exactly this. Make this a Springsteen song come to life.

A guy grew up trapped in a blue collar town. Works at the factory his dad worked at and his dad got him a job. He married his first serious girlfriend out of high school (or high school sweetheart) maybe because he got her pregnant. That's been his life for however many years and will be until he retires...unless his band gets big. It's the only possible escape. He's been playing local bars in his dead end town. The movie could probably just end with them deciding to go on the road. It doesn't matter if he's successful, just that he finally took a chance in his life.

Nothing ground breaking. Maybe not even particularly great depending on how well Bruce can act. But it already sounds better than this (although, what we got sounds like a good movie in theory).

Yea not original, Robert Plant tells a similar life story (see Zep's "Ten Years Gone") but it's classic enough that I certainly don't mind it being told over and over.

That reminds me, I've been reading the new Chris Frantz (of the Talking Heads) autobio and we were discussing the band credits on the Stop Making Sense thread. Franz talks a lot about how Byrne basically stole writing credits. There were songs that Frantz flat-up wrote everything, lyrics and all ("Warning Sign" for one).

But he also makes it sounds like Byrne did this maybe less out of being awful, and more like he had this strange compulsion to try to breed discontent. Byrne worked better this way, I guess. ==

[Cameron H. 23786]

As I watch the clip I just posted, I realize just how invested the movie assumes we are in who the kid's father is. Maybe it's because we're in the 21st century now, but I really didn't give a shit. I would have been happy had they never revealed it.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

5 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

This poster is terrible. It has two taglines. I really hate the tagline "He's back from the future and having a hell of a time!!" Because, he's largely having a lousy time. Also, the O in "Light Of Day" is way too skinny.

They should've marketed Joan more! She was a star too dammit!

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

3 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Here's Trent Reznor's band doing a pretty decent cover of Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways."

 

I also wonder why Trent plays his keyboards tilted away from him like that. That was never a thing!

[grudlian. 4725]

19 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

As I watch the clip I just posted, I realize just how invested the movie assumes we are in who the kid's father is. Maybe it's because we're in the 21st century now, but I really didn't give a shit. I would have been happy had they never revealed it.

I assume this was supposed to justify her hating the church which, in turn, made her hate her mother for accepting the minister. But it felt out of nowhere. When she made a big production like "you want to know who the father is????", I hadn't even thought of it being an issue. I assumed it was some guy who left her when she got pregnant, end of story.

Maybe this was a bigger deal to not like religion in 1987 and no justification would have felt like an affront to viewers. It felt so unnecessary to me. She was tired of her mother being a shitty mom, and her mom always used Christianity as an excuse. We picked all that up in the first time Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox visited their mom.

The minister being the father just brought up more questions.

[GrahamS. 803]

I’ll be honest—I didn’t make it much past the 45 minute mark. I agree with everything that’s been said—this is something that should work on paper but is totally inert on film. I generally like Paul Schrader a lot—or at least find his films interesting—but this felt like having your dad write/direct his idea about what rock was like in the 80s while your dad was in his 40s and came from a super-strict religious upbringing that he rejected and the result is that the movie feels like an after school special.

With the acting, it was hard for me to judge the performances because no one in the cast was able to shed their iconic cultural images. Having Joan Jett-bad girl rock star—next to a long-haired Alex P. Keaton/Marty McFly era Michael J. Fox in a band where they are siblings is fucking weird. Add Gena Rowlands and Michael McKean to this and you have a movie that reminds you how great these people are in other projects but are not jelling in this one. Also—since this film is set in Cleveland—it was impossible not to wonder when Spinal Tap was coming by.

Overall, it’s a film that I’d been curious about since I like everyone involved and I can check it off my list. Wish it had been better, but oh well. If you want a really good blue collar Schrader movie, Blue Collar—with Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto—is streaming on STARZ or is easily worth a rental.

[GrahamS. 803]

8 hours ago, grudlian. said:

This poster is terrible. It has two taglines. I really hate the tagline "He's back from the future and having a hell of a time!!" Because, he's largely having a lousy time. Also, the O in "Light Of Day" is way too skinny.

The Back to the Future tag line is just pure corporate greed. Unless the two films somehow share a universe? Is this one of the alternate timelines for Marty McFly?

P.S., when I tried to write “Marty” on my phone, I somehow typed “Znartg.” Clearly the better name.

[Cam Bert 8145]

17 hours ago, grudlian. said:

I assume this was supposed to justify her hating the church which, in turn, made her hate her mother for accepting the minister. But it felt out of nowhere. When she made a big production like "you want to know who the father is????", I hadn't even thought of it being an issue. I assumed it was some guy who left her when she got pregnant, end of story.

Maybe this was a bigger deal to not like religion in 1987 and no justification would have felt like an affront to viewers. It felt so unnecessary to me. She was tired of her mother being a shitty mom, and her mom always used Christianity as an excuse. We picked all that up in the first time Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox visited their mom.

The minister being the father just brought up more questions.

Totally. I mean I wonder if the implication was that he raped her. She hates the church with a passion so much it makes her hate her mother. To get that level of hate I would assume it was because she was sexually assaulted. Her mother didn't know this so her being angry at her mom for being into the church so much just seems a bit misplaced. It really failed to come together. 

 

19 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

Dude, there was some super weird energy going on between them. It took me a bit to realize they were brother and sister...

When I think their familial relationship is brought up when she storms out of the mother's house, because saying "We're going to mom's house" is something a couple would say. It's not an immediate implication they are siblings. Yet I still didn't by it until she was with that drip in the supermarket and even then he did feel more like a third wheel than a love interest.

[Cam Bert 8145]

Michael J Fox shouting out Anvil must have given some poor Can-Con worker a mini-stroke.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

21 hours ago, grudlian. said:

This poster is terrible. It has two taglines. I really hate the tagline "He's back from the future and having a hell of a time!!" Because, he's largely having a lousy time. Also, the O in "Light Of Day" is way too skinny.

I wanted to find an out-of-the way poster.  The more common poster (or cover art) is below.

I missed it in my original search but there is another poster that also mainly features Michael J. Fox.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

13 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

With the acting, it was hard for me to judge the performances because no one in the cast was able to shed their iconic cultural images. Having Joan Jett-bad girl rock star—next to a long-haired Alex P. Keaton/Marty McFly era Michael J. Fox in a band where they are siblings is fucking weird.

Meanwhile,

[GrahamS. 803]

2 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

Meanwhile,

Is this your next choice?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

5 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

Is this your next choice?

It's not available.  In other words, I can't get no Satisfaction.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

32 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

It's not available.  In other words, I can't get no Satisfaction.

Sorry to hear this, as apparently the romantic lead for Justine Bateman in this film was Liam Neeson!  and it's also got an early appearance of Julia Roberts.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

11 minutes ago, theworstbuddhist said:

Sorry to hear this, as apparently the romantic lead for Justine Bateman in this film was Liam Neeson!  and it's also got an early appearance of Julia Roberts.

It is available on DVD but that's about it. I couldn't resist making the joke.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

Super late to this, so I apologize. I guess Springsteen talk brings me around eventually.

In Springsteen's autobiography (it's great), he talks about how his greatest fear early in his career was being, basically, The Barbusters. A good band with some great songs but who couldn't fill a club outside a ten mile radius of their hometown and were thus destined to die forgotten. A lot of the local New Jersey bands he grew up worshiping suffered that fate, and it was only until he began struggling with his own music that he realized what a sad end some of the met.  I can definitely see why this sort of story might appeal to him, at least on paper.

Like everyone else, I had problems getting into this, from the creepy closeness (physical and otherwise) between Patti and Joe, to the emotional flatness of everything. Also, there is a definite few... similarities between the way that Patti treats her family and the way one of my siblings treats my family. No real corollaries in specific behavior, but the way in which Patti emotionally manipulates her family with seemingly no remorse, and going so far as to use her child as a buffer for bad behavior... well, I recognize a lot of that shit. So pretty early I was kind of like, "fuuuuuuck youuuuuuuu I don't care about your struggles."

Also, being a metalhead, I do kind of take umbrage with the metal fans in this movie being represented as slobbering drunk morons who bray at equally moronic musicians who spend more effort posing with their guitars in phallic positions than actually playing. Of course those stereotypes existed, and still do (we've all seen Heavy Metal Parking Lot), but it was weird that metal was the only genre of music (in this movie about how great and life-affirming rock n' roll is) singled out for such derision.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

4 minutes ago, Quasar Sniffer said:

it was weird that metal was the only genre of music (in this movie about how great and life-affirming rock n' roll is) singled out for such derision.

Not as egregiously as they do metal, but they also rip on new wave at one point, I think right before Trent Reznor's band plays. Michael J. Fox basically laughs them off and makes a sarcastic jibe about their music.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

14 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Not as egregiously as they do metal, but they also rip on new wave at one point, I think right before Trent Reznor's band plays. Michael J. Fox basically laughs them off and makes a sarcastic jibe about their music.

True, which is sort of a weird take for a movie from 1987. "This film is about the redeeming power of rock n' roll! Not Heavy Metal or New Wave though. That shit sucks."

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

4 minutes ago, Quasar Sniffer said:

True, which is sort of a weird take for a movie from 1987. "This film is about the redeeming power of rock n' roll! Not Heavy Metal or New Wave though. That shit sucks."

"If there's two things that won't ever go out of style, it's Whitesnake and The Buggles, mark my words!"