I loved it. I went to see it with a gaggle of film studies graduate students. We returned to the department that afternoon and were discussing our favorite scenes, when “I’m A Professional Critic” Prof. walks in and starts in on how unrealistic it was, and how he was a journalist in those days (for a small town newspaper in the great plains, not Rolling Stone, by the way) and how nothing like that could have ever happened anywhere.
We explained that it was based on true events. That yes, it was romanticized, but he really did go on tour when he was 15, etcetera etcetera.
He scoffed, and reasserted that the finest film ever made was “The Thirteenth Warrior”.
Do I love it? Hell, I still consider the fact that a movie about horny French people eating chocolate got a Best Picture nod over “Almost Famous” to be one of the worst Oscar snubs of my lifetime. I cheered and clapped when it won Best Original Screenplay. Not only do I think it should have been nominated for Best Picture; I honestly think it should have won.
This movie is also the enduring reason why I am still completely in love with Kate Hudson, even though the rest of her body of work is either mediocre or simply the kind of movie I would never watch, or both.
I, too, always associate “Misty Mountain Hop” with this movie, and only after seeing it did I finally start hankering to add some Zeppelin to my music collection.
Nitpick, it was Ann and Nancy Wilson (of the bands Heart and The Lovemongers) who supervised the music (and wrote a lot of it, too, though the movie’s credits list the fictional characters of Stillwater as the writers). Peter Frampton and Ronnie Van Zant each contributed a song too, I believe.
I loved it, partly because I’m a white guy who was a teen in the 70’s.
Considering that I always thought the real Lester Bangs was an asshole, I was amazed at how much I liked him in this movie! Philip Seymour Hoffman definitely deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
A few observations:
While the movie is based on Cameron Crowe’s travels with Led Zeppelin in 1971, a lot of the incidents shown in the movie really involved other bands Crowe toured with. That’s why Crowe chose to change Led Zeppelin into the fictitious band Stillwater- so he could re-tell a lot of stories without pretending they all happened to Zeppelin.
Examples? Well, Penny Lane is obviously based on Bebe Buell, Groupie Supreme, who was Jimmy Page’s main squeeze in 1971. BUT… Led Zeppelin never traded Bebe to Humble Pie for a case of beer. According to Cameron Crowe, it was King Crimson who actually traded one of their groupies for some beer.
And Led Zeppelin never called Cameron Crowe “the enemy” or left Cameron stranded in an airport. It was the Allman Brothers who stole his notes and his tapes, and left him in an airport… where he really DID run into his stewardess sister, who helped him get home.
But apparently, Robert Plant DID get high and proclaim to a crowd that he was a Golden God!
Uh, you do know that a scene can be based on real events without being true in every particular, right? The Who did fly in a small plane that did once come terrifyingly close to crashing. This incident is mentioned in several bios of the band. It’s possible that there were near-death confessions made, but I have never heard about it. If anyone confessed to being gay it wasn’t one of the members of the band, because none of them are/were. About two years ago (after years of refusing to directly address the issue) Townshend finally explicitly denied being gay or bisexual after being badgered by a Rolling Stone reporter (not Crowe). He also said that he didn’t like doing so because he felt it was insulting to his gay/bi fans to make a big deal about how straight he was, as if the alternative were shameful or shocking.
Other than the condescending “uh” at the beginning of your post :wally , I am willing to take your word for the rest. I definitely recall a scandal about the song based on interviews with Townshend some years after the album was released. Lemme Google it…okay:
Here is a Songfacts listing stating how the song “Rough Boys” was about gays in the US and punks in the UK and how they appeared to dress alike. So we’re both right, but you lose points for being condescending…
and at this site they quote what Townshend said that I had a recollection of and that led me to hypthesize that it might’ve been Townshend in the plane-crash scene.
Again - I couldn’t care less about anyone’s, let alone a brilliant artist like Townshend’s, sexuality. I am merely trying to support my understanding that the scene in the movie is based on real life, and that I had heard it was about the Who and that, based on later comments I had heard attributed to Townshend, that I list here, I made the connection between the confession made during the scene and Townshend. I am open to being wrong - it is really no big deal. I do not, however, appreciate being condescended to when my hypothesis is reasonable given what facts are available, and all you have in your reply is “If anyone confessed to being gay it wasn’t one of the members of the band, because none of them are/were.” Okay - fine; cite? If Townshend commented in a later RS interview that his comments about Rough Boys were mis-interpreted - again, that’s great - but I hope that my original thinking that the scene might be about the Who is understandable…
Well, I think it was more than a little bit offensive for you to guess that Townshend was the homosexual “given some of [his] foibles of late” when the only public foibles he’s had of late have been related to child pornography charges. It’s deeply, deeply insulting to homosexuals everywhere to associate them with pedophiles. Since Townshend’s story of doing research about child abuse checked out and the authorities let him off with a hand-slap for violating the letter of the law, I think it’s also out of line to suggest that he gets his jollies looking at dirty pictures of little boys.
I’m sorry if you think using the word “uh” was too strong a reaction to that, but it was much weaker than what I was feeling and I think much weaker than what such comments deserve. But this is Cafe Society, which is why I thought it best to simply refute the suggestion that Townshend is homosexual rather than really go off on you.
I also figured it was remotely possible that you had some other “foibles” in mind, but I follow news about Townshend pretty closely and I can’t imagine what else it could have been. His only public, recent romantic relationship has been with an attractive younger woman, pianist Rachel Fuller. They’ve been openly involved for several years now.
You want a link to Townshend’s Rolling Stone interview? Fine, here it is. I don’t believe there’s ever been any reason to suspect that Roger Daltrey or John Entwistle had any secret homosexual inclinations. Keith Moon was known to dress in drag or sometimes kiss other men for shock value, but according to his longtime friend and personal assistant Dougal Butler, he was completely straight. According to Butler (in his book Moon the Loon), if Moonie had been the least bit inclined in that direction he’d have been upfront about it…if only to see how people would react.
Getting back to Almost Famous, I could buy that Moon made a mock confession of homosexuality to lighten the mood after the band’s frightening experience on the airplane and Crowe took a little humorous creative license, but this is pure speculation on my part. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve heard of the plane ride in question but never that there were any confessions made at all.
I always thought critics would LOVE this movie (and for the most part, they did).
Why?
Because the critics come off as cool, honest, and funny, and the subject of their critiques come off as boorish idiots. I’ve always suspected intelligent people like Roger Ebert or Elvis Mitchell or Pauline Kael feel this way about actors and directors.
And the critics get the quotes like,
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world… is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”
and
Lester Bangs : So, you’re the one who’s been sending me those articles from your school newspaper.
William Miller : I’ve been doing some stuff for a local underground paper, too.
Lester Bangs : What, are you like the star of your school?
William Miller : They hate me.
Lester Bangs : You’ll meet them all again on their long journey to the middle.
while the rock stars get stuck with
“You, Aaron, are what it’s all about. You’re real. Your room is real. Your friends are real. Real, man, real. You know? Real. You’re more important than all the silly machinery. Silly machinery. And you know it! In eleven years its going to be 1984, man. Think about that!”
Lamia - thanks for the link; it certainly clarifies Townshend’s thoughts on his own sexuality. Whether or not he felt that same way back in the '60’s and '70’s is another thing, but he is very clear now.
One minor comment - I in no way mean to equate homosexuality with pedophilia - I find that basic position wrongheaded and offensive. Some small position of people - straight, gay, whatever - are pedophiliacs and should be prosecuted if they act on their impulses. But sexual preference and pedophiliac impulses are independent and separate to my mind.
In terms of “foibles” for Townshend, the point I am making is that he seems to have some unresolved issues around his sexual identity. His earlier statements about “being a woman,” the topic of Rough Boys, his research into determining if he was abused as a child and how that has impacted who he is as an adult, even the interview you cite where he states that he might engaged in physical relations with men while drunk, even while clarifying his heterosexuality - all point out to me a person whose sexual identity might be confused or evolving. None of that is a judgment call on Townshend, it merely made it seem possible that he could’ve been the basis for the character in Almost Famous, since I had already heard that the plane crash scene was based on Crowe’s travelling with the Who. I hope you can see that the leap to supposing it might be Townshend was not too big of one.
The original AF DVD had a bunch of Cameron Crowe’s Rolling Stone articles reprinted in the Extras section. Several of the stories in the film appear in their original form in those articles, including Greg Allman’s paranoid fantasy that Crowe was a government agent; riding on the plane with The Who; and Robert Plant saying “I am a golden god” to Crowe. If I recall, Plant was on a hotel balcony overlooking the Sunset Strip, and saw his face on a billboard. I don’t think there was a crowd; it seemed more like a comment made in passing to Crowe, but it’s been a while since I read the articles.
On the bright side, now I know what I’m doing tonight.
It’s watchable. Nothing special. Kate Hudson gets on my nerves though - She’s neither pretty, good actressy or skanky enough to convincingly pull off that role.
Pauls verdict: A big resounding ‘i’ll watch it if theres nothing better on’
For some reason I’m under the impression that the “real” Penny Lane actually went by Penny Lane, but her real name is Lucky Trumble. I must’ve gleaned that from some of the supplemental material on the DVD. There’s an instrumental piece on the soundtrack called Lucky Trumble, and I remember going, “Aha!” over that. I’m going to have to dig thru that DVD for a cite now. Darn, I have to watch one of my favorite movies again.
I think the airplane incident was supposed to have happened to the Allman Brothers. The “I’m gay!” bit is probably just a joke. If you’re going to put a scene in a movie based on a time when your plane almost crashed, then didn’t, something interesting or funny or whatever has to happen in the scene. Here, you get some good character stuff, and a joke to end it.
I’m glad to hear it. It’s a touchy issue, so I hope you’ll forgive me for suspecting you may have thought otherwise based on your remark – it’s not that I have any prior reason to be suspicious of you, but it’s a sentiment I’ve seen expressed too many times before. And I think I heard one too many jokes on Leno about Townshend-the-pedophile.
I do think it’s a bit of a leap to go from “Townshend seems confused about his sexual identity” to “Townshend may have confessed to being gay when he believed himself to be near death”. If he were sure enough about things to say “I’m gay!” when he thought he was about the meet his maker, there’d be no cause for confusion afterwards.
I also think it’s a mistake to suppose that any real person (much less any member of the Who) actually outed himself in such a way just because it’s in Almost Famous. Crowe must have invented some incidents for the movie. This one was such a neat punchline to the scene and to the mystery of the silent and withdrawn drummer character that my assumption would be that it was fictional. Aside from that, I don’t think Crowe would want to use his movie to out a closeted rock star after keeping the secret for decades.
That said, had you asked me for my best guess as to Townshend’s sexual orientation prior to reading his definitive answer in Rolling Stone, my own answer would have been “at least somewhat bisexual” based on his previous comments too. So I certainly can’t fault you for thinking the same thing.
Put me on the “didn’t like it” side. I saw it and promptly forgot most of it. I do remember thinking that the Kate Hudson character was particularily chafing.
