Just saw this film again for like the ? time, on NBCU, high def, and I gotta say, screw the reviews, this is a timely piece of musicana (sp?), Beatles music, the late Billy Preston shooting laser beams! The Bee Gees with hair! Pete Frampton when he was hottest dude in the world, a young Aerosmith, Tina Turner, George Burns, Wolfman Jack, Carol Channing, Peter Allan, Sha Na Na, Edgar Winter, Leif Garret, Dame Edna (yes, wtf), Steve Martin, George Benson, Rick Derringer, Donovan, Heart, Nona Hendryx, Nils Lofgren, Earth Wind and Fire, Alice Cooper, etc., etc. Made me feel 1978 again. Or is it still a piece of crap? What do you think?
We just had a thread about this movie, actually. It’s terrible in a really fascinating way. It’s one of the most poorly-thought out movies I’ve ever seen. You can easily imagine people walking out of the theater saying things like “Why were there robots, and why did they sing She’s Leaving Home and Mean Mr. Mustard? Why did the Bee Gees have to get those instruments? Were they magic or something? What was that about?”
I saw it on its original release, and recorded and watched it several times from a recent television showing. Distill the good parts, and fast forward through the bad (all the robot, Mean Mr. Mustard, and Lucy and Her Diamonds stuff), and enjoy. I just saw Peter Frampton in concert, so I may be a little biased. He, the Bee Gees, and the Beatles are all favorites of mine.
What I liked:
• George Burns doing a soft-shoe through “I’m Fixing a Hole” with two tots was cute.
•Earth Wind and Fire’s jazz-R&B performance of “Got to Get You Into My Life” is miles better than the already good Beatles original.
• Sandy Farina as Strawberry Fields is winsomely pretty (although Frampton, photographed in adoring close-ups, inevitably comes across as prettier).
• The Bee Gees and Frampton do a sharp concert performance of the title song.
• Billy Preston going all Little Richard on us as he performs “Get Back”.
• The surreal collection of celebs assembled on the grandstand at the end. Carol Channing and Sha-Na-Na? Peter Allen and Edgar Winter? Leif Garrett and Tina Turner?
• And of course, Henry the Horse dances the waltz.
What, no love for Steve Martin’s Maxwell’s Silver Hammer?
I’d rather watch flies fuck.