In Theaters: Pirate Radio
Curtis inserts several minor plotlines (Will Carl get laid? Find his real dad?) to the crowded inter-boat dynamic, but a lot of it feels -- perhaps purposefully -- like between-song filler. Worse is the addition of a one-note minister named Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) intent on taking down pirate radio just because he can ("That's the point of being the government," he says, "If you don't like something you make up a law to stop it."). A cartoon villain with a lackey named "Twatt" (a dumb joke that made me laugh every time it is uttered, despite my very best efforts), Dormandy's embodiment of The Man feels superfluous: switching between the on- and off-boat drama saps rather than builds tension.
Images of young girls crowding around radios and young boys firing up transistors under their pillows are indelible and yet overused; somehow the connection between the DJs, the music, and the listeners doesn't translate. Similarly inert are two fleeting plotlines involving female characters who I am pretty sure were named Elenore (January Jones) and Marianne (Talulah Riley) solely so Curtis could play their corresponding Turtles and Leonard Cohen songs as theme music (he is especially hot for the "big entrance" song).
The pleasure of several of the performances mitigate much of the above: Bill Nighy is a dissolute dandy dream: "Have we met before?" he asks his godson. "There was a lost decade, so I have to check." And Ifans and Hoffman, alpha male brothers from very different mothers, play off of each other's absurd vanity to very funny effect during a pirate ship version of "chicken." A number of such sequences -- such as the one in which a space cadet DJ performs an underwater ballet, in an attempt to salvage records after the ship capsizes -- pass the time all right, with a chuckle here and there. For a film meant to evoke the rebel spirit that broke rock and roll into the mainstream, that doesn't quite cut it.
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Comments
i have to agree. I saw this movie when it was released overseas and the first thing that struck me is how much it did not match the trailer. the trailer version which implied we'd see a band of DJs actually starting this whole thing etc was interesting. the final result was blah
How does the UK version compare to the U.S. cut, which is (among other things) evidently 20 minutes shorter. I trust the "real" version will at least make it to DVD.
Arrived in London in '69 and landed a secretarial job with two guys who were responsible for Radio Caroline, the pirate radio ship. Never heard of it. They had since sold it. They spent hours talking about their exploits on the seas and made me wish I had been part of it. George Drummond lives in Barbados and I would love to know what happened to that adorable Irishman, Ronan O'Rahilly. When I saw the first trailer for the movie I cried for an hour. Such wonderful memories of my life in London. Now I'm a gray-haired retiree! But like them, living off the memories of better times. By the way, George Lazenby was George's roommate at the time and I had never heard of him, either! I'd led a sheltered life down South!
Hi Bunnye,
The George Drummond you speak is actually my father, and he is rather reluctant to go in to too much detail about his past exploits, to my frustration as I find it all fascinating! Please feel free to email me about stories or memories you have of him or just the time in general! my email is sashadrummond@hotmail.com
Many thanks!
i loved the music and yet i left with this "i loved the music feeling".
it seemed hoffman mailed this one in. some funny moments and yet all in all not very good.
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