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Backbeat (1994)

tomatometer

67

Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 3

No consensus yet.

audience

67

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 5,296

My Rating

Movie Info

The Beatles' early days as a struggling bar band are depicted in this fact-based drama, which tells the little-known story of original member Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff). A close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe acts as the band's original bassist, accompanying them on their early gigs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. The friendship becomes strained, however, when Sutcliffe falls in love with a German art student and starts to question his commitment to the band. With Sutcliffe's story

Aug 12, 2003

Gramercy Pictures

Cast

All Critics (35) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (9) | DVD (23)

There's nothing very profound here, but we do at least get a nice handling of period and milieu, and pretty good performances of the songs.

September 10, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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What pulls you over the bum spots is the electrifying immediacy.

September 10, 2007 Comment
Rolling Stone
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The early, pre-fame days of the Beatles are a great subject for a film, but the potential has been only partly realized in Backbeat.

September 10, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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Backbeat, which for all its pretensions can often be impressively canny and affectionate about its subject, is helped enormously by newly recorded versions of Beatle records.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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Working with a time period and two crucial characters probably not too familiar to less-than-avid Beatles or rock fans, Softley needs a great performance, and he gets it from Hart.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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Since director Iain Softley seems more interested in establishing tone and atmosphere than in creating vital personalities, he is unable to harness the full power of his story.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
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First-time director Iain Softley makes the film more visually distinctive than most music bios.

September 10, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The film tells the story of the original, little-known fifth Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe, a young painter with rock n' roll sensibility who in 1960 forgoes his promising art career to join his best friend John Lennon (nicely played by Ian Hart) in Berlin

September 12, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

You can't miss the affection and sincerity Backbeat carries from start to finish.... Softley bottles the attitude and energy, the excitement of the new, that were as integral to the Beatles' success as their songs.

April 9, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

Universal's 2005 Backbeat: Collector's Edition ... The pristine print and transfer are as good as they get ... The DD 5.1 audio likewise exhibits superb clarity and strength.

April 9, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

The music is loud and raw, but nevertheless evokes the excitement it generated.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

The music, done here by a group of grunge all-stars, doesn't even attempt to sound dead-on, but remains mostly true to the raucous spirit of the time.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

points to the tragic irony of immortality being achieved through early death

August 17, 2005 Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | Comment

Iain Softley directs his feature debut with simplicity and feeling, and you don't have to have been a Beatles fan to get with the beat. Gives you hope for the British film industry.

June 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

The first thirty or so minutes of Backbeat are perfectly raucous, a distillation of everything that made Elvis swivel his hips so obscenely.

February 8, 2005 Full Review Source: CHUD | Comment

It's Stu's relationships with Lennon and Astrid that make the movie what it is: alternately uplifting and tragic.

February 3, 2005 Full Review Source: Now Playing Magazine | Comment

All the cast give credible performances.

October 4, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A raucous film about the Beatles before they made it big

July 18, 2003 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | Comment
Spirituality and Practice
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Backbeat

This is an admittedly highly fictionalized version of the Beatles early days in Hamburg, but that is not the central theme of the movie. It's really about a love triangle between two best friends, and the woman they both are drawn to. There are a few great characters brought to life by a few very good performances by

December 12, 2010
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

Not just another film or story about The Beatles, this is the story of Stuart Sutcliffe; the fifth Beatle, his relationship with John Lennona and their time with the rest of The Beatles in Hamberg. Whilst being a fan (although not a die hard fan) of The Beatles, I knew very little of Stuart Sutcliffe, so this made

October 25, 2006
76Majikat

Super Reviewer

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August 24, 2006:
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Foreign Titles

  • BackBeat - Die Wahrheit über die Beatles (DE)
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