The music is loud and raw, but nevertheless evokes the excitement it generated.
Comment
01/26/06
Backbeat (1994)
74
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:34
Fresh:25
Rotten:9
Average Rating:6.1/10
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Reviews for Backbeat
points to the tragic irony of immortality being achieved through early death
08/17/05
Historically, we might quibble with the overall sound quality and the fact that the Beatles surely never played their instruments quite this efficiently in 1960 but, once again, what the music captures is its overwhelming appeal.
01/01/00
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.
01/01/00
Top CriticWriter-director Iain Softley went out and bought the Paint-By-Numbers kit for making a rock 'n' roll movie.
01/01/00
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.
04/09/06
A raucous film about the Beatles before they made it big
07/18/03
At the end, I felt cheated.
01/01/00
Top CriticIain 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.
06/22/05
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.
01/01/00
Top Critichen Stu begins his relationship with Astrid, the film begins to lose its way, partly because it sinks into bathos and partly because Lee never captures the character. And we're talking about the bulk of the movie.
01/01/00
Softley is able to enliven a familiar story and famous characters. His cast helps him.
01/01/00
Top CriticThe 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.
12/06/05
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
09/12/06
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.
05/20/03
Top CriticThe early, pre-fame days of the Beatles are a great subject for a film, but the potential has been only partly realized in Backbeat.
09/10/07
Top CriticBackbeat is a tragedy for sure, but it’s a tragedy with one hell of a soundtrack.
01/01/00
Dorff's Stu is always a bit too low-key, even when he's doing his painting, so as a dramatic character he never becomes all that interesting.
01/01/00
If anybody ever makes a good film about the early days of the Beatles, I would love to see it. My recommendation is to pass this one by and look for one of the many Beatles documentaries if you want to know more.
01/01/00
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.
09/10/07
Top CriticLatest News for Backbeat
September 12, 2007:
Total Recall: Across the Universe And The Beatles On Film
This week, Across the Universe hits theaters. Julie Taymor's film, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess as a young couple in the midst of the heady, chaotic 1960s,... More...
August 24, 2006:
New Line Signs Bettany & Fraser for "Inkheart"
New Line's just getting the ball rolling on their highly-anticipated "His Dark Materials" series -- and now they have an all-new potential trilogy to worry about.... More...
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