Saturday, 18 September 2021 19:37

Eddie and the Cruisers






EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS

Eddie and the Cruisers had mixed reviews when it was first released but has since become something of a cult movie. It also led to a sequel, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives.

Perhaps it is a bit pretentious to compare it to Citizen Kane, but it employs something of the same technique. A journalist, played by Ellen Barkin, is examining the music of a group, The Cruisers, when one of its members, played by Tom Berenger, is making contact with the members of the disbanded group. The leader had been Eddie but he has disappeared and is presumed dead.

The film replies on flashbacks as it goes back into the life of the band, the individuals and their careers, and the role and Eddie and his music. The film was made in the early 80s and takes audiences back to past popular styles, transition to rock, the abilities of those who made music at the time to experience the transitions. There is a search for Eddie’s tapes – and as the film goes on, an intimation that Eddie may not have disappeared entirely and is himself searching for the tapes. Eddie is played by Michael Pare, an early role for him – although, in his career, he has tended to act in minor films and portrait character actors.


1. A piece of Americana? From the eighties back to the 1960s? Culture, music?

2. The 1980s, the media, investigative journalism? The musicians of the sixties? Middle-age occupations? The sixties and their music, groups, records? College? The atmosphere of nostalgia, warm and special, harsh?

3. The music of the sixties, the transition to rock and roll, from innocence? Messages, commitment, the sound? Rock? The lyrics? The change? The use of the title, A Season in Hell?

4. The Citizen Kane type of biography, starting in the present, indicating a mystery, rediscovering the character, the touch of invention? The media and hype, hypotheses? Development of the mystery? Eddie and the tapes? The atmosphere, seeking them out, the interviews, memories and pieces?

5. The flashbacks and their insertion, with Frank, Kenny, Joanne? Intercuts? the momentum?

6. Maggie, the media, hypotheses, conspiracies, arranging the interviews? The influence of Rimbaud, his poetry, his career, disappearance?

7. The metaphor of Rimbaud, the artist, Eddie and perfection, Frank and his vision? Wariness? Yet the words needing music? A season in hell?

8. Eddie’s death, the drive, the river, no body? Joanne and her beliefs? The final image, the point? For Eddie? For others, what might have been?

9. The group in itself, each character, their relationships, Eddie at the centre? Personality, dress, intensity? Photographed? The opening, TV video, performance, Frank, Toby Tyler, Joanne and Wendell? The memories, reality and admissions, building up to The Season, angers? Joanne and the palace? Reliving the past? Hopes? Issues of money? Recapturing the past, letting him go?

10. The portrait of Eddie that emerged from this study? The portrait of Frank? The relationship, love hate?

11. The fans, creating myths in the world of rock and roll?

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