Brian Wilson biopic: Love and Mercy

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Vidiot, Apr 17, 2013.

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  1. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I’m glad to hear this film is not a colossal embarrassment. Dano looks good in the photos. I’m not so sure about Cusack and Banks but I’ll give it a chance.

    That said, I think Dewey Cox has soured my tolerance for biopics forever. They all seem ridiculous to me now.
     
  2. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    Ironically, the two-part ABC miniseries from 2000 helmed by John Stamos, and with some sort of "advisor" role from Mike Love, apparently greatly distressed Brian and his camp. That film's first part was not too bad for a TV movie, but the second part, once it gets into Pet Sounds/Smile, etc., is a trainwreck.

    Van Dyke Parks was allegedly so annoyed by his depiction that they had to change his character's name and at apparently partially or fully his instigation, put an extra disclaimer at the beginning of the second part reminding that there fictionalized elements. (I think there are some VDP interviews around the interwebs getting into this). Even Stamos himself in later years has seemed to indicate he realizes that movie was a bad idea all around.

    So Brian could have seen this new film as an opportunity to straighten out the silly 2000 TV movie, where Mike is depicted as saving the day, as if adding his lyrics to "Good Vibrations" (which are good lyrics, no argument from me on that) single-handedly saved the band's career.

    But indeed, I would imagine they aren't going to get heavy into Mike Love in this new film due to potential litigation.

    It may well end up being that the first TV movie from 1990, the epically awful "Summer Dreams" with Bruce Greenwood, may be the most enjoyable out of all of them for the pure cheese factor.
     
  3. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    I've seen a few on-set pics of Cusack as Brian. Because they're going for a circa 1988 Brian look, I actually don't think it's that bad. He doesn't look facially much like him, but they had the look otherwise (hair, leather jacket, etc.) close enough that it's not any worse than most other biopics.

    If they had done the film 10 or 20 years ago, they could have had had Tim Robbins do the "older" Brian, as he did a pretty good impersonation (albeit done jokingly) of Brian on "Saturday Night Live" in, I believe, the late 80's or early 90's. It's the one where "Brian" is being interviewed by "Larry King" and keeps getting startled and freaked out by King and the callers.
     
  4. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    'Summer Dreams' should be burned.

    The American Family thing was pretty good the first night. Kevin Dunn was great as Murry. I really enjoyed it.

    Then came part 2.
     
  5. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I have yet to see an explanation as to the details of Brian's 1979 divorce from Marilyn. On the surface, you'd think she just got sick of all the drug use, the psychological problems, Brian's emotional distance from his daughters, and so on. What's interesting is that Marilyn is still actively selling real estate in Beverly Hills -- at least, she was a couple of years ago.
     
  6. kreen

    kreen Forum Resident

    Landy wasn't a comic book villain, or a psycho : he was an unethical psychiatrist who fell in love with the rock star lifestyle. He did save Brian Wilson's life, and when BW is not being spoon-fed media lines by Melinda and co., he says things like "Landy was the last person I could really laugh with" or "I was devastated when he died".

    The only thing unconventional about the movie seems to be the combination of two different timelines. Aside from that, you have the usual heroes and villains, and the "message" scenes where how you're supposed to feel is telegraphed to you. At least that seems to be the case based on the reviews.
     
  7. My understanding is that despite Landy being forced out and Reprise turning down the finished Adult/Child project, Brian was on a creative roll going into 1978, even if the previous M.I.U. Album had performed far below expectations. Sessions for the next Beach Boys record commenced in Los Angeles with many involved claming that Brian's production skills were on full display - the most notable example being a keyboard overdub (for the still unreleased cover of Calendar Girl) he personally requested be cut at half speed so that when it was played back normally, the resulting effect sounded like a calliope!

    Under their new contract with CBS, it was part of the deal that any new Beach Boys product contained at least 75% contributions from Brian, and for a while it seemed as if he might actually deliver high quality material. However, after just a few short days of creativity, he checked into Brotman Memorial Hospital for a three-month stay that included Thorazine treatment. Supposedly, the catalyst for his sudden psychological decline was Marilyn calling him in the studio to reveal that she was filing for divorce after he previously caught her sleeping in their bed with Rocky Pamplin.

    In his absence, the rest of the band struggled on, with CBS president Walter Yetnikoff listening to a compilation of rough tracks and storming out, but not before declaring that in his opinion their $8m deal now seemed a costly mistake. I believe his exact words were something to the effect of "Gentlemen, I think I've been f**ked!" These recordings later managed to find their way into the wild, though by this point Brian's additions to that early take of Calendar Girl had been mostly wiped in favour of a more conservative treatment. I'd sure love to hear what he provided that was so incredible, if this is even possible now.

    Rejoining the group at Criteria Studios in Miami, Brian was described being at his all-time worst mentally, though from this point on he would only deteriorate further, eventually forcing his family to reintroduce Dr. Landy only after he was legally fired. Having cut an expletive-laden cover of Dion's Drip Drop and a piano demo often traded under the name I'm Begging You Please (or Darling Please as it's actually known), Brian rightly acknowledged that any improvements made to his voice under the coaching of Bob Rose during the M.I.U. period had been undone.

    Brian's final act was to personally call Bruce Johnston, who only returned at first to supervise and provide falsetto parts. However, at some point he became a permanent member yet again, giving Brian the opportunity to continue regressing both physically and professionally. I'm not doubting that Marilyn was certainly pushed to do something drastic as a result of the way Brian had become an increasingly unstable influence on their two daughters in particular, but for once I've got to agree with something Melinda once said...

    During a 2004 interview, the second Mrs. Wilson made a rare public mistake in speaking out against her predecessor while Brian was in earshot, criticising her for not seeking help at the nearby UCLA Medical Centre where she herself oversaw a proper diagnosis that threw out the long-held Schizophrenia conclusion in favour of Schizoaffective Disorder. Addionally, Brian saw his medication adjusted to reduce the Tardive Dyskinesia suspected by Peter Reum back in 1990, which proved the key element needed to procede with separating Landy from his patient once and for all.

    To my knowledge, Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford is still very much active in the real estate industry, occasionally performing with her sister Diane and cousin Ginger as The Honeys. Although I've not personally spoken to her, I know from being a regular at various message boards that she has spoken quite openly about her former husband, and I'm fairly certain she was even present at his second wedding. She's always seemed like a truly class act, and I can only begin to imagine how difficult it was for her to give up on such a talented yet ultimately troubled person.

    Ideally, her side of the story will eventually be represented in an official telling of Brian's turbulent life, though for now we'll have to settle with the heavily biased and factually incorrect version of events. I'm not doubting that Brian wasn't interested in Melinda before they reconnected in '93, but to paint a permanent distorted picture of her as being the mastermind behind his late career resurgence is just plain wrong. I'm sure Brian's happier than he's been in a long time, but I can't see why Melinda can't allow the real heroes to get the credit they deserve.

    For example, the continued portrayal of Van Dyke Parks as some lucky hipster who just happened to be in the right place at the right time and Mike Love as a pantomime villain is getting older than the remaining Beach Boys. If their British counterparts were able to put together a mostly honest multi-part documentary, why is it so impossible to get a solid grasp on the life of Brian Wilson and his family without having to assemble the truth from a variety of sources? I've yet to find a single book or film that comes close, though admittedly some are way better than others.
     
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  8. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Walk Hard was a great send up. "Sorry honey, you're never going to amount to anything, so you may as well give up now, before it's too late." Man, that's wacky.
     
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  9. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    IMO Cusack is the heart of the picture.

    Basically, you are imagining the content of the movie, and imagining it inaccurately. I've said this all a few times already, but for the last time:

    * Mike is not portrayed as a "pantomime villain" (even if his impatience with and aggression toward Brian is in no way glossed over)

    * Van Dyke is not portrayed as "some lucky hipster." He is barely in the movie, but it's clear he's an industry professional of long standing by the time he hooks up with Brian (he even says so, in one of the clumsier aspects of the script)

    * Melinda is in no way portrayed as "the mastermind behind his late career resurgence." The movie ends way before any "resurgence" can happen. Melinda IS portrayed in a rather angelic fashion, and the movie does have Brian's housekeeper hand her Brian's doctored will (naming Landy as a beneficiary) which sets off the family's lawsuit against Landy. But she is no more a "mastermind" of that effort than the housekeeper, Gloria. Furthermore, the movie suggests the later Melinda/Brian reunion happens by chance. On no account does the movie suggest that she has anything to do with the direction of Brian's career subsequent to that, or that she is a "mastermind" of anything besides selling Cadillacs.
     
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  10. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    Couple more questions, if you would be so kind to answer. I appreciate you taking the time.

    What is the running length, that is, if you happened to make a mental note?

    On the Smiley Smile board, it is pretty much cemented that the film credits Melinda for "rescuing" Brian from Landy, which is fine. Her role was as big as anyone's I guess. I don't know the whole story outside of what I have read in "Catch A Wave", etc. But I always got the inkling that Carl Wilson was very involved in making sure his big brother was "okay". Long winded question... are Carl (and for that matter, Wendy and Carnie) given any screen credit for seeing to it that Brian found his way out of Landy-hell?

    Thank you!
     
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  11. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    That's awesome to hear. I can imagine if (and when) this film gets a North American distributor, there will be much more press, a trailer or two and hopefully a SOUNDTRACK. :)

    That's actually also wonderful to hear. Approaching this story had to be difficult; what do you leave out, what do you leave in? Putting together a linear approach to telling a story, etc. It sounds like they did it, albeit in the unconventional way they sought to. Really can't wait to see it!!
     
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  12. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    It's good to see the comments of someone who's actually seen the film!
     
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  13. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    As I recall, it was about 100 minutes long, give or take. Not quite 2 hours.

    Towards the end of the film, Brian's housekeeper Gloria finds his amended will, naming Landy as his beneficiary. She makes an appointment with Melinda to tell her about it. Melinda then starts a phone campaign, calling Audree and then Carl. It's implied that Carl is the one who gets the ball rolling from a legal perspective and this is what actually frees Brian from Landy's legal guardianship and power of attorney. Melinda is actually NOT successful on her own at convincing Brian that he can break away, and their romance in the film has a gap of a few years between about 1988 (when he finishes his solo album under Landy's supervision and she tries to convince him to break away) and 1993 (when they meet again by chance).

    The film offers a pretty interesting interpretation of the biographical data, suggesting that Brian is reluctant to leave Landy because he's a kind of substitute father figure for Murray.

    btw, the director did say, during the q&a, that they were talking about a soundtrack release with Capitol, but I was on my way out at that point and didn't catch the full answer (sorry to say).
     
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  14. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    If you check out the Smiley Smile board, one of Brian's friend's who posts now and then has given some background details to the early 90's conservatorship saga, which gets into how much Melinda apparently did help behind the scenes even during the years she wasn't "with" Brian. It's a very interesting rundown. I'm not sure how much of the info is literaly "never before told" details, but it established that Melinda was much more involved than was publicized at the time (which isn't surprising; nobody knew who she was back then; the story hinged on Brian, Landy, Carl, Mike's brother, Brian's family, etc.).

    My only criticism of "revelations" like these is that if nobody has discussed these things at length in the past, how could any fan or scholar be expected to know? They don't always go into these subjects, especially that Landy stuff from the early 90's.

    They really need to get an impartial, Lewisohn type to do a biography on the Beach Boys and get them all to sit down for extensive interviews while they still can. Preferably they would do a "Beatles Anthology" style multi-hour documentary as well. Seriously, this is beyond simply wanting more Beach Boys product. The facts need to be established (as much as they ever can be), opinions and commentary from the principles need to be recorded, while they (and we) are still alive.

    Brian's authorized biography (or autobiography; I honestly can't remember which they're calling it) that is apparently in the works will surely have some good tidbits, but it's obviously not going to be terribly unbiased. It will at least be a vast improvement over the "Wouldn't It Be Nice" autobiography debacle from the early 90's. Jason Fine seems to be a good writer; he seems to be tuned pretty well to the group's history and personalities. His piece in Rolling Stone during the 50th Anniversary tour was very good.
     
  15. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    I think this is explored to some degree in several Brian/Beach Boys biographies. An interesting tidbit from one of the books (I believe Timothy White's?) is that the judge that oversaw that divorce proceeding was a pre-"People's Court" Judge Wapner!
     
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  16. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Ah, but that would stop endless speculation by people who - somehow or other - always seem to know better. That's half the fun of the net. Isn't it...?
     
  17. Although it's never been confirmed, I'm convinced Melinda was the person speaking out against Landy in Diane Sawyer's 1991 Prime Time article on the doctor's unethical relationship with Brian, but to say she was THE key figure behind the scenes is unfair to all the other people who helped, such as Peter Reum and Carl Wilson. I've also read that the late Gary Usher had several tapes of outtakes from sessions held in the mid '80s that included countless instances of Brian either passing out (due to the various drugs he was placed on) or begging to be released from his prison-like existence under the control of Landy and his so-called Surf Nazis. While I'm not entirely familiar with every last detail of the case that ultimately ended with Brian placed in the case of a temporary conservator, I do recall hearing the judge watched through some of Kevin Leslie's archive, which had been recorded during his tenure as Landy's right hand man. During virtually every moment he was awake, Leslie had the task of monitoring Brian with a video camera, and to date only a handful of clips from these tapes has surfaced - the "highlights" being his hounding a journalist at the gates of Brian's home and behind-the-scenes footage of a Chevrolet commercial shoot, best known for a sequence where Wilson can quite clearly be heard abusing his doctor to acquire an assortment of drugs, including Xanax. I'm certain this kind of concrete evidence was far more effective than the sole testimony of Melinda, and the credit described at the end of Love And Mercy is just further proof of how much she thinks of herself. Again, I don't want anyone thinking I'm absolutely against everything she does... I just wish it was possible to get an honest, unbiased story of The Beach Boys similar to The Beatles Anthology rather than more approved product that caters to one side only.
     
  18. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    What's wrong with that one? I have it but haven't read it yet.
     
  19. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    You can read a quick rundown of it here: http://www.beachboys.com/booksI.html

    Spawned numerous lawsuits from family members and band members, and has been largely discredited by Beach Boys scholars.
     
  20. SteveCooks

    SteveCooks Senior Member

    Location:
    Lyon, France
    You should read the book "The Wilson Project" by Stephen Mc Parland, a Gary Usher's friend, who published a lot of books about the surf and hot rod genre.
    Landy is really depicted as a versatile person, to say the least...
    The book was recently reissue and I must say it is fanastic, not only if you are interested in the Landy years.
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2014
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  21. That was the book I was referring to earlier - The Wilson Project is based on ten cassettes of diary recordings Gary made while collaborating with Brian Wilson on what nearly became his first solo album... or at least it would have been if Usher hadn't quit as a result of his displeasure at the constant interference of one Dr. Eugene E. Landy and his Surf Nazis. My understanding is that the original tapes were eventually used in court as evidence to prove just how damaged Brian had really become under Landy's care, though sadly Gary wasn't around to continue his great work, having passed in 1990 following a battle with cancer. Although some tracks have surfaced officially (most as bonus content on the reissue of Brian's eventual solo debut), others can be found on various bootlegs. The Spirit Of Rock And Roll in particular should have been another late '80s smash for The Beach Boys, having featured as the closing song of their 25th anniversary concert special. Later, Brian promoted this as being a centrepiece of his rejected Sweet Insanity album, with that particular version starring Bob Dylan as the least likely duetting partner for Wilson's vocal style you could imagine. After years in the wilderness, he revisited it for the last time around 2005, making it his "new" contribution to an obscure Hallmark compilation, Songs From Here & Back. As someone who was there to see Brian in his peak then again years later following a lengthy period under Landy's control, Gary's talent and input is sorely missed.
     
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  22. crimpies

    crimpies Forum Resident

    :laugh:

    You know Anthology has been widely criticized for being highly sanitized and glorified?
     
  23. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    For an "authorized" documentary, it was about as "warts and all" as one could expect from them. The main glaring omission was Pete Best. They could have discussed him even more even if they weren't inclined to have him interviewed for the project, which obviously would have been even more preferable.

    Whether authorized or not, the Beach Boys need a multi-hour documentary, as in 6 to 10.
     
  24. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    The most interesting thing in the Gary Usher book was that he claimed he felt that Brian used his insanity as a way to avoid paying for studio time. Usher felt that Brian was generally pretty lucid, happy, and creative, but the moment Gary would say, "uh, Brian, we do have this little problem about the bill," Brian would start babbling, be unable to play the keyboards, and stagger out of the room and leave. I don't think it's necessarily an act, but Usher's theory was that it was like a handicap Brian took advantage of.
     
  25. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    The "Wilson Project" book from Usher's journals is an intensely interesting read. The new 2013 edition is hopefully still relatively easily obtained.

    An interesting bit there was Usher's conversations with the Chicago dude Bill Champlin, who Usher brought in as a session background singer. Champlin took it one step further and suggested that Brian was largely fine and the whole thing was an ego trip-fueled put-on. I don't think Champlin fully understood the situation (especially what Landy may have been prescribing Brian, which may have been affecting him far more than drug use from years prior), but it was interesting to see an outsider's opinion.

    The Usher book is great, and he comes across as a pretty level-headed, kind guy. The only damning thing about Usher is that if you actually seek out the extant recordings of the material that is discussed in the book, you start to wonder what Usher was thinking, as he speaks pretty highly of the material. The material is pretty rank for the most part, with a few interesting bits. Usher may have indeed been writing a lot of the "co-writes", but the material both in terms of songwriting and production was pretty weak.
     
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