Almost Famous or Rock Star ?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by ronm, Dec 20, 2015.

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  1. Lord Summerisle

    Lord Summerisle Forum Resident

    I had to look up Rock Star, I completely forgot about that film.
     
  2. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Almost Famous is about as good a movie as you're going to get based upon rock music. As a movie qua movie, it's not a deathless classic, but as a movie about the rock experience, it's just about perfect.

    Rock Star's only redeeming feature is its tenuous relationship to the true story of Ripper Owens. Apart from that, it's garbage. Worth one viewing perhaps, no more.

    Ironically, both movies have only a tenuous relationship to the real-life experiences they reflect, yet only Almost Famous makes the experience look more interesting than the actual story probably was.
     
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  3. I think Almost Famous is a great film and the Bootleg Cut is even better.

    But I also like Rock Star a lot, I just don't see any reason to compare the two.

    Like I said, Almost Famous is a great film and I think that Rock Star is a good movie. There's a difference.

    Part of my interest in Rock Star stems from the fact that I remember when it was announced that Rob Halford was being replaced by the vocalist in a Judas Priest cover band. This was a huge deal in my circle of music pals!
    None of us were Priest fans but just the idea that someone from a cover band could one day join the real band they had previously been covering was an unbelievable concept.

    Since then, it's actually been happening more often! (ie: Journey, Kiss)

    Final note: to the poster who said that the Rock Star story has a "tenuous" relation to the Judas Priest situation. That's actually not true. During pre-production on the movie, members of Judas Priest were actually consulted on the story and interviewed during the script writing process.
    So the movie originally was going to be much more obviously a re-telling of the Priest-Ripper Owens narrative.
    At some point the band got shut out of the film and it became a little less directly influenced by their story.
     
  4. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Same here! I was a huge fan of his work for CREEM magazine when I was a teenage music head ...:righton:
     
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  5. musicalbeds

    musicalbeds Strange but not a stranger

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Rockstar was cheese, but Jennifer Aniston's sexiness makes it worth watching again.

    AF is a classic, one of my all-time favourites.
     
  6. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I didn't always agree with Bangs' reviews, but he was a helluva writer and really passionate in what he said and did. I loved the way Hoffman portrayed him in the film -- that's an award-worthy performance if there ever was one.
     
  7. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    Can you explain how Almost Famous has a tenuous relationship to the real-life experiences they reflect? Possibly I am misunderstanding what you mean by the statement. From reading and interviews I am fairly certain the situations in the movie are actually taken or built from things that occurred in his life in a similar way. They aren't cobbled together out of his literary imagination. Also from my own experience I have been to a party similar to the Midwestern all nighter that happened in the movie. So that is a pretty direct relationship to real life events! :) Listen to the movie commentary between Cameron and his mom to hear how this movie is a slightly fictionalised and blurred version of his own life. And he has said he really did lose his virginity that way...

    To the poster who commented on the Stairway to Heaven scene, it's a bonus on the Unititled movie and it is hilariously brilliant. I think of that scene when I think of those times we all think a lyric is so profound. I'm glad it's not in the film though. Too long and awkward.
     
  8. keifspoon

    keifspoon Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I kept waiting for Marky Mark to bring back his Funky Bunch in Rock Star! :D Therefore, I almost went with Almost Famous. o_O
     
  9. JETman

    JETman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Knowing
    The one that was truly awful was the movie with the extremely dopey SciFientologist:

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    AF is very quotable...

    Lester Bangs: Music, you now, true music - not just rock n roll - it chooses you. It live in your car, or alone listening to your headphones, you know, with the cast scenic bridges and angelic choirs in your brain. It's a place apart from the vast, benign lap of America.

    Darryl
     
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  11. Blair G.

    Blair G. Senior Member

    Location:
    Delta, BC, Canada
    No contest.

    Almost Famous IMHO
     
  12. tmtomh

    tmtomh Forum Resident

    I actually enjoy both films (as well as That Thing You Do), and have seen them multiple times.

    But IMHO Almost Famous is the better film, by a long shot.
     
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  13. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    It was loosely based on the experiences of Cameron Crowe but of course all the characters were fictional. I've not actually listened to Crowe's commentary so I don't know how directly the scenes were related to his own experiences but I'm pretty sure things like his pretending to be a much older person and having his Rolling Stone story being temporarily axed because of his age and perceived fanboy status was fictional. As I understand it, the guitarist he followed all over the US trying to get an interview was Jimmy Page, not the leader of some up and coming Midwestern band. So I'm not trying to say that he invented all the stories out of his imagination, but rather he took certain episodes and knit them together into a fictional narrative.
     
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  14. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    From Wikipedia: "The film is based on Crowe's experiences touring with rock bands Poco, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Crowe has discussed how during this period he lost his virginity, fell in love, and met his heroes — experiences that are shared by William Miller, the baby-faced main character of the film."

    There's some amazing fun facts about the making of the film:

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/zgalehouse/28-fecking-cool-facts-about-almost-famous-7sat#.wb0Xx15GKy

    Most incredible to me is that Phillip Seymour Hoffman had the flu the entire time he was on the picture, four solid days. I'm even more knocked out by his genius as an actor that we were never aware of that.

    Another great accidental moment was when the girl tells the kid she wants to run off to Morocco with him on an adventure, and he pauses and says, "ask me again." This was the actor asking her to say the line again. I believe it was the editor's inspiration to use that in the actual film, as if it was just a random moment in a conversation... and it's one of the nicest scenes in the film. There's a lot to love in this film.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2015
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  15. conception

    conception Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    I don't remember disliking Rock Star but I don't remember much about it. You only have to see Almost Famous once to remember a lot of its best scenes. Of course, you'll want to watch it more than once, and you'll see something new in it every time.
     
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  16. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Yeah. He could be infuriating at times but he definitely was a very passionate writer . You could tell that he absolutely loved music. I agree about Hoffman's performance. One of his best roles
     
  17. joefont

    joefont Senior Member

    God, that was one embarrassingly horrible cringe-worthy movie!!! :eek:
     
  18. JETman

    JETman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Knowing
    :laugh: That's why I mentioned it. Much, much worse than "Rock Star", and much more egregious because it helped to fund a cult.
     
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  19. mdm08033

    mdm08033 Senior Member

  20. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    That picture reminds me of the bit where Tom Cruise performs to Pour Some Sugar on it. I cant watch it again for fear of waking up from a deep sleep and seeing that scene. What a misguided crappy movie with big stars in it. So, so very odd.

    Back to my happy place - Almost Famous. "What do you love about music? Everything"(Or is it "All of it").
     
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  21. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    I love THIS! It's a line I think of as pivotal to the movie. That it's an accident is wild.
     
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  22. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    Got it. Wasn't trying to nail you to the wall inappropriately and I appreciate your take on it. I guess I accept it's fictional as a story unlike say the biographical Ray or Coal Miner's Daughter or the fast and loose Buddy Holly Story. These movies I would claim sometimes have a tenuous connection to the real life. The Buddy Holly Story I would consider possibly the best example of a film that so loosely follows the facts of the life it turned into being tenuous as a good film.

    To my mind Cameron was wrapping a story around his remembrances. He WAS the source material. But I bet if he had made an autobiographical story it would be at least as good...and then we could play spot the musician behaving badly!
     
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  23. Complier

    Complier Senior Member

    Location:
    Harrisburg, PA
    When Hill was asked about his reaction to the film 2001 Rock Star, which was originally inspired by the real-life story of Tim "Ripper" Owens, a singer in a Judas Priest tribute band who was chosen to replace singer Rob Halford when he left the band, in an interview in PopMatters magazine Hill responded "Well, it was a true work of fiction, you know? When we heard about the production company were going to make a movie based, as far as we knew, about Ripper joining the band we offered our help. We said 'If there’s anything you want to know, talk to us at the time.' And certainly our communication was cut off and that was it and they went off on their own tangent." Hill added "I mean, I quite enjoyed the movie. [laughs] It was entertaining, you know?" Hill was quoted as saying “It had nothing to do with Rob Halford, Ripper Owens and Judas Priest, it's got nothing to do with that, whatsoever. It was fiction. Apart from the fact that 'Local Boy Makes Good'? That was the only true aspect of the movie." Hill was quick to add "I watched it once. I don’t have the urge to watch it again. [laughs]"[4]
     
  24. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    If he'd tried to make it autobiographical it would never have been made. None of the musicians would have authorized it! :laugh: But you could have had Elijah Wood playing Jimmy Page, Matthew Mcconaughey playing Rod Stewart...:laugh:
     
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  25. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I thought so, too -- it's an interesting, surprising, very innocent moment. Just amazing how sharp Cameron Crowe was to actually use this innocuous exchange as part of the scene.
     
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