Eddie and the Cruisers (1983)

Any fans? I watched the film (and listened to the soundtrack) dozens of times a year as a child and teen. I just completed a revisit, along with the novel. I still love both.

 

One of the great Rock n Roll films of all time.
I even like Part II equally as much.
It has all the ingredients of a great and tragic story of Rock n Roll.
Eddie a Genius, The tune-smith writer, girlfriends, stardom, death, missing master tapes, reflection, re-emergence.....
Love it!

 

I saw it once on cable. It was alright. The part I liked best was the songwriter going to see the oldies version of the band with the original guitar player. Afterwards when the two get talking, the guitar version of Mike Love says “most people if they strike oil in the backyard get rich. We get ruined tomatoes”.

 

Season in Hell

 

“We’re not great, we’re just a bunch of guys from Jersey.”

 

It was a good movie. The soundtrack (IMO) didn't live up to the hype but I guess it never does in movies. Season in Hell was boring!

 

You'll never know just how I feel.

 

I watched that movie so may times on cable TV back in the day. I always liked it.

 

I’ve always liked Eddie & The Cruisers, even the sequel. It has attained a bit of a “Cult Film” status. My wife and I tend to have it on as background whenever either one pops up. I like the basic storyline in II, but there sure are a few awkward edits and takes that could have used another attempt. I think part of the reason I like II is some of the scenery (the scene in the snow covered canyon with flowing stream & the Sax in particular) is very nice.
Been tempted to pick up One of the various Soundtracks a Couple of times, but never have.

 

The scene early in the film when the Tom Beringer character comes home to find his apartment ransacked was filmed at a very creepy old motel which was about a mile from my home in South Jersey. The Black Horse Motel..now an empty lot.

 

I don't know if they shot it there, but the scenes in Tony Mart's were absolutely accurate.

 

The movie really was ahead of its time. How many films were accurately depicting the rise-and-fall of a rock band in 1983, with all the plot elements that might be considered cliché today? The personality conflicts, the singer's sudden obsession with weird poetry, the aborted 2nd album, the one guy who died from an overdose, the one guy who ends up playing in his own tribute band, etc. Were tribute bands even a thing in 1983?

 

I remember hearing radio advertisements for a Doors tribute band “Riders on the Storm” in the late 1970s.

 

The one thing that always cracked me up about the sequel is that they used the same young actor (he was 30) playing a guy who was supposed to be ~45 years old. You'd think they would have caked on some extra makeup or something!

 

Several really good songs on the soundtrack from the band being in Springsteen mode (not quite right for the 60s, but close). Season In Hell almost gets there, but they probably should have gone to a different/better/outside writer to get something more radical. That part of the story was clearly aping Brian Wilson/Smile so they needed some thing wilder.

Still, as a pastiche of several aspects of the "young guys try to make a go of a band" thing, it was pretty entertaining.

The scene in rehearsal where they finally "get" On the Dark Side is nicely done. It was later rehashed almost exactly in Oliver Stone's Doors movie for Light My Fire.

 

Damn,I never knew that. That was a creepy place.

 

Watched over and over as a kid.

 

I remember seeing the movie at the theater when it came out. I really enjoyed it and have seen it a number of times since. I even bought the soundtrack back in the day.

 

It's funny how many people think Springsteen sang those songs. The music definitely sounds like his, but the vocals sound much more like Southside Johnny (who was a technical advisor on the film), even though it's John Cafferty.

 

Eddie and the Cruisers II is one of my guilty pleasures. The music is really good, and it's
fascinating when eventually some of the characters realize who he really is, especially the
record label people.
At any rate, this song really sounds great, and would have been a hit back in the sixties..

 

I've always loved this movie. I just discovered similarities to On the Darkside with Springsteen's The Preacher's Daughter. Probably late to that ballgame, but when listening to Preacher's Daughter for the first time, the similarity jumped out to me.

 

An OK rainy Sunday afternoon kind of movie, although the anachronistic music is a distraction to this rock geek and the borderline Scooby Doo action near the end should’ve got rewritten before filming.

 

Scrappy Jersey band trying to make it. What’s not to like? It’s a good rock n roll flick and I’m a fan.

Words and Music

 

I love it. It makes me very nostalgic, both for the time it's set in that I didn't experience and the time of its release that I did. It's kind of corny and hokey but it really captures...something.

 

Also, Helen Schneider.