The music is loud and raw, but nevertheless evokes the excitement it generated.
Comment
01/26/06
Backbeat (1994)
74 %
Reviews Counted: 35 Fresh: 26 Rotten:9 Average Rating: 6.1/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 20 mins
Synopsis: A reconstruction of the legendary British rock group's early days, before the advent of Beatlemania and world-wide fame. The story focuses on the turbulent and exciting period that the Beatles' spent in Hamburg, Germany in 1960-62, when they played in a series of rough-and-tumble dives... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Sheryl Lee, Stephen Dorff, Ian Hart
Director: Iain Softley
Screenwriter: Iain Softley, Michael Thomas, Stephen Ward
Producer: Finola Dwyer, Stephen Woolley
Screenwriter: Iain Softley, Michael Thomas, Stephen Ward
Producer: Finola Dwyer, Stephen Woolley
Reviews
Top Critic
Iain 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
Top Critic Top Critic
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
First-time director Iain Softley makes the film more visually distinctive than most music bios.
09/10/07
Top Critic
The 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 Critic
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
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
The 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
points to the tragic irony of immortality being achieved through early death
08/17/05
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 Critic
An engaging look at fifth Beatle Stuart Sutclife and his relationship with John Lennon.
12/30/02
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