Set amid the neon tawdriness of Hamburg and the working-class grime of Liverpool, BACKBEAT is about two friends, their band, and the woman who comes between them. The story is a cliche, but the band is the Beatles, and the friends are John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe--the real "fifth
Beatle" who left the group before they became famous and then died of a brain hemorrhage in 1962.
We first meet Lennon (Ian Hart) and his longtime friend and bandmate Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) in a tough Liverpool nightclub, then follow them to Hamburg, where--with Paul (Gary Bakewell), George (Chris O'Neill), and drummer Pete Best (Scot Williams)--they play sleazy clubs and live the low
life. Stu falls for Astrid Kirchherr (Sheryl Lee), a German art student and world-class bohemian, and the stage is set for a clash between love and friendship, high continental bohemianism and raucous pop culture.
Those expecting an "early days of the Beatles" saga may be disappointed by BACKBEAT, but those willing to entertain the story of Stu Sutcliffe and his famous friends should enjoy it--though it evokes a time and place better than it establishes characters. Noted producer Don Was (of Was Not Was)
assembled a group of indie/grunge music stars, including Thurston Moore, Mike Mills, and Dave Pirner (of Sonic Youth, R.E.M., and Soul Asylum, respectively) as the off-camera band (doing contemporary rock and roll covers, not Beatles songs), and first-time director Iain Softley makes the film more
visually distinctive than most music bios. leave a comment
