Rocking the Silver Screen

I love rock n’ roll – Joan Jett

Who doesn’t? From the sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, we’ve been infatuated with rock stars that has carried over into cinema ever since sound was introduced. From the swinging hips of Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock to Universal Home Entertainment’s September 28th release of Get Him to the Greek on Blu-ray and DVD, rock stars and our fascination with them, either real or fiction, has been a long-standing sub-genre in film. Whether for comedic or dramatic purposes, we enjoy someone Rocking the Silver Screen.

Rocking Comedy

Aldous Snow has just released a new track and music video that flopped, leaving him in a state of depression through a custody battle, drugs, and alcohol. Aided by Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, and Sean Comb, Get Him to the Greek also has a CD release from the fake rocker, which is all for the joke of Aldous Snow. This is nothing new, as This is Spinal Tap crafted the modern rocker comedy, with its hilarious look at the music industry and the bands within it. They also released an album, Break Like the Wind as the faux band. The same can be said for Eddie and the Cruisers, a film that finds itself on the comedy racks at retails, that released a CD for the film’s soundtrack. After finding a little success after its theatrical release, the film was released on HBO, which there it found new life, and a number one single in 1985.

Taking Woodstock mixes comedy in with its fictional history of one of the greatest rock shows ever. That Thing You Do! takes rock n’ roll back to the Doo-Wop days of its origin for a comedy about a one-hit wonder band. Josie and the Pussycats successfully jumped mediums from animation to a live-action film for a laugh, and something like From Justin to Kelly and Spice World offer a sad, different type of laugh.

Rocking Drama

Perhaps inspired by real-life rockers who have seen their share of ups and downs, Hollywood has also created fictional rockers with drama. Crazy Heart is the most notable, since it won Jeff Bridges an Academy Award, but films like Once, Dreamgirls, The Jazz Singer, Rock Star, Bandslam, Almost Famous, and 8 Mile have rockers facing all sorts of drama in love, the musical industry, and drugs. The success of these films are determined if we have not had enough of the real-life issues as seen on MTV or VH1 of rock stars.

Digging deeper for dramatic suspense, Hollywood has adapted real-life stories into powerhouse morality tales. The Runaways, The Doors, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Control, Ray, Walk the Line, Great Balls of Fire!, Sid and Nancy, it’s a pick-your-poison of woeful tales of drugs, drama, and death. But with these dramatic films, we can see our own personal love affair with rock n’ roll, either the music or the people involved, because somehow, some way rock n’ roll – the sex, drugs, and music – are totally American. We might want to occasionally laugh about it all, as seen in the above section, but we are more fascinated with the rise and fall. This is the genre that will always thrive.

Rocking Others

But getting back to the fun of rock n’ roll, animation, horror, and even religion has had rock movies in their respective genres. American Pop is an animated story of four generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family of musicians whose careers parallel the history of American popular music. A crazier example of this can be seen in the animated cult title Rock & Rule, a film that features plenty of Iggy Pop. Horror has loved rockers as seen in Queen of the Damned, a vampire rocker that sings about the undead life that awakens an ancient Queen. The film has a Goth soundtrack written by KoRn’s Jonathan Davis, with songs sung by Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, and Godhead. Things get funky with Black Roses, Trick or Treat, Rock n’ Roll Nightmare, and Shock ‘em Dead that deliver rocks stars amongst the schlock.

How can we forget about Jesus Christ Superstar about the Messiah of Rock n’ Roll and Velvet Goldmine? We can’t, and as long as we love rock stars, so will Hollywood.