Absolute Beginners | | Cast : | Patsy Kensit, Eddie O'Connell, David Bowie | | Director : | Julien Temple | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | April 18, 1986 | | DVD Released Date : | April 15, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 27, 2004 | | Summary | 4 stars for the music but 1 for the movie | Content
 | I've had the soundtrack to this movie for years, the double album no less. It is an absolute masterpiece. The movie is a bit of a let down after finally seeing it. If you think of this movie as a series of interconnecting vignettes it works much better as the plot is very convoluted and meandering.
The final riot seems out of place, but is very effective with our hero caught in the middle of a race riot, running from both the neo-nazis and the angry blacks, having no safe place to go. Jerry Dammer's music during the whole episode is outstanding.
In the end there is some substance with it's strong anti-capitalist message and even more style with the series of music videos, but empty nonetheless.
David Bowie is the class of the field here. Sleek, stylish and somehow menacing.
James Fox is understated and uncaring as the greedy heavy. Everyone else is a step below. Many over-act or just don't have the chops.
There are a number of pretty standard "characters". There's the hip beatnik type with the always-hip sunglasses, the good-natured gay "Oscar Wilde" type with the always-hip sunglasses and the ultra cool black trumpet player (not a sax?) with the always-hip sunglasses. There is also a street urchin type who's lust for money, it turns out, hides a darker side and a good natured, busty, and big boned lesbian pseudo mother type.
All businessmen & women are portrayed as corrupt bungling money-grubbing capitalists, who are intent on turning the hero's poor tenement neighborhood into an ultramodern "white" housing project.
The show business types are fake, toupee wearing liars. Come to think of it, in my limited experience that's not far from the truth.
There's even an old schoolmaster type who seems completely lost (surprise, surprise).
Many of the actors and artists have a problem keeping up with the words during their lip-syncing (though Bowie makes it look effortless). You'd think in a major motion picture there would be more of an effort to make that work.
Of course the real star of the movie is the music and the standouts are Gil Evans, the aforementioned Jerry Dammers and David Bowie. Honorable mentions go to Working Week (Rodrigo Bay doesn't get much airtime but is an exhilarating song) and Style Council reworking their "With Everything to Lose" as "Have You Ever Had It Blue" with added horns and Latin beats (though it seems out of place here). Slim Gaillard's "Selling Out" Clive Langer's "Napoli" Smiley Culture's "So What?" all work wonders with or without the movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 19, 2004 | | Summary | The first music video musical | Content
| Julien Temple had lots of experience making music video's before he made this film, and it shows. Basically, it is many music video's strung together to formulate a film, which is not such a good idea. The story needed much more dialogue and character definition. You'll watch the film and think it looks really neat, but you won't care for the characters. A few months after this film was released, Spike Lee had a hit with something called "Do the right thing". Spike's film is almost a copy of this, same plotline, same issues, but no music. Both films cover a hot summer heatwave where peoples tempers are on edge, race riots occur, etc etc. Why Spike got more attention, I'm not quite sure. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2002 | | Summary | Spectacular representation of 1950's British pop culture | Content
| "I remember that hot wonderful summer, when the teenage miracle reached full bloom, and everyone in England stopped what they were doing to stare at what had happened."--opening narration I also remember the number of times I tuned into MTV for David Bowie's video, which included clips from that movie. I finally saw it on TV and I was blown away. Colin is the main character and narrator of this story. It's the long hot summer of 1958. Rationing was over, and Britain was rebuilt, thanks to the Marshall Plan--now it was time for Britain to have fun with their own pop culture explosion. Colin has a lot of colourful friends. There's Wizard, pickpocket and entrepreneur out for a fast pound, Cool, the African trumpet player, the flamboyant Fabulous Hotlife, described as "our own Oscar Wilde," Dean Swift, "a modern jazz creation," and Big Jill, a hefty but friendly lesbian. And yes, there's the luscious Suzette, Colin's love interest, whose wanting to make it to the fashion big-time causes a rift between them. Suzette does make it big, attracting the attention of her boss, Henley of Mayfair (James Fox). She comes onstage in a daring glittering black mini, and does the hot jazz number "Va Va Voom" with some African dancers. Colin spends time taking snaps at the neon glitter and sights of the London nightlife, but doesn't want to go mainstream. "It's not that I've got anything against money. It's just what you have to do to get it." He eventually does pictures for Harry Charms (Lionel Blair), an oily talent searcher and agent with a penchant for young boys. It's actually gratifying when his protege Baby Boom shoves a microphone full force in his happy sacks. And I don't know if anyone noticed, but early in the movie, BB's the schoolboy who ends up picking up Charms' card that Colin throws away. It took me a while to finally realize. Kinks frontman Ray Davies plays Colin's father, a man who lives with his "pre-war photo albums and sad memories." Colin's half-brother Vern is a disgusting, barely human cretin. And his mother (Mandy Rice-Davies of Christine Keeler fame), disillusioned with life, has affairs with the numerous lodgers. The cutaway tenement for the "Quiet Life" number is a brilliant touch, as is the chaos going on in there. David Bowie has only a small role as Vendice Partners, that seller of dreams, but his musical number "That's Motivation," where he successfully tempts Colin into selling out has a wowser of a set including giant typewriters, a globes with an airplane attached at the equator, an Everest mockup marketing frozen vegetables, and a floor painted to look like a giant 78 record.
Speaking of musicians, Sade doesn't look out of place singing "Killer Blow." She's simply exquisite! Patsy Kensit is so much more ravishing here than she ever was before she went on to Lethal Weapon 2 and Angels And Insects. Eve Ferrett is wonderful as the bubbly Big Jill. Notable cameos include Steven Berkoff (Clockwork Orange, Beverly Hills Cop) as a Neo-Nazi fanatic presumably modelled after Enoch Powell, Colin Jeavons (House of Cards) as the fanatic's pamphleteer, Julian Firth (Brother Jerome in the Cadfael series) is the Misery Kid, dressed in the skeleton suit, and Robbie Coltrane (Krull, Harry Potter) as Mario the store owner. The hot swing jazz sets the pace of the movie, replicating a slice of England sadly long gone. A real blast of a movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 12, 2002 | | Summary | One of my Favorite Movies from the 80s | Content
| This is a very visually captivating film based on the fervent and poetic novel by Colin MacInnes. The film creates a surreal world where teenagers frolic in a frenzied London in the late 50's jazz based existence, paralleling outlandishly produced 80s music videos. I love it. Directed by Julien Temple we see corruption of youth by the inevitable commercialization of them by the parasitical establishment in this stylized parable of a generation in evolution. Patsy Kensit is pretty to look and with a name to match as Crepe Suzette. |
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