Eddie and the Cruisers

source: Eddie and the Cruisers

I am not sure if the below would count as a spoiler, but I am raising the spoiler alert in any case :) As another reviewer wrote, reading the book is probably a much better idea to get the story. While some of the acting is OK, the very premise of this piece, a story about a late 50s or early 60s band is completely destroyed in this implementation. The music alone is so typically 80s, it is simply impossible to remotely imagine it as the band's music that was so ahead 20 years earlier. There were a lot of very poor junk movies that were made in the 80s that had a very odd and twisted sense of reality and history, and this is sadly amongst them. Nothing is right in the settings or sound track, so the whole thing is a complete failure. Sorry, but this one is not worth anybody's time.

It's a shame that such an intriguing idea for a film was squandered like this. The direction and acting is weak, but what truly destroys the film is the music; the Cruisers' early music is annoying AOR-type filler posing as 1950's bubblegum, and the "Season in Hell" music, which should be strange and hypnotic, is just dull. We're also robbed of the fun of seeing songs created through rehearsals; it's pretty clear the director has never been to a band rehearsal, as the songs sound as polished and final the first time they play them as in the final recordings. I'd love to see this movie remade by some competent people. In the right hands, it could be the best rock-and-roll movie ever. One last aside: everyone mentions Eddie's resemblance to Jim Morrison, which is clearly there, but it seems obvious that the Season in Hell stuff is also based on Brian Wilson's difficulties which the never-released Beach Boys' "Smile" album. Eddie is even named "Wilson".

I recently watched this movie for the second time, even though I remembered being disappointed with it the first time, which was at least ten years ago. Why did I watch it again? The movie has a quasi-cult status, at least in my mind, which led me to conclude (erroneously) that it had better-than-average value. That and I didn't remember much of it specifically from the first time around. I did notice this time that the script was developed from a novel, which makes me wonder if the book covered in detail some of the things that just pop up in the movie for no apparent reason. For example, Wendell the sax player overdosed on drugs. But until that point we, the viewers, hadn't a clue that anyone in the band was doing drugs of any kind. Secondly, why did Wendell's death affect Eddie so deeply? Evidently, the brooding second album "Season in Hell" was informed primarily by Wendell's death, but there's no emotional connection between Eddie and Wendell that I can see. I'm guessing it was in the book but the filmmakers did a poor job of explaining it. Or maybe decided not to explain it at all. Secondly, it doesn't make sense at the end for Frank and Joann to hand over the "Season in Hell" tapes to Doc. He's already proven himself to be a duplicitous fellow. Yet they let him drive off with the tapes that could make them all millionaires. Unbelievable. This movie could have been much better than it is.

As a nostalgia flick, this film does not work, at all. For one thing, Michael Pare is too old, and too intense, to be convincing as a rock star of the early 60s. Pare lacks the innocence and idealism that we would expect for a singer from that period. Second, in this film, there's not nearly enough cultural contrast between the two eras. And third, the film's original music does not, in any way, sound like it came from the early 60s. It sounds like it came from the early 80s. I can envision Bruce Springsteen singing those songs, but not Rick Nelson or Pat Boone. In short, "Eddie And The Cruisers" lacks credibility as a cinematic time machine. The film's mystery element fares better. The plot revolves around the mysterious 1964 death of rock singer Eddie Wilson, played by Pare. Some eighteen years later, a reporter named Maggie (Ellen Barkin) wants to find out what really happened to Wilson. She talks with Frank (Tom Berenger), a Cruisers band member, who in turn reacquaints himself with other members of the now defunct band. Through all of this, there is considerable puzzlement over recording tapes that vanished the day after Eddie presumably died. The plot is somewhat contrived, and there are some really hokey plot elements, like the physical condition of reel-to-reel tapes, after all those years. The film's dialogue, acting, and cinematography are acceptable, if unremarkable. As an oldie but goody, "Eddie And The Cruisers" is not real good, but the story is mildly interesting, despite a mediocre script. The underlying premise had, and still has, lots of potential. But the film's execution, particularly as it relates to nostalgia, is poor, mostly as a result of bad casting, and a lack of understanding of early 60's rock and roll music.

I was 15 when this movie was released, and I LOVED IT. Eddie and the Cruisers is one of those AWESOME movies. I remember partying to it and watching at least 100+ times. It is a movie the seems to describe a lot of what was going on in the 80's even though it was supposed to be set in the 60's. Eddie was a music "ICON" for us, John John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band were awesome, and the music still lives on today. As a child of the "80's" a Gen."X" child, we are called the Lost Generation and Eddie was also lost,and showed how a lot of us felt, just disappear... Again, if you haven't seen this movie, you really NEED to. It is truly a Classic 80's movie. Also, watch garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores. You can sometimes find the Soundtrack which is also awesome. My Ex-husband recently found it in a box a friend gave him, and the first time he listened to "The Dark Side" it took him back again..

This post is not to review or rate "Eddie", but to explain the background of the plot for other posters who seem confused on this. "Eddie" was based on the 1980 book, same name, by Paul F. Kluge (avail used Amazon). The basis of the plot is simple: If the lead singer in a #1 rock group dies, how are the lives of others in the group altered? Do they try to keep it going, or let go and move on? Do they ever try to "go back"? Et cetera. Mr. Kluge's inspiration for this was the death of Buddy Holly in 1959. He long wondered what happened to the members of the Crickets after that day, and turned his curiosity into this book. All this per a personal conversation I had with Mr. Kluge in 1996. At that time, he was a professor at a small Ohio college.

The Michael Pare films are flawed. The John Cafferty music is too much Springsteen and not enough 50's. The sequel was a bad joke. None of this matters. "Eddie and the Cruisers" by P.F. Kluge is probably the best novel ever written about rock'n'roll, and even though it lost a lot in translation to the big screen, the magic is still there. If you like the movie, you simply owe it to yourself to read the book. Then you'll really understand. One creepy mystery: aside from a couple of minor TV appearances many years later, Helen Schneider ("Joanne Carlino") never made another film after this one. Whatever happened to her? Did she also "pull a Rimbaud"?

What can I say? I'm really picky when it comes to musical movies, and this one really sucked. The music itself wasn't so bad, but plot was just annoying. The movie simply circulated around one man's memory of a friend and a band. I didn't understand the point of the film. Some did enjoy it, surprisingly enough. Watch if you care about personal struggles over dumb issues. 1/10

Michael Paré delivers his best performance as Eddie Wilson, a talented young singer who strives to achieve the perfect original sound with lyrics that reach deep within the soul … forever. Eddie draws the necessary ingredients required to create his vision through Frank Ridgeway, a young man with an Ivy League education who has a passion for poetry. Powered by a sensational Rock n Roll soundtrack, Eddie and the Cruisers takes you on a journey through a glimpse of the other band members lives more than twenty years after. Their music is in the charts again, and the Cruisers are bigger and hotter than ever. But the tragic disappearance of Eddie in 1964 still haunts their minds and their lives, but now they must deal with the creation of a legend more thant wenty years after they were the hottest sound in town. Eddie and the Cruisers is well directed with solid performances by the cast. But it is the intense image created by Michael Paré's performance, that makes you believe in the legend.