Briare
11-26-2008, 06:56 PM
American Hot Wax gets us up close and personal with the pioneer disk jockey Alan Freed who helped introduce America to rock n' roll. The film follows the life of Freed for one week before he was arrested on charges of payola in the late 50's. The allegations and the subsequent conviction would effectively destroy his career and he would die a penniless pauper in 1965. He drank himself into oblivion.
Tim McIntire is the man who depicts Freed for the screen. There are moments of reflection, one such scene where Freed contemplates the distance between he and his aging father. The scene before has Freed in a similar state of mind after being reminded of the anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly. McIntire, a lifelong character actor was finally given his own big break here, but show business is fickle and his career stalled at the gates as the picture was a sensational failure in its day and to this day has never seen release on VHS or DVD.
The events depicted in the film can be called a composite of the last happy moments of Freed's life. The eternal MC at any fantasy rock concert, Freed is depicted as not only a promoter of the music but as dedicated a fan as any. The bond he has with rocks' stars and its fans is palpable; this is a biography that skirts around a tepid love story, has no real villain and lives just to provide a photograph of a time and place and of one of the men who helped to bring some of rock musics' most famous trend setters to radio.
The way the film is strung together is not always a successful one. The image of a time, and a place and the birth of a movement of music that has continued to evolve to this day sometimes seems too large for Freed. The film could be called out for having a less than concrete narrative. Especially those small side glances to kids who love the new sound, and hopefuls trying for their big break. Or maybe the film really is just about the birth of rock n' roll. Alan Freed shared rock music with the nation, and the nation in turn wanted to share their music with Alan Freed. The drama of payola never overshadows the picture, nor does his alchohol abuse. They're both there, but the excitement of the scene and the time puts these things into the foreground. As they most certainly would've been in the mind of Freed.
Nearly 1/3 of the film is appropriately, a concert. Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and others perform a string of 1950's R&B hits and sweet rock n' roll melodies. There is nothing past this point. No payola trial, no love unclaimed, no dying parent to whose side Freed must rush before death. Only a loaded concert hall, stuffed full of screaming kids and cops and the gleeful jockey, in love with his music hollering an immortal set of words
"You can stop me but you're never gonna stop rock n' roll"
Tim McIntire is the man who depicts Freed for the screen. There are moments of reflection, one such scene where Freed contemplates the distance between he and his aging father. The scene before has Freed in a similar state of mind after being reminded of the anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly. McIntire, a lifelong character actor was finally given his own big break here, but show business is fickle and his career stalled at the gates as the picture was a sensational failure in its day and to this day has never seen release on VHS or DVD.
The events depicted in the film can be called a composite of the last happy moments of Freed's life. The eternal MC at any fantasy rock concert, Freed is depicted as not only a promoter of the music but as dedicated a fan as any. The bond he has with rocks' stars and its fans is palpable; this is a biography that skirts around a tepid love story, has no real villain and lives just to provide a photograph of a time and place and of one of the men who helped to bring some of rock musics' most famous trend setters to radio.
The way the film is strung together is not always a successful one. The image of a time, and a place and the birth of a movement of music that has continued to evolve to this day sometimes seems too large for Freed. The film could be called out for having a less than concrete narrative. Especially those small side glances to kids who love the new sound, and hopefuls trying for their big break. Or maybe the film really is just about the birth of rock n' roll. Alan Freed shared rock music with the nation, and the nation in turn wanted to share their music with Alan Freed. The drama of payola never overshadows the picture, nor does his alchohol abuse. They're both there, but the excitement of the scene and the time puts these things into the foreground. As they most certainly would've been in the mind of Freed.
Nearly 1/3 of the film is appropriately, a concert. Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and others perform a string of 1950's R&B hits and sweet rock n' roll melodies. There is nothing past this point. No payola trial, no love unclaimed, no dying parent to whose side Freed must rush before death. Only a loaded concert hall, stuffed full of screaming kids and cops and the gleeful jockey, in love with his music hollering an immortal set of words
"You can stop me but you're never gonna stop rock n' roll"