The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights (2009), Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010), No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005), The Concert for Bangladesh (1972), U2 3D (2007), The T.A.M.I. Show (1964), The Secret Policeman's Ball (1979), The Last Waltz (1978) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Rock 'n' Roll movies.
Storyline: This documentary was made three years after Jimi Hendrix's untimely death. At the time it was an example of how a visual biography should be done, but some of the information in it needs revising in the light of new information uncovered over the years. The film contains concert footage spanning the Marquee in 1967 to his last UK performance at the third Isle of Wight festival in 1970; along the way we see classic performances at Monterey (1967), Woodstock (1969), Fillmore East (1969/70), and Berkeley (1970). A double album was released to tie-in with the film, containing the complete performances in the film, along with interviews with people in the film (not necessarily the same interviews). The film is worth seeing for Jimi's performances, and to hear what his contemporaries have to say about him (Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, Lou Reed, Mick Jagger, Pete Townsend, and others).—Martin <martin.o_brien@which.net>
Plot Keywords: musician, guitarist, eric clapton, relative, engaging, fascinating, concert stage ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A film shot over during a two-night performance by Neil Young at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.
Plot Keywords: musician, airy, creative, engaging, positive, raw, uplifting ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Hedwig, born male as Hansel in East Berlin, fell in love with an American G.I. and underwent a Gender Reassignment Surgery in order to marry him and flee to the West. Unfortunately, nothing worked out quite as it was supposed to - years later, Hedwig is leading her rock band on a tour of the U.S., telling her life story through a series of concerts at Bilgewater Inn seafood restaurants. Her tour dates coincide with those of arena-rock star Tommy Gnosis, a wide-eyed boy who once loved Hedwig - but then left with all her songs.
Plot Keywords: transsexual, rocker, musician, band member, manager, husband, creative ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Concert footage and offstage documentary of singer Elvis Presley.
Plot Keywords: musician, guitarist, fan, rousing, emotional, confident, america ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: This movie is an ensemble comedy in which the romance takes place between the young people of the '60s and pop music. It's about a band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that wanted classical music, and nothing else, on the airwaves. The Count, a big, brash, American god of the airwaves; Quentin, the boss of Radio Rock - a pirate radio station in the middle of the North Sea that's populated by an eclectic crew of rock and roll DJs; Gavin, the greatest DJ in Britain who has just returned from his drug tour of America to reclaim his rightful position; Dave, an ironic, intelligent and cruelly funny co-broadcaster; and a fearsome British government official out for blood against the drug takers and lawbreakers of a once-great nation.
Plot Keywords: radio dj, sweetheart, hysterical, hedonistic, inspiring, melodramatic, amusing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Evil record tycoon Swan has sold his soul to the devil for eternal youth and success - 20 years ago. Swan's current scheme is to steal the music from composer Winslow Leach to celebrate the opening of his rock palace, The Paradise. While trying to stop Swan, Leach was framed and convicted for drug dealing, and becomes the victim of a freak accident that leaves him horribly disfigured. He takes refuge in the cavernous Paradise, hiding his mangled face beneath an eerie mask and planning gruesome vengeance upon Swan - and everyone else who has hurt him. However, Leach signs a contract with Swan to complete his rock opera based on the legend of Faust for an aspiring singer - Phoenix.
Plot Keywords: songwriter, record producer, singer, assistant, band leader, shocking, outlandish ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A look at the life and work of guitarist Eric Clapton, told by those who have known him best, including BB King, Jimi Hendrix, and George Harrison.
Plot Keywords: eric clapton, musician, music executive, rock star, artist, emotional, inspiring ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: War veteran Rick Dadier is one of three new teachers hired at North Manual High School, an inner city boys school. This is his first teaching assignment, which he needs to support himself and his insecure pregnant wife, Anne. Despite Principle Warnecke's assertions to the contrary, Dadier quickly learns that the rumors of student discipline problems at the school are indeed true. The established teachers at the school try to counsel the newcomers, all inexperienced in such situations, as how best to handle the rowdy students. Regardless, Dadier tries to exert discipline in his class, which provokes a violent response. Dadier believes the student leaders against him are Artie West, but more specifically Gregory Miller, who he thinks uses the fact of being black as a means of racial provocation. Dadier has to decide either to leave and teach at a "real" school, or stay and figure out how to get through to his students. If he decides to stay, he has to figure out who the real disruptive influences are, especially as they have resorted to attacks of a personal nature that affect especially Anne.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: teacher, student, principal, wife, gritty, fiery, new york city ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: "American Pop" is the animated story of a very talented and troubled family starting with 19th century Russia and moving through several generations of musicians. The film covers American popular music from the pre-jazz age through rhythm and blues, 1950s rock 'n' roll, drug-laden psychedelia, and punk rock, finally ending with the onset of New Wave in the early 1980s.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: immigrant, vaudevillian, jazz musician, songwriter, rock star, stripper, spectacular ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: London, 1965: Like many other youths, Jimmy hates the philistine life, especially his parents and his job in a company's mailing division. Only when he's together with his friends, a 'Mod' clique, cruising London on his motor-scooter and hearing music such as that of 'The Who' and 'The High Numbers', does he feel free and accepted. However, it's a flight into an illusionary world.
Plot Keywords: young man, gang member, pretty woman, friend, gang leader, brooding, engaging ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Documentary about rock star Joan Jett.
Plot Keywords: singer, rock star, guitarist, music producer, woman, musician, emotional ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: SUZI Q is the definitive, unexpurgated story of American rock singer-songwriter -bass player- author- actor Suzi Quatro, who helped redefine the role of women in rock 'n' roll when she broke out into the mainstream 1973; has sold more than 50 million records worldwide; is still on the road and recording 55 years after she first started playing professionally. The film includes testimony from a host of rock luminaries, including Alice Cooper, Joan Jett, Deborah Harry, Cherie Currie, KT Tunstall, Tina Weymouth and Suzi's musical family; and follows Quatro as she returns to her hometown, Detroit.
Plot Keywords: alice cooper, speaker, rock star, interviewee, interviewer, airy, amusing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: FREE TO ROCK is a 60 minute documentary film directed by 4 time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Ten years in the making, the film explores the soft power of Rock & Roll to affect social change behind the Iron Curtain between the years 1955 and 1991, and how it contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and to ending the Cold War. Rock & Roll sounded the "chimes of freedom" in the hearts and minds of Iron Curtain youth. Inspiring its youth to demand freedom to listen, play and record rock music, to enjoy basic human rights and freedom from oppressive communist rule. The story follows the key political, musical and activist players in this real-life drama as the KGB cracked down hard with arrests, beatings, death threats and imprisonment. Thousands of underground rock bands with millions of passionate supporters inspire and fuel independence movements that eventually cause the Soviet communist system to implode without blood shed or civil war. Interviews and performance subjects include: Presidents Carter, Gorbachev and Vike-Freiberga, NATO Deputy Secretary General Vershbow, KGB General Kalugin, diplomats, historians and journalists, along with Elvis Presley, Beatles, Billy Joel, Metallica, Scorpions, Beach Boys, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the WALL in Berlin concert; plus the Iron Curtain rockers who braved the long struggle with the Kremlin and KGB. The film is produced in collaboration with the Grammy Museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Stas Namin Center of Moscow, with support from the U.S. Government's National Endowment of the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, both US Government arts agencies.
Plot Keywords: rocker, activist, political activist, musician, engaging, fascinating, cold war ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Songwriter Stephin Merritt is known as "the Cole Porter of his generation" for his memorable melodies, lovelorn lyrics and wry musical stylings. Shot over a period of 10 years, "Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields" explores his friendship with his longtime bandmate and manager Claudia Gonson. Through his recording and songwriting process, the film traces a 20-year career that has yielded one of the most engaging bodies of work in the contemporary American songbook.—Kerthy Fix, co-director
Plot Keywords: musician, singer-songwriter, manager, fan, band member, creative, engaging ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The musical career of rock and roll pioneer Buddy Holly is chronicled, from the days when "Peggy Sue" was "Cindy Lou", a song about his first girlfriend, to the meteoric run of "That'll Be the Day" up the charts, to his marriage, breakup with the Crickets, reunion with the Crickets, and untimely death.—Jason A. Cormier <wildrose@mindspring.com>
Plot Keywords: performer, band member, wife, rock star, engaging, frenetic, rousing ...
Movie Details Click Here!