I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago at the advice of a friend of mine who whole heartily recommended it. We both grew up in the 70's and am quite familiar w/ the 70's rock bands of varying stripes primarily during the later half of the decade but also the bands and music that came along early in the decade.
It's unfortunate that I was not old enough to directly experience the goings on at the time Almost Famous took place (1973), I was, in the 3rd grade at that time however. My memories, kind of like Cameron's, is of an innocence, albait of a much younger kind of innocence than his that comes from being a youngish child and experiencing things for the first time so my recollection of that time is a little different than his. Adolescence is a powerful time for children/pre teens in that the emotions can run rampant, take things out of proportion, and distort reality due to a simple lack of life experiences gained as one grows older. And that is what made this movie work, that wide eyed, yet cautious innocence that William posessed. I feel that is one of the movie's biggest strengths.
I found the characters, at least the main characters such as Francis McDormond (the mother), Zooey Deschanel (William's older sister), Patrick Fugit (William) to be specific, very well thought out and not overly shallow as many characters are.
The movie is about William writing for Rolling Stone for an up and coming band on tour, called Stillwater. the movie has us watching William try with all his might to get the interviews he needs and all the while learning something about himself, the life of a rock and roller and discovering love through Penny Lane. Now, Penny Lane is an interesting character herself. She always seemed to never be in the reality, always in a make believe/fantasy world. I got the sense that she was trying to not admit to the realities of life and lived her life through the glories of a groupie, even if she never admitted to being one.
I found some of the scenes, especially the scene in the bus when the group, one by one began singing the lyrics to Tiny Dancer-a little syrupy in my opinion.
But overall, I find Almost Famous well acted, and reasonably accurate-even if from the eyes of a 15 year old kid turned adult.
The soundtrack was excellent. Nancy Wilson of Heart did an incredible job of picking period accurate music, such as Tommy by the Who, Elton John etc. My favorate scene in the whole movie was when William discovers his sister's rock albums, on vinyl and pulls out Tommy, an original Decca pressing, places it on the record player and then watching the label spin and being mesmerized by the music that came forth (and I can definately relate to that).
All in all, a very good movie and reasonably accurate, not necessarily nostalgic look at the rock scene of the early 70's.
As stated earlier, I was a child in 1973 and therefore my recollection of the music and the times were a bit hazy and quite innocent and naive (what do you expect from a 3rd grader?). But to this day, I have some Aerosmith, Lynard Skynard, the Doobie Brothers, Carol King, Joni Mitchell and later on Silver Convention, Chicago, Average White Band, the Cars and of course Fleetwood Mac. The 70's actually was a good decade musically speaking and would have loved to experience, first hand, the early part of the decade as a young adult.
It's unfortunate that I was not old enough to directly experience the goings on at the time Almost Famous took place (1973), I was, in the 3rd grade at that time however. My memories, kind of like Cameron's, is of an innocence, albait of a much younger kind of innocence than his that comes from being a youngish child and experiencing things for the first time so my recollection of that time is a little different than his. Adolescence is a powerful time for children/pre teens in that the emotions can run rampant, take things out of proportion, and distort reality due to a simple lack of life experiences gained as one grows older. And that is what made this movie work, that wide eyed, yet cautious innocence that William posessed. I feel that is one of the movie's biggest strengths.
I found the characters, at least the main characters such as Francis McDormond (the mother), Zooey Deschanel (William's older sister), Patrick Fugit (William) to be specific, very well thought out and not overly shallow as many characters are.
The movie is about William writing for Rolling Stone for an up and coming band on tour, called Stillwater. the movie has us watching William try with all his might to get the interviews he needs and all the while learning something about himself, the life of a rock and roller and discovering love through Penny Lane. Now, Penny Lane is an interesting character herself. She always seemed to never be in the reality, always in a make believe/fantasy world. I got the sense that she was trying to not admit to the realities of life and lived her life through the glories of a groupie, even if she never admitted to being one.
I found some of the scenes, especially the scene in the bus when the group, one by one began singing the lyrics to Tiny Dancer-a little syrupy in my opinion.
But overall, I find Almost Famous well acted, and reasonably accurate-even if from the eyes of a 15 year old kid turned adult.
The soundtrack was excellent. Nancy Wilson of Heart did an incredible job of picking period accurate music, such as Tommy by the Who, Elton John etc. My favorate scene in the whole movie was when William discovers his sister's rock albums, on vinyl and pulls out Tommy, an original Decca pressing, places it on the record player and then watching the label spin and being mesmerized by the music that came forth (and I can definately relate to that).
All in all, a very good movie and reasonably accurate, not necessarily nostalgic look at the rock scene of the early 70's.
As stated earlier, I was a child in 1973 and therefore my recollection of the music and the times were a bit hazy and quite innocent and naive (what do you expect from a 3rd grader?). But to this day, I have some Aerosmith, Lynard Skynard, the Doobie Brothers, Carol King, Joni Mitchell and later on Silver Convention, Chicago, Average White Band, the Cars and of course Fleetwood Mac. The 70's actually was a good decade musically speaking and would have loved to experience, first hand, the early part of the decade as a young adult.
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