Movie Review: "The Wrecking Crew"

"The Wrecking Crew": A-.  There are two key sound bites, both from the lips of the "Eternal Teen Ager," Dick Clark, which get to the crux of the fascinating documentary, The Wrecking Crew.  Clark's first quote is, "I had no idea that people didn't play [on] their own records until the Monkees came along."  He just assumed that the music artists whose songs were getting radio air time were playing their own music.

As you well know, the British Invasion reached US airwaves in very early 1964.  By the time the Monkees' television comedy series was broadcast in September 1966, the Brits were well established stars on both sides of the pond, and the Monkees, a band formed in LA after four hundred-plus applicants auditioned, were trying to catch the same wave of popularity.  Their television show was an undisguised, fairly successful attempt to capture the same type of madcap zaniness which the Beatles had brought to the big screen in 1964 with A Hard Days' Night.  The Monkees' first two single records, Last Train To Clarksville and I'm A Believer, both hit # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart concurrently with their show in the last half of '66.  Was this America's answer to England?  It didn't quite work out that way.

Even the Monkees' most ardent fans eventually realized that, except for Davy Jones' lead singing, the music the band was putting out was not a result of the foursome's musicianship.  They were ad-libbers and, at least to a degree, lip synchers.  Holy Milli Vanilli!  The Monkees might be called a "faux band"; comedic actors, sure, but not a real band whose members played their own instruments like their British competition.  It's hard to blame the fans for being fooled; they were in good company, as revealed by Dick Clark's above-referenced quote.  After all, no one knew the music scene like Clark, who for thirty-three years produced and hosted the longest running music performance television shows of all time, American Bandstand.

All of this begs the question: If not the Monkees themselves, who, then, was playing on the Monkees' records?  The answer is the title of the film reviewed in this post: The Wrecking Crew.  The Wrecking Crew was a dynamic group of approximately twenty LA session musicians who supplied the music to a number of Top 40 hits, yet rarely getting credit on the liner notes or record labels.

Even if the listening public had correctly pegged the Monkees early on for being a "make believe" band, who would have ever guessed that bands such as the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Gary Lewis & The Playboys and the Association, all mega stars on Top 40 radio, were outsourcing their work to the Wrecking Crew?  The Beach Boys (along with the Four Seasons) were the biggest American pop band of the sixties.  Their lineup was comprised of the three Wilson brothers (Brian, Carl and Dennis), a cousin (Mike Love) and a close friend (Al Jardine).  But for all intents and purposes, Brian Wilson was the Beach Boys, and he was the quintessential perfectionist.  He knew the exact sound he desired for the music he wrote, and the best way to achieve it in the studio was to use not the guys in his band but, instead, the greatest musicians in the business, i.e., the Wrecking Crew.  Likewise, Columbia Records, the Byrds' label, insisted that the Wrecking Crew be used for that group's first album, Mr. Tambourine Man, not only to take advantage of the Crew's superior musicianship, but also to expedite the production of the product in terms of requiring less time in the expensive recording studio.  As for The Playboys, their leader, Gary Lewis, pretty much throws his fellow band members under the bus while comparing their inferior talent to that of the Crew.  (Not surprisingly, Lewis does not mention his own merits as the drummer in the band.)  The film portrays the Association as a bunch of choir boys wearing silly costumes, without a lick of talent as musicians.

The second of Dick Clark's illuminating quotes (paraphrased) was, "The record labels and producers were afraid to let the public know that most of the American songs they were listening to and buying featured the exact same musicians" (referring, of course, to the Wrecking Crew).  In effect, there was a conspiracy to keep the fans in the dark regarding the true source of what they heard on the radio.  The Righteous Brothers, Sonny & Cher, the Fifth Dimension, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, the Ronettes, Simon & Garfunkle, Captain & Tenille, Ike & Tina Turner, and Dean Martin, just to name a few, all had top ten hits, and all of those hits were backed -- if not totally arranged -- by the Wrecking Crew.  None of those artists was billed as a "band," per se, so perhaps it is not that surprising that they took advantage of the consummate talent of the Wrecking Crew.

A standard operating procedure orchestrated by the prominent record labels would be for a songwriter and a producer to hire the Wrecking Crew for a recording session, release a few select songs, and then wait to see how they fared on the charts.  If a particular song turned out to be a hit, a band would be put together for a promotional tour.  The fans attending the concerts would not have a clue that the musicians they saw on stage were not the same ones they heard on the record.

Filmmaker Denny Tedesco is the son of the Crew's star guitarist, the late Tommy Tedesco.  Much of the documentary consists of footage of interviews and round table discussions among many of the mainstays of the group, including drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, bassist extraordinaire Carol Kaye, saxophonist Plas Johnson, keyboard player Leon Russell (yes, that Leon Russel), guitarists Glen Campbell (yes, that Glen Campbell) and Tedesco.  We also get to hear from Dick Clark, Brian Wilson, prolific songwriter Jimmy Webb, and master record producer Lew Adler, among others.

I do have a couple of nits.  There is a small degree of repetition, hammering home points that have already been made.  I also wish there was more concert footage, especially of the Ronettes and other acts that made Phil Spector's "wall of sound" famous.  Nevertheless, you will not see a movie with a better soundtrack.  If you are a senior, an oldies station listener, or simply a person who enjoys viewing a ground-breaking documentary, you have to put this film on your Must See List.    

Movie Review: "The Longest Ride"

"The Longest Ride": B.  The Longest Ride treats us to two love stories for the price of one.  Sophia and Luke is the main event.  Sophia Danko (Britt Robertson) is a senior art major at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  All set to graduate in a couple of months, she has lined up a coveted internship with an art gallery in Manhattan.  Against her better judgment, she lets herself be dragged by a sorority sister to a bull riding event, where admiring the hunkiness of the young cowpokes trying to stay on a raging bull for eight seconds is the drawing card for the females in attendance.  One of those hunks is Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood, son of Clint), who a year ago sustained a near-fatal head injury compliments of a bull which had thrown, and then gored, him.  Tonight is his first time back in the competition.  Not only does he manage to stay on his mount for the required eight seconds, but (of course) he and Sophia meet very briefly when she retrieves his cowboy hat from the pen's dirt floor.  He tells her to keep it, as he saunters back to the holding area.

The undercard is the romance of Ruth and Ira.  On their way back to campus from their first date, Luke and Sophia spot a vehicle which has smashed through a bridge guard rail and plunged down a ravine. They rescue an older man trapped behind the wheel, along with a box of letters off his front seat, just before the car bursts into flames.  Luke and Sophia rush the man to an emergency room, and Sophia decides to stay there until he is stabilized.  On subsequent hospital visits by Sophia, we learn that the older man is Ira Levinson (Alan Alda), and the box he had been transporting contained letters which he had written over a span of decades to a woman named Ruth.  Each time Sophia visits Ira, he asks her to read some of the letters aloud, and as she does so, the movie transcends temporarily to a flashback detailing the Ira-Ruth relationship.

Each of the two couples faces hurdles.  Luke lives on a huge ranch with his widowed mother.  He is her only child, and her dream is for him to take over the operation from her some day.  But her biggest concern is his health, which is put at risk every time he competes as a bull rider.  He is one hard fall away from paralysis, yet his love for the sport makes it impossible to tear himself away.  Even though Sophia is attending college in North Carolina, she is not a country girl, and is not about to trade her dreams of an art-centric career in the big city for a life as the wife of a daredevil Carolina cowboy.  Similarly, they both realize there's not much of a calling for broncin' bull riders in the Big Apple.  Will the twain ever meet?

Ira (Jack Huston) and Ruth (Oona Chaplin) also connect while in their twenties.  He keeps sneaking peeks at her in the synagogue, not realizing she is aware of his gaze.  She finally makes the first approach, the flowers bloom, the birds sing, and love is in the air.  They become engaged right before he goes off to fight in World War II.  Ruth's parting words are an admonishment to stay safe.  More than anything, she looks forward to the day when the two of them can start that big family she's always dreamed about.  Will the Ira who returns from the battlefields be the same man she fell in love with? 

The Longest Ride has many of the accoutrements we've seen before in Nicholas Sparks stories.  Every girl in Sophia's sorority house is drop-dead gorgeous.  Luke has the highest cheekbones ever captured on film since Lauren Bacall.  He's like the Marlboro Man, only twenty-five years younger.  On their first date, Luke has picked out a picture postcard shoreline for a picnic, complete with table cloth, and naturally there is absolutely no one around to bother him and Sophia.  In the heat of battle, with bullets flying all around, Ira risks life and limb to rescue a fallen buddy as the Germans have them both in their sights.  (The script does not call for Ira winning the Congressional Medal Of Honor, however.)  In case you didn't think the two love stories were intertwined enough with Sophia's visits to old Ira's bedside, a preposterous ending -- not entirely unforeseen -- cements the connection.  We, the moviegoers, don't mind.  This is what we've come to expect from Sparks, and we're cool with it.

Getting An Earful In The Sunshine State

Isn't it New Yorkers who have the reputation of being brash and opinionated?  I was somewhat taken aback by a small sample of Floridians who seem to fit the bill as well.

 

Momma Cuan and I recently spent nineteen days in Florida, a place where some strangers aren't bashful about sharing their societal and political philosophies, even while making first impressions.  Three such encounters stand out.

 

We saved over $700 by renting a car at a remote Hertz location in Tampa, rather than at TPA.  This required a $20 cab ride to pick up our vehicle.  The white cabbie was a talker, whether we wished to engage him or not.  What was to be our first Florida conversation started like this.

 

"Where you guys from?"

 

"Minneapolis."

 

"Oh, boy, you'd better be careful up there.  That's where a lot of the Somali terrorists live."

 

Momma Cuan: "I teach Somali adults on my volunteer job.  I find them to be very nice."

 

"Yeah, well, I suppose there are a few exceptions.  You should be glad you're not from Dearborn, Michigan.  That place is crawling with them."

 

The next day, after attending a spring training game in Lakeland and spending the night there, we headed south to our rented condo in Fort Myers.  About half-way en route, just outside of Cleveland, Florida, we stopped for lunch at an inviting roadside diner called Peace River Seafood & Crab Shack.  Outdoor seating, in short supply, was provided at picnic tables, where another, younger couple joined us shortly after we sat down.

 

Momma Cuan and I were discussing how some people are prone to excusing themselves from doing certain things, such as family functions, because they are "too busy" or they "have a job."

 

Me: "I am always puzzled when people use having a job as an excuse.  After all, most people work five days a week and have just two days off."

 

At this point, the woman sitting to my left, who we thought was having her own conversation with her companion sitting to Momma Cuan's right, chimed in:

 

"I think most people have seven days off, especially since 2009.  You know what they say about Obama: He likes poor people so much he decided to make more of them."

 

Momma Cuan and I silently read each other's minds: Who said anything about Obama?

 

We didn't complete the trifecta until our final day when we were in another cab, this one taking us from the rental car drop off location back to the Tampa airport for our return flight.  As we were caught in rush hour traffic, the conversation turned to road construction and how many huge projects never seem to get done.  I commented that in Minnesota, one hurdle we encounter is the plethora of government layers (city, county, metro, state), all of which need to be in synch for public works.  The immediate reply, out of the blue, from our Hispanic driver was, "Obama has managed to accomplish one thing.  He has made it almost impossible for another black man to become president for the next twenty-five years."  That was the first (and only) time the president's name had come up.  I quickly turned the topic to something more neutral, like the weather.  (I have to save my energy for those times I discuss presidential politics with Michael T.)

 

I was surprised that people with strong opinions are apparently chomping at the bit to share them without prompting, especially in the case of the two cabbies.  I would think someone whose income relied to a large extent on customer tips would be a little more measured in expressing themselves.

 

When I wrote my introductory post to this blog on December 6, 2011, I referred to the title of David Brinkley's best seller, Everyone Is Entitled To My Opinion.  Apparently the three Floridians I described herein subscribe to that theory as well.  

Quarterly Cinema Scan - Volume XIX

To the literary world, Harper Lee was known as one of the greatest one hit wonders of all time.  At the young age of thirty-four, Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for To Kill A Mockingbird, which was published in 1960.  Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, set in the mid-thirties in fictional small town Maycomb, Alabama.  The story, to a large extent autobiographical, is comprised of narrated recollections of Scout Finch, looking back on her childhood.  As a six year old she idolized her father, Atticus, a well respected country lawyer called upon by the town's judge to defend a black man charged with the rape of a white woman.  Of course, the jury which will decide the defendant's fate is all white.

 

By the time I was a high school upperclassman in the mid-sixties, there were very few of my contemporaries who had not read Lee's book.  It was required reading in many schools, and word-of-mouth recommendations also led to its popularity.  People eagerly awaited Lee's next book, which undoubtedly would have debuted at # 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List.  Only one problem with that prognostication:  Lee chose not to write again, preferring instead to live most of her life as far out of the spotlight as possible in the tiny burg where she was born, Monroeville, Alabama.

 

Two months ago, an astonishing secret was revealed, much to the delight of fiction readers and book sellers everywhere.  Lee announced that she had, after all, written another novel, which will be published in July 2015.  The new book, Go Set A Watchman, was penned a few years before Mockingbird.  The Watchman plot occurs while Scout is a young adult who travels back to Maycomb to visit Atticus. Her then-editor reviewed Lee's draft of Watchman, and asked for a rewrite focusing on Scout as a little girl.  That rewrite became Mockingbird.  The manuscript for Watchman was purportedly misplaced, remaining undiscovered until late last year, when it was found attached to some of Lee's writing worksheets in a cabinet.

 

In 1962, when Mockingbird was the hottest book on the shelves, Universal Studios produced a movie of the same title, enrolling Gregory Peck, a Hollywood heartthrob, to play Atticus.  (Universal originally intended the role for Rock Hudson, but production delays caused Hudson to bow out.)  Harper Lee revealed in an interview that she modeled the character, Atticus, after her own father, Amasa Lee, who was a country lawyer too.  Sadly, Amasa died during the filming of the movie.  Lee was so impressed with Peck's work that she gave him Amasa's gold watch, which he had worn to court during his forty year legal career.  Peck wore that watch when he accepted the Best Actor Oscar at the 1963 Academy Awards.  It was the only Oscar Peck ever won in his brilliant acting career which included over sixty films.

 

***

 

Here are the movies I saw at The Quentin Estates during the first quarter of 2015:

 

1. Airport (1970 drama; Burt Lancaster is a married Chicago airport manager who juggles an affair with airline rep Jean Seberg with his main duty of getting Runway Two-Niner cleared for co-pilot Dean Martin's bomb-damaged plane's landing.) B+

 

2. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958 drama; Elizabeth Taylor is married to Paul Newman, an alcoholic who's the only one in his family not interested in the wealth of his terminally ill father, Burl Ives.) B+

 

3. Foxcatcher (2014 drama; Steve Carell is a mysterious tycoon who recruits Olympic gold medal winning wrestler Channing Tatum and his brother, Mark Ruffalo, to live and train on his estate.) C-

 

4. A Hard Day's Night (1964 comedy; the Beatles have a big televised show to perform in London, but, to the consternation of their manager, their prep time is up for grabs because they're too busy frolicking in the big city and trying to keep grandfather Wilfrid Brambell out of jail.) A

 

5. Nevada Smith (1966 western; Steve McQueen crosses the western US to track down the three killers of his father and Ciowa mother.) B+

 

6. Patton (1970 war biopic; George C. Scott is General Patton, an egotistical, driven combat leader whose often outlandish, boorish behavior and big mouth get him into trouble with his superiors and DC big whigs.) A-

 

7. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962 drama; Gregory Peck, a widowed father of two grade school age kids, is a small town Alabama lawyer called upon to defend a black man on a charge of raping a white woman.) A

 

8. The Verdict (1982 courtroom drama; Paul Newman is an ambulance-chasing Boston lawyer who takes on smooth opposing counsel James Mason in a medical malpractice suit.) B+