- Title: Eddie and the Cruisers
- IMDb: link
Like many, I found Eddie and the Cruisers on HBO. After a bit of a fumbled theatrical release, low box office numbers, and mixed reviews from critics that caused the film to be pulled from theaters after only a couple of weeks, the movie found a home on cable in part to its terrific soundtrack going quadruple platinum, and, unlike the film, being a runaway success.
A mockumentary before the term was coined, Eddie and the Cruisers takes place in the early 80s. During an increased interest in the music of the 60s band, a reporter (Ellen Barkin) begins seeking out the former band members in search of answers about Eddie’s death in 1964 and the band’s missing and never-released album A Season in Hell. Those interviews, and various characters thinking back on the past, lead to a series of flashbacks to 1962 though 1964 focusing on the rise and peak of the band’s popularity.
Part mystery, part musical concert film, part nostalgic yearning for youth, and part drama, the story opens with a great hook by Barkin’s character tying the name of the missing album and Eddie’s disappearance back to the poet Arthur Rimbaud who Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger) introduced Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré) to changing the trajectory of the band forever.
As Frank gets lost in his memories, leading to him reconnecting with other members of the group (Helen Schneider, Matthew Laurance, and David Patrick Wilson), we also get a subplot involving someone else searching for the missing tapes. If the film has a major failing its that subplot reveal and subsequent scenes. However, aside from that, including the sequence to close out the film, Eddie and the Cruisers still holds up.
Highlights of the movie include the scenes of Eddie welcoming Frank to group, the creation of the film’s biggest hit, the love triangle between Frank, Eddie, and Eddie’s girl Joann (Schneider), the junkyard sequence, the late reveal of the studio execs despising A Season in Hell, Joann performing “Tender Years,” and, of course, the final surprising shot of the film which would inspire a sequel seven years later.
The cast is filled out by Joe Pantoliano as the band’s agent turned DJ and Michael ‘Tunes’ Antunes as the band’s sax player Wendell Newton. An actual member of John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, who performed all the movie’s music, Antunes was cast in the non-speaking role of Newton whose untimely death starts Eddie spiraling out of control.
Aside form Berenger, Pantoliano, and Barkin, most everyone else is known primarily for this film, and those ingredients blend together for one fun ride with what is easily one of the best movie bands of all time. Paré feels like a star, Schneider is underrated, and the mix of mystery and music always delivers.
