Sgt. Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band
Is a train wreck entertaining? One would guess that the answer is subjective to say the least, at least when said train wreck is a cinematic effort to replicate the success of a film that in and of itself was nearly impossible to make further movies of its type, that being Ken Russellâs 1975 masterpiece Tommy, based directly off The Whoâs seminal rock opera which had been a worldwide box office hit and had even garnered Golden Globes and an Oscar Nomination for Best Actress (Ann-Margret). The problem of course was in the fact that adaptable for film rock operas donât exactly grow on trees, but that didnât stop Tommy producer Robert Stigwood from attempting to make lightning strike twice as in 1978 he put together this screen adaptation of what many people consider to be the greatest rock album of them all, The Beatlesâ Sgt. Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band (with several other Beatles songs from other albums liberally sprinkled into the mix). The fatal flaw of this strategy was in the fact that at least the original album of Tommy had a loose storyline to it that could be translated rather readily into cinematic (or stage production) form, while Sgt. Pepperâs (for all of its accolades) obviously did not which meant that the filmmakers would have to cobble together some kind of a plot while still using the Beatles songs as the connecting thread in order to create something which even the original band themselves never intended. So while Tommy managed to have the active, onscreen participation of Daltrey, Townshend, Entwhistle and Moon, this movie would lurch forward into production very devoutly WITHOUT the services of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr with only McCartney and Starr even bothering to attend the premiere (and reportedly being mortified by what they witnessed) while Lennon and Harrison shunned the whole thing entirely even though a legend spread of Lennon being reportedly forced to sit through the whole thing twice as an in flight movie while flying from Rome to New York in 1979. As a story that was never intended to be one, the filmmakers would use character names that were created within the context of The Beatlesâ songs (Billy Shears, Mean Mr. Mustard, Strawberry Fields) and then use them as the major players of the piece, although without The Beatles themselves being willing nor available to play the âLonely Hearts Club Bandâ, the casting department managed to bring in as replacements Peter Frampton as Shears and the three members of The Bee Gees in Barry, Robin and Maurice as his bandmates (with Andy Gibb reportedly nearly being cast as Shears instead of Frampton). Tensions were said to be high during the early recording sessions as Frampton and The Bee Gees were wary of each other and the possibility of being overshadowed in the spotlight by their fellow artist / band. Two weeks into filming, things started getting worse as The Bee Gees began clamoring to be removed and replaced on the project, Alice Cooper came on set to film and record his role while on a three day leave from a rehab / mental health facility that he was confined to and Aerosmith threatened to walk off the set entirely while filming their primary villain role over the idea that the finale would see Frampton kill Steven Tyler in hand to hand combat which was settled through a compromise instead. Even more astounding was the idea that this adaptation of an album by a British band was not only mostly set in âHeartland USAâ, but the musicians filling in here directly for The Beatles (Frampton and The Bee Gees) were ALSO British as well, which meant that any opportunity for spoken dialogue by these guys was going straight out the window even though they were the STARS of the movie, leaving most of the spoken word dialogue to be done through narration by George Burns (as Heartland town Mayor Mr. Kite) essentially explaining and connecting one musical setpiece to another as the film goes on. Burns also gets his own Beatles song to sing in Fixing A Hole and pretty much embarrasses himself to say the least. The movie begins by explaining that the ORIGINAL Sgt. Pepper and his band were actually the secret weapon that had won World War I by simply marching through the war torn streets playing their music and then all the combatants (including the Germans) had dropped their weapons and clapped along to the music (like magic). The Band had continued âmaking the world danceâ for the next 40 years (although it is unclear if they had managed to stop World War II as well) before Sgt. Pepper himself would keel over dead of a heart attack. Since then the original instruments (with the power to âmake dreams come trueâ) were stored away in the townâs museum while Pepperâs grandson Billy Shears (Frampton) was deemed the âchosen oneâ to start a new band in his grandfatherâs name along with his three childhood best friends (Bee Gees) and his brother Dougie (Paul Nicholas, a holdover cast member from Tommy where he had played Cousin Kevin) as their business manager. It isnât long before they are contacted by a top music industry producer (Donald Pleasence who actually croaks out one line of a song and also sports a toupee) to record an album and go on tour, but while theyâre away from Heartland, the town comes under attack from Mean Mr. Mustard (Frankie Howerd, a comedian more famous in The U.K. than he ever was in America) and his Brute henchman (Carel âLurchâ Struycken) who steal the enchanted instruments and start turning the small town into a sleazy hellhole, which in turn leads to our heroes cutting their ârise to fameâ short in order to come to the rescue. The interesting thing is that while the first half of the film is a near nonstop series of Beatles covers from Frampton and The Bee Gees, it is finally in the second half that the majority of the performances get turned over to the âguest starsâ and what a motley yet fantastic lineup they are indeed. It turns out that Mustard is some sort of operative who is stealing the enchanted instruments which in turn are being brought to other operatives for the purposes of being used for brainwashing of the masses under the slogan of âWe Hate Love. We Hate Joy. We Love Money.â Brainwashed people are then shown wearing Boy and Girl Scout type outfits and are expected to conform to whatever they are told to do without question (hey this almost sounds familiar) with the leader of this whole movement being a mysterious figure who only communicates via computer and is only known as âF.V.B.â which as it turns out stands for Future Villain Band and is played by none other than Aerosmith themselves whose cover here of Come Together (played off as a sinister mind control song) winds up being the only iconic thing about this movie. The other operatives include Steve Martin as Dr. Maxwell Edison (of Silver Hammer fame) who sings Maxwellâs Silver Hammer before being brought down and Cooper as a cult leader named Father Sun who gets to sing Because as yet another sinister mind control song (which like Come Together totally defeats the original purpose of the song). Other guest stars / appearances include Earth, Wind And Fire stopping the movie entirely as the âBenefit Singersâ singing Got To Get You Into My Life, Billy Preston as the revived spirit of Sgt. Pepper singing Get Back in order to bring about a forced happy ending and the final poorly shot sequence featuring a clusterfuck of random cameos with names ranging from Tina Turner to Sha Na Na with Bowser. A cinematic disaster this certainly is, but a colorful one too as one tries to figure out where all of this is going and the pacing itself in the last 20 minutes slows this down to a dead crawl not to mention a literal endurance contest to get all the way to the end of the damn movie. I suppose an effort was made here to be true at least to the spirit of The Beatles in the idea that they had literally hoped to create âa better worldâ through music (although whether or not that had led to their eventual and permanent breakup based on differing philosophies of what exactly that âbetter worldâ would actually entail remains up for debate) but the final result is just so cheesy and redundant that one can see why even The Bee Gees and Frampton (who claimed that the film temporarily ruined his career although his ultra feminine, girly girl acting job here certainly didnât help his case) would distance themselves from it in later years the same way that the original artists had done so alsoâŚ
5/10