Boat That Rocked (1990)

This is the British version of "Pirate Radio" and is formatted for Europe. I play it on my computer and it works fine. There are some big differences, making this purchase rewarding if you are a fan of "Pirate Radio". The characters are developed better in this version. Sometimes different music is used. The scene of Mariannne's second visit is staged for the night they become illegal which is highly improbable. The American cut is much better for this scene. The assistant of the Labor Party bad guy, Kenneth Brannaugh, actually boards the ship and the inference of sabotage is established. I remember in real life the suspicion that the Royal Navy planted a remote detonated mine on a radio ship. At any rate this version is very entertaining and a must for "Pirate Radio" fans. The music is great.

The Boat That Rocked AKA Pirate Radio is set in 1966. When Great Britain was only playing rock and roll 45 minutes a day. There was a group of DJ's on a ship in the North Sea that's playing rock and roll 24 hours a day. Of course their are those who want this to end at any cost. This is also a coming of age movie for early rock and roll and young love.

I have no idea why this movie has been out since 2007 and no one has seen it. It is a quite long movie, but keeps your interest to the end. This is not a no name movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kennith Branagh, Talulah Riley and many more.

Pirate Radio aka The Boat that Rocked must have one of the best soundtracks since A Hard Day's Night (1964). This is one movie you should not MISS.

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Released in the US recently as Pirate Radio, the DVD and BD discs have already been released in other regions as The Boat That Rocked (UK, Oz), Good Morning England (Fr), and Radio Rock Revolution (De). When you see the number of outtakes on the DVD (45 min worth), and the love the director has for each one (by way of his introductions), you can understand why the film is long. Decisions, decisions. Some of the best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor, but its inclusion would not have moved the plot forward, he claims. (A long scene in which Rhys Ifans describes to young Carl why he returned to Radio Rock, set in a Mexican cantina, is particularly poignant.) All the disc jockeys in the film are very "real". Ralph Brown as Bob sort of reprises his role as Danny in Withnail and I. Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Count, the token American, is as irreverent as the rest. Tom Sturridge is perfect as the lost boy, a fatherless, virgin, 18-year old sent to the ship as punishment. Kenneth Branagh, as the civil servant wanting to sink the ship, is an old-school villain born many, many drinks short. But music is king here, and the tracks are sometimes chosen to reflect the names of characters in the film. Too long? Maybe, but I bet you watch each one of the outtakes once you start. Perhaps it should have been a miniseries!

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There was a period of my life during which for more than 12 years I played in rock bands, worked as a DJ in rock stations, wrote for 3 different rock magazines and a newspaper, and lost a lot of money organizing rock concerts, but man, what a gas! Were? Doesn't matter and that's another story. So this movie was more than sweet memories and like living all over again for me. Never worked in a pirate radio station though, but those days are long gone. With Internet Radio Stations, the mp3 players and music downloading, with musical magazines going virtual, with the prostitution of the music industry and the general media, it's no longer fun. I've interviewed well known bands and people in the real rock world, but now days there's nothing worth covering and few things worth playing, mostly metal. Basically, radio, as we know it, is dead and so is printed matter. Ask any radio station manager, newspaper editor and any book editor. Not everybody is thrilled with things like the iPad.

Anyway, let's get to the movie `cause if you liked this one, then you're gonna love "Almost Famous" (also with Philip Seymour Hoffman) and hell, why not, "FM", "Good Morning Nam" and even "American Graffity", the way I did. "The Boat That Rocked" (a.k.a. Pirate Radio) is a fiction movie based on real facts. That is: by 1967 there were about 20 pirate radio stations in the UK which played a Top 40 format, forgotten and probably forbidden in the Victorian norrow minded BBC. In the early 60' there were two well known pirate radio stations broadcasting from offshore ships: Radio Caroline and Radio London. The movie takes from them. There was also a government act in 1967, the "Marine Broadcasting Offences Act" ("Marine Offences Act" in the movie). It was something ridiculous then and even now, but concerning the arts and technology all governments tend to be quite illiterate. The bottom line is that even today there are over 100 pirate radio stations in the UK alone. Why? The same old story. Official radio stations live on commercials and on payola. Yes, I worked in several and I knows how it works. So, there's music that they'll never play and only the pirate radio stations will be able to cover all the rainbow of music that people want to listen to. That's why I love Internet Radio, specially those commercial free stations. I don't know of any offical radio station playing, for example, psychedelic rock now days. Thus the success of the Internet Radio.

The plot in the movie is great. Simple, straight, honest, comic, with some hints of drama, but the essence is there, the music is there. The life DJs lived, and beleive me, those DJs in the movie are too clean and decent. Well the movie is too clean in that matter. There are some insinuations about drugs but you won't see anybody smoking pot or dropping acid or getting really plastered. The stag party was too decent for guys that are supposed to be rock DJs in the mid and late sixties of the 20th century. Anyway, one gets a lot of laughs and a Hollywood end.

The OST is great but there are a few mistakes that can be explained only by the fact that the person in charge of it, chose a specific song because of the moment in the movie. For instance, Hendrix' "The Wind Cries Mary" is from the album "Are You Experienced?" released in August of 1967 long after the period which is established in the movie, but there's a very nice touch of homage towards Jimi in the scene were Quentin (excellently portrayed by Bill Nighy don't miss him in "Wild Target") enters the lower deck of the ship just to find DJ Mark surrounded by naked girls exactly as in the cover of the 1968 "Electric Ladyland" album. Hilarious. Another song is Jeff Beck's "Hi Ho Silver Lining", a single from 1967. So is Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale". You can hear The Who with "Won't Get Fooled Again" from 1971, but it wasn't included in the OST CD. I don't understand why David Bowie's 1982 "Let's Dance" was chosen for the closing credits of the movie. It's even included in the OST CD. Bottom line, again, it doesn't matter, the music is far out.

Although there are a couple of Stone's tracks, they are not included in the OST. Copyrights I suppose, Mick and Keith think they're still poor. Arthur Brown's "Fire" was also left out. So was "Little Saint Nick" by The Beach Boys. And so was Ennio Morricone's theme "For a Few Dollars" and several other.

Some mistakes I won't excuse: the Capitol and A&M labels on the records shown in the movie were designed in the 70's; there's a modern Panasonic headphones in one scene, you don't play a 45 singles at 33 RPM, slim straight arms for turntables and tape reels were introduced in radio stations many years later (specially the arms), there's a drum head that I'm sure wasn't there around those days and man, anyone who's worked in a radio station knows what'll happen if you climb the antenna during transmissions. And finally, we didn't call them condoms, but Johnnies.

The cast in perfect. I already mentioned Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy, but not far behind are Rhys Ifans (unforgetable in "Notting Hill") as rock star DJ Gavin, Kenneth Branagh as the Hitlerian looking and dictatorial Sir Alistair Dormandy and Jack Davenport as the sleasy assistant Twatt (yes, with two ts at the end). Definitely a movie for all ages. For those who like to remember through music and for those who weren't born and have the interest and curiosity to find out how it was.

(P.S. From personal experience I know that record players are supposed to be flat horizontal in order to play and at the end of the movie there's no way they were leveled)

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...this movie is made in the spirit of the time. You can pick it apart with facts but pirate radio changed the music world in England (the boats were mostly in the Southern North Sea) and the guys who did it were larger than life! The music is the joy of the film held together by some funny jokes and a threadbare plot. Enjoy it for what it is an homage to an integral part of the music scene in the 60s in the UK.

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