Stardust (1975)

I love this movie so much

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

The acting in this movie is really good.

"Stardust" starts where "That'll Be the Day" left off. References to the Kennedy assassination, the Clay/Liston fight and West Ham winning the FA Cup date the early scenes to 1963/4. At the end of the first film Jim MacLaine abandoned his wife and son in order to become a rock star; we now meet him as one of a struggling five-man band called the Stray Cats. Jim's old friend Mike accepts his invitation to become the band's manager. Mike was played in the earlier film by Ringo Starr, but he did not want to appear in the sequel, so another pop star, Adam Faith, was drafted in. Mike's change of accent from Scouse to Cockney is left unexplained. Several other real-life rock stars (Marty Wilde, Dave Edmunds, Keith Moon) also have roles.The Stray Cats are catapulted to success after one of their records proves an unexpected hit. There are deliberate parallels between their rise to fame and that of the Beatles. (It has been suggested that Ringo refused to appear because he felt that Jim was too close to the character of John Lennon). They play at a nightclub similar to Liverpool's Cavern Club and wear Beatle-style suits and haircuts. There are even clumsy attempts to draw a parallel with the Beatles' gay manager Brian Epstein by suggesting that Mike- rampantly heterosexual in "That'll Be the Day"- might be sexually attracted to Jim.The story then departs from that of the Beatles. Jim is by now both the band's lead singer and its songwriter, and they are billed as "Jim MacLaine and the Stray Cats". The other members of the group, jealous of Jim's greater fame, refuse to perform with him, and continue without him as a four-man combination. As a solo singer Jim initially achieves even greater success, becoming a major international star, but his hedonistic lifestyle starts to take its toll. He indulges in casual sex and heavy drug and alcohol use and this affects both his career and his relationship with friends and colleagues, especially Mike. He stars in a spectacularly vulgar neo-classical concert called "Sancta Dea", Latin for "Sacred Goddess". This is designed as a "tribute to women", which seems rank hypocrisy given how badly Jim has treated every woman who has ever crossed his path. He eventually retreats to a Spanish castle and becomes a drug-addicted recluse. (Interestingly, the phrase "castle in Spain" means an impossible daydream) The film was made by a different director to "That'll Be the Day", and is quite different in style. (This was only the second feature film of Michael Apted, later to become a big Hollywood name). The earlier film was a mixture of kitchen-sink realism and nostalgia for the fifties. "Stardust" is more of a fictionalised biography and an exposure of the seedy side of showbiz. Although in the early scenes we hear some mid-sixties hits on the soundtrack, there is little attempt at nostalgia. (The final scenes take place in the early seventies, only a few years before the film was made).There are some weaknesses in "Stardust". Like another reviewer, I felt that the Stray Cats' music was insufficiently distinctive and insufficiently high quality for a group who are supposed to be among the most successful in the world. They may look like the Beatles but they sure don't sound like them. I also thought that there was a weak performance from Ines des Longchamps as Jim's French girlfriend Danielle. Nevertheless, "Stardust" is in my opinion a much better film overall than "That'll Be the Day".There are two main reasons for this. The first is that "Stardust" has a much more coherent, structured plot than the earlier film, which tended to become dull and repetitive, little more than a catalogue of Jim's sexual conquests. The second is that David Essex is much better here than he was in "That'll Be the Day" where he fundamentally misunderstood the character he was playing, trying to make Jim a likable Jack-the-lad whereas in reality he was a complete bastard. In "Stardust", Jim is a much more complex figure; he can still behave badly, especially towards Mike and Danielle, but we see that he is also a pitiable character, trapped by his own success and fame, which have robbed him of the opportunity to live a normal life. This is perhaps most vividly seen in the scene where Jim is confronted with screaming fans even at his mother's funeral.There are also good supporting performances from Faith as Mike, trapped in a love/hate relationship with Jim and from a pre-"Dallas" Larry Hagman as Porter Lee Austin, the American music tycoon who takes over the running of Jim's career. Although Porter Lee is not portrayed as an outright villain, it is clear that his control has a deadening effect on Jim's creative talents. For all Jim's fame, he still ends up working to make money for someone else.Besides the obvious Beatles parallels, some have compared Jim to the likes of Jim Morrison, David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Yet watching this film I was most vividly reminded of another pop superstar. Like Jim MacLaine he started off in a five-man group, left to become a solo artist and became more famous than any of his colleagues. In his case too there were hints of sexual ambiguity and distasteful allegations about his private life. He too seemed to develop a messiah complex and ended up a recluse inside his luxury home. Even his initials were the same, albeit reversed.For "Stray Cats" read "Jackson Five". For "Sancta Dea" read "HIStory". For the Spanish castle read "Neverland". For obvious reasons, "Stardust" cannot be based upon the career of Michael Jackson; in 1974 he was a teenager and his musical career only just beginning. Self-destructive tendencies like Jackson's, however, are an unfortunately common phenomenon in the entertainment industry, and "Stardust" is one of the best fictional studies of that phenomenon. 7/10

For me, a disappointing sequel to the successful, breezy "That'll Be The Day" as the bright young scallywag Jim MacLaine (David Essex) somewhat improbably tries his luck in the rock industry only to crash and burn by the end having lived the rock dream to the bitter end, along the way cramming into the narrative as many rock clichés as you can think of. So we get the inevitable "musical differences" which cause him to leave his band The Stray Cats, encounters with groupies, strained relationships with the estranged wife and son he left behind, his rise to solo mega-stardom and eventual retreat to a drug-filled existence leading to the inevitable downbeat conclusion. Rock fans might derive fun from the peripheral characters' purely coincidental resemblance to any living person, as the legend goes, with a foreign intellectual interfering girlfriend (Yoko Ono?), old-style matey, but sexually ambivalent manager (Brian Epstein?) and loudmouth, money-obsessed American manager (Allan Klein), as well as Essex's character's own career path which seems to echo Jim Morrison of the Doors (who also died in seclusion in continental Europe), but the situations are too conventional and predictable to really engage. On the acting front, Essex's limitations are exposed and he fails to draw in the viewer, unlike his lighter playing in "That'll Be The Day", although more experienced actors like Adam Faith and Larry Hagman get more to chew on in their roles. Another weak point is the original music, (a failing also of the much later "Dreamgirls") which especially when set against contemporary classic tracks by The Who, Kinks and Mamas and Papas, to name but a few, is sorely lacking in catchiness and leaves you wondering just how The Stray Cats actually got to the top of the charts. This is slightly surprising given that the musical director here is the talented Dave Edmunds, whose own solo career abounds in recreations of mid-60's pop and rock. Ironically, trivia-fans, Edmunds in the 80's successfully produced the popular rockabilly band The Stray Cats, best known for "Runaway Boys" and "Stray Cat Strut"! In the end an overlong, over-pretentious movie and evidence if it was needed, that the best way to portray rock star excess is with parody, e.g. "The Rutles" and of course "This is Spinal Tap".

"Stardust"...the continuing story of young Jim Maclaine (David Essex) from "That'll Be The Day" is an excellent 'must-see' sequel.The story not only portrays the development of Maclaine's aspiring musical ambitions, but is a very insightful depiction of how the music business can be unpredictably cruel and coarse.Ray Connolly is at the helm as writer once again along with David Puttnam and Sanford Lieberson producing. But, it is Michael Apted taking the reigns as Director in this second movie.The nature of the story calls for another strong supporting cast and this is achieved with not only Essex maturing very well in the lead role, but with the addition of 60's pop idol, Adam Faith and future "Dallas" star, Larry Hagman. Faith's portrayal of Mike Menary, the manager of Maclaine's rock band, "The Stray Cats", cuts a brutally shrewd and dark figure. Hagman, in the role of Porterlee Austin, portrays a flamboyant personality as his character name suggests. Both of these characters eventually have one thing in common - money. But, it's Messrs. Faith and Hagman who virtually steal the whole film together because of their 'meaty' characterisations. To add authenticity to the role of the rock band in the movie, Dave Edmunds is on hand in a supporting role along with writing and producing the band's songs. Keith Moon reprises his role from "That'll Be The Day" as the drummer and Paul Nicholas cuts a fine 'jealous' figure in the form of 'Knee-tremble Johnny'. And, Rosalind Ayres once again portrays Jim's wife, Jeanette.The story takes up three years later where "That'll Be The Day" left off, and is a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll sixties-style. The film covers a wide canvas between England, Spain and the USA and is beautifully filmed. It was made in 1974 and even then comes across as controversial for the time with some very memorable scenes. One of the scenes I particularly remember is when the band meet up in a Vegas showroom and during a heated discussion Jim Maclaine points to Stevie (Karl Howman) and matter of factly points out: "If it weren't for me you'd still be catching crabs in Oldham!". This certainly puts the place of my birth on the map. Finally, there is an equally enjoyable soundtrack that oozes the changing styles of Rock and Pop music from a distant time. Also, the ending is a killer...but won't really leave you in a state of shock."Stardust" is a wonderful piece of cinema that the British film industry should be very proud of.

...but he crashed out the sky." 'Stardust' by David Essex. Warning: contains 'spoilers'.Heavily influenced by the story of the Beatles (Ringo Starr declined to reprise the role of 'Mike' in this film because of a section of the story that was based on Pete Best's sacking) 'Stardust' is the archetypal Rock 'n' Roll story of the 1960s and 1970s.David Essex gives a great performance as Jim Maclaine, the easily corrupted singer who finds that after ditching his group and his wife and embarking on an orgy of drugs, sex and bad business deals his world falls apart.What appears to seal his fate is the way in which he treats his jealous and mercenary manager, Mike. After greedily taking two girls to bed when he might have left one and having some involvement in the death of his manager's dog his luck really runs out when he ODs on live television. Mike is left cursing and shaking the limp body of his former friend as he sees his 'investment' drifting away.The title song, penned by Essex, is an absolute classic. It took David Bowie an entire LP to explore similar themes and none of the songs on 'Ziggy Stardust' have half as much heart and soul as 'Stardust'.The 'Stray Cats' of this film are not to be confused with the 1980s American group of the same name. Dave Edmunds, the musical director of 'Stardust' went on to produce Brian Setzer's Rockabilly trio and christened them the Stray Cats after the imaginary group in this film.