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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 440010" data-attributes="member: 8">Rude Boy (1980)[ATTACH=full]59036[/ATTACH]Fifteen minutes into the film I understood this wasn&#039;t a very disciplined production and I had no desire to watch the 2+ hours version of it, but somehow I couldn&#039;t find the right moment to stop watching. Not sure if I&#039;ve had that experience before.Story-wise, Rude Boy is underwhelming, to put it charitably. It&#039;s a semi-rockumentary meaning that there is at least one fictional character in it but there isn&#039;t much about him that looks dramatised or personal.Oddly enough that may actually be the story&#039;s saving grace - they couldn&#039;t misinterpret anything.On the other hand, it&#039;s a film with incredible snapshot value, it&#039;s what the year 1980 looked like in the news although the film itself was shot in 1978/79.This means that I didn&#039;t watch the news before 1980 or that the Dutch angry youth counter-culture was a few years behind the UK.This social reaction to the softness of the 1970s counter-culture (&quot;they&#039;re soapy !&quot;) made me realise how tricky political preferences can be because there&#039;s often a lot of overlapping. The left is anti-fascism and the extreme right is anti-establishment.The enormous unemployment issue of that time affected both sides and I&#039;m sure this built-in anger increased the oppostion on both sides.And then we also got the possibility of the Big Nuke hanging over our heads. So much for happy, simple times (a recurring reaction to TopPop videos).Anyway, the fictional character played by co-writer Ray Gange is bored out of his mind and has no prospects to speak of. He becomes a roadie for punk/rock band The Clash and in any other film this would be an elaborate or funny goal to achieve but here it&#039;s &quot;are you free next week?&quot;The Clash, The Cure, The Cult - that&#039;s a nice guessing game for me.I was a little surprised that I enjoyed the music - &quot;they good!&quot; as they would say in Coming To America - and since it&#039;s unlikely that I&#039;ll watch or listen to The Clash again I figured I might as well consider this a once in a lifetime opportunity. Probably one of the reasons why I kept watching.There&#039;s a lot of cacophony and fighting going on, and also lots of problems with the police but I have no idea why (for what it&#039;s worth, neither did they).Margaret Thatcher gives her pro-police speech allegedly out of concern for the safety of senior Brits but to me it looks like she was recruiting the national police force as her personal army of henchmen in order to secure her diabolical schemes!Making the best of a bad situation, she was a true politician.Meanwhile, Ray Gange&#039;s character stops doing what wasn&#039;t very much to begin with and starts drinking heavily. Like I said before, the lack of dramatisation prevents it from becoming a &quot;thing&quot;, it all looks very random.He has issues with the political messages in the songs performed by The Clash and I can understand how that could temper one&#039;s enthusiasm. But was that conversation significant in the grand scheme of things? I have no idea. He just leaves (oops, spoiler).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 440010, member: 8"] Rude Boy (1980) [ATTACH type="full" alt="1778921396143.png"]59036[/ATTACH] Fifteen minutes into the film I understood this wasn't a very disciplined production and I had no desire to watch the 2+ hours version of it, but somehow I couldn't find the right moment to stop watching. Not sure if I've had that experience before. Story-wise, Rude Boy is underwhelming, to put it charitably. It's a semi-rockumentary meaning that there is at least one fictional character in it but there isn't much about him that looks dramatised or personal. Oddly enough that may actually be the story's saving grace - they couldn't misinterpret anything. On the other hand, it's a film with incredible snapshot value, it's what the year 1980 looked like in the news although the film itself was shot in 1978/79. This means that I didn't watch the news before 1980 or that the Dutch angry youth counter-culture was a few years behind the UK. This social reaction to the softness of the 1970s counter-culture ("they're [I]soapy[/I] !") made me realise how tricky political preferences can be because there's often a lot of overlapping. The left is anti-fascism and the extreme right is anti-establishment. The enormous unemployment issue of that time affected both sides and I'm sure this built-in anger increased the oppostion on both sides. And then we also got the possibility of the Big Nuke hanging over our heads. So much for happy, simple times (a recurring reaction to TopPop videos). Anyway, the fictional character played by co-writer Ray Gange is bored out of his mind and has no prospects to speak of. He becomes a roadie for punk/rock band The Clash and in any other film this would be an elaborate or funny goal to achieve but here it's "are you free next week?" The Clash, The Cure, The Cult - that's a nice guessing game for me. I was a little surprised that I enjoyed the music - "they good!" as they would say in [I]Coming To America[/I] - and since it's unlikely that I'll watch or listen to The Clash again I figured I might as well consider this a once in a lifetime opportunity. Probably one of the reasons why I kept watching. There's a lot of cacophony and fighting going on, and also lots of problems with the police but I have no idea why (for what it's worth, neither did they). Margaret Thatcher gives her pro-police speech allegedly out of concern for the safety of senior Brits but to me it looks like she was recruiting the national police force as her personal army of henchmen in order to secure her diabolical schemes! Making the best of a bad situation, she was a true politician. Meanwhile, Ray Gange's character stops doing what wasn't very much to begin with and starts drinking heavily. Like I said before, the lack of dramatisation prevents it from becoming a "thing", it all looks very random. He has issues with the political messages in the songs performed by The Clash and I can understand how that could temper one's enthusiasm. But was that conversation significant in the grand scheme of things? I have no idea. He just leaves (oops, spoiler). [/QUOTE]

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