PIRATE RADIO Movie Review
Pirate Radio will be released to theaters this Friday November 13. The movie stars Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans, Gemma Arterton, Emma Thompson, January Jones, Jack Davenport, and directed by Richard Curtis.
Washington Post
In town to introduce a preview screening of “Pirate Radio,” writer-director Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”) described his comedy about a boatload of renegade DJs who broadcast rock-and-roll from a ship anchored off the coast of England in the mid-1960s as only “partly true.” Read More.
Blog Critics
I remember the first time I watched a Richard Curtis film. I was 14 years old and I sat down with my grandma to watch a little film called Four Weddings and a Funeral which then went on to receive a Best Picture nod. I have always been just as interested in who made a movie as much as I was interested in the final product. Read more.
Film School Rejects
If you know me personally, or read anything I write, you know that I worship the 1960s and the music of the time. I grew up behind the seat belt of my dad’s Chevy Silverado, driving around town with the Oldies station blaring out songs about Brown Sugar tasting so good, My Guitar Gently weeping, and People Trying to put down my father’s generation. I fell in love with grinding guitars, amps that never worked quite right, and the homemade sound of just trying to be louder and more soulful than the guys who were just on stage. Read more.
Read the synopsis and watch the trailer below.
Pirate Radio Synopsis: THE BOAT THAT ROCKED is an ensemble comedy, where the romance is between the young people of the 60s, and pop music. It’s about a band of DJs that captivate Britain, playing the music that defines a generation and standing up to a government that, incomprehensibly, prefers jazz.
In 1966 – British pop music’s finest era – the BBC played just 2 hours of rock and roll every week. But pirate radio played rock and pop from the high seas 24 hours a day. And 25 million people – over half the population of Britain – listened to the pirates every single day.
Recently expelled from school, Carl (Tom Sturridge) has been sent by his mother to find some direction in life by visiting his godfather Quentin. However, Quentin is the boss of Radio Rock, a pirate radio station in the middle of the North Sea, populated by an eclectic crew of rock ‘n’ roll DJs.
They are led by The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman) – big, brash, American, god of the airwaves, and totally in love with the music. He’s faithfully backed up by his co-broadcasters Dave (Nick Frost) – ironic, intelligent and cruelly funny; Simon (Chris O’Dowd) – super-nice and searching for true love; Midnight Mark (Tom Wisdom) – enigmatic, handsome and man of few words; Wee Small Hours Bob – the late night DJ, whose hobbies are folk music and drugs; Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke) – possessor of the smallest intelligence known to mankind; On-The-Hour John (Will Adamsdale) – the newsreader; and Angus ‘The Nut’ Nutsford (Rhys Darby) – possibly the most annoying man in Britain.
Life on the North Sea is eventful. Simon finds the woman of his dreams and is married on the boat…only to be left by his bride the next day. Gavin (Rhys Ifans) returns from his drug tour of America to his rightful position as greatest DJ in Britain and, in doing so, clashes with the Count. And Carl discovers the opposite sex and who his real father is.
Meanwhile, pirate stations have come to the attention of government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) who is out for the blood of these lawbreakers. In an era when the stuffy corridors of power stifle anything approaching youthful exuberance, Dormandy seizes the chance to score a political goal and The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act is passed in an effort to outlaw the pirates and remove their ghastly influence from the land once and for all.
What results is a literal storm on the high seas. With Radio Rock in peril, its devoted fans rally together and stage an epic Dunkirk-style hundred boat rescue to save their DJ heroes. Some things may come to an end, but rock ‘n’ roll never dies.
