Strawberry Fields Forever...with Peter Frampton
The first time I had seen this film was the summer of 1978. I was 7 years old, really into the music of The Beatles and had to see this movie. This film was not a tribute to The Beatles, nor did the actual members of the group have anything to do with the movie. It was a fantasy film about the fictitious characters that The Beatles used in their songs off the "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey Road" albums.
The story takes place in the make-believe town of Heartland where we are introduced to the original Sgt. Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club Band. Twenty years after Sgt. Pepper dies, his grandson Billy Shears (Peter Frampton) decides to form a new Lonely Hearts Club Band with his friends, the Henderson Brothers (The Bee Gees). The film continues with the success of the Lonely Hearts Club Band, the problems the citizens are having in Heartland with Mean Mr. Mustard (Frankie Howard) taking over the town and the Lonely Hearts Club Band helping Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina) recover Sgt...
Campy!
I saw this movie for the first time on television when i was very young - maybe 10? I've always remembered the movie - and I am the only person I know who did. Even my mother, who bought the album for me way back when, didn't remember it. That is, until my obsession with proving its existence brought me to buying both the VHS and CD. This movie is pure camp. I view it as a spoof on other musicals, melodrama, and the overabundance of "good versus evil" provided by the contemporary Star Wars (the battle between Billy Shears and Maxwell Edison is simply lovely). As a bonus, the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton, Sandy Farina, and Frankie Howerd all do renditions of classic Beatles' tunes which are to be judged separately from the originals. No one will ever sing "Lucy" like the Beatles - but in the context of the movie, Diane Sternberg does an exceptional job that is independent of the classic. Aerosmith's "Come Together" actually can hold its own with the original...
I dunno how many stars to use. Maybe 1. Maybe 5.
When I was really young (like nine), I used to LOVE this flick. Today I have watched it as a grown man.
Wow.
Sometimes you forget just how much times have changed, and then something comes along and smacks you upside the head like a two-iron and reminds you. Movies like this used to fly.
Incredible.
It makes me want to watch "Shields and Darnell" reruns. Or "That's Incredible".
This film TOTALLY encapsulates the weird transition-phase that pop-culture went through as it kissed the seventies goodbye and leaped into the eighties. Everything is SO colorful, everyonoe looks SO innocent. Peter Frampton is dancing around in a sweet pair of white overalls with his name on them.
Twisted man, really out there. This film really helps you understand where the punk movement came from.
I don't know that this film has any redeeming qualities as an actual film, but as a study of late-disco era white culture, it is priceless.
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