Re: A movie about Prog rock - I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Public Image Ltd) wrote:

> Jeff Blanks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote...
> > 
> > I've had the idea for a number of years now that the process by which 
> > the '70s became the '80s--i.e., how the world we thought we were gonna 
> > get became the one we actually got, and what we really think of that 
> > deep down--would be a good idea for a movie.
> 
> Well if you transpose the eras back a decade, there is already quite a
> bit of stuff around, including some with a music-inflected angle, eg,
> The Big Chill, Withnall and I, etc.  A lot of it is about the dashed
> idealistic dreams of the 60s, hippies grappling with parenthood and
> responsibility, the casualties along the way, etc. As a general rule,
> this "getting straight" theme is rarely portrayed favourably, as the
> usual focus is on the compromises made and the selling-out which
> occurs. I guess it is something which all generations eventually have
> in common, although the specific cultural references tend to differ.

TBH, it doesn't look that way to me; it seems specifically linked to the 
'60s and subsequent generations.  That sense of compromise might've 
existed with individuals of earlier generations, but there doesn't seem 
to have been as much of a sense of selling out one's ideals or one's 
heart's desire.  Much of that sense of dashed dreams, I think, seems to 
come from the idea that it's somehow "too late" for them now, which is 
counterproductive.  What I'm thinking about, though, would have a '70s 
perspective, where the '70s were about things starting to get worked out 
rather than the first step in the supposedly inexorable process of 
backlash.  Some people think the early '70s were part of the later 
backlash; I don't.   

> Speaking of which, I tend to think a soundtrack limited to prog would
> be a touch narrow, as there was a heap of other music happening
> simultaneously in the 70s, and you really want iconic, moment-defining
> stuff for that sort of thing to work well.

Generally, yes, but often a tune that's just familiar enough (as well as 
relatively absent for a long time) will be just the right tune to define 
the cinematic moment.  In those cases, a sort of trigger effect can 
occur (and the tune that's "just familiar enough" can get a new lease on 
life, too), and I suppose I'm after that trigger effect as much as 
anything else.

-- 
"There is no excellent beauty which hath not some 
strangeness in the proportion."  --Sir Francis Bacon