Backbeat (film)
| Backbeat | |
|---|---|
UK film poster
|
|
| Directed by | Iain Softley |
| Produced by |
Finola Dwyer Stephen Woolley |
| Written by | Iain Softley and Stephen Ward |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Don Was |
| Cinematography | Ian Wilson |
| Edited by | Martin Walsh |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by | Gramercy Pictures |
|
Release date
|
14 April 1994 |
|
Running time
|
100 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom Germany |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2,392,589 |
Backbeat is a 1994 Anglo-German drama film directed by Iain Softley. It chronicles the early days of the Beatles in Hamburg, Germany. The film focuses primarily on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) and John Lennon (Ian Hart), and also with Sutcliffe's German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr (Sheryl Lee). It has subsequently been made into a stage production.
The original script was written by Iain Softley from interviews in 1988. After failing to secure funding, screenwriter Stephen Ward was brought in to completely rewrite the script in 1993. Ward interviewed Astrid Kirchherr and others who were close to the Beatles during their time in Hamburg. The project was green-lighted that year.
The soundtrack to the film includes no songs written by members of the Beatles, but various songs the group performed in Hamburg, written and recorded by other artists.
Rather than re-create the sounds of the period, iconoclastic, rebellious musicians were recruited (as a producer noted, the Beatles' pre-recording stage act was "the punk of its day"). This was done to better convey the way the music came across to the audience, at the time. The musicians were all members of American rock bands:
The original recording of "My Bonnie," performed by Tony Sheridan with the Beatles as a backing group was used in the film, the only use of a real Beatles performance.
Additionally, the film's distributor, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, was then under common ownership with the label which owned the rights to release and distribute the Beatles' music from the Hamburg days, Polydor Records.
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