The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 20, 1987 Page: 9 of 20
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THRESHER Fine Arts Friday. November 20,1987 9
Film celebrates birthday of legendary Chuck Berry
Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
Directed by Taylor Hackford
Chuck Berry has returned to the
music world with amovie to celebrate
his 60th birthday and to tell his story
his way. Chuck Berry Hail! Hail!
Rock 'N' Roll is an American music
course complete with the idiom,
improvisation and showmanship of a
man whose music has already influ-
enced two generations.
Rock entrepreneurs Little Richard,
Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the
Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison
give nostalgic and revealing testimo-
nies of how Chuck influenced their
lives personally and professionally.
Berry's character is further credited
by current artists Keith Richards (The
Rolling Stones), Eric Clapton and a
young folk hero who played once
played in a Berry roadshow band,
Bruce Springsteen (erroneously
billed for the gig as Bruce Spring-
stein).
Later, there are numerous testimo-
nials from family and friends (as well
as a testimonial of a testimonial—
Julian Lennon on John Lennon on
Chuck Berry) that seem to push the
"word of mouth" theory a little far.
Throughout the film, Chuck tells his
own story of racism and discrimina
tion in the music industry but shies
away from the negative details of his
personal life regarding women and
his occasional brushes with the law.
The best testimonial to Chuck
Berry, however, is his music. Some of
his better known hits include 'Too
Much Monkey Business," "My Ding-
a-Ling," "Rock and Roll Music"
(later recorded by the Beatles),
"Johnny B. Goode" and "No Particu-
lar Place to Go." The rehearsal and
personal scenes at Berry Park,
Chuck's personal recording studio
and resort, show an artist that the
public has never seen. He pays par-
ticular attention to the way his guitar
sounds and instructs Richards on how
to play the blues his way with feeling.
Berry is a musician who likes spon-
taniety. He is known for showing up
five minutes before a gig, walking on
stage and performing without so
much as a bathroom jam session with
his promoter-provided backups.
Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'N'
Roll isn't just a documentary, it's a
party. Chuck celebrates his 60th
birthday by giving a concert at the
histroic Fox Theatre in St. Louis,
where fifty years prior he and his
Chuck Berry performs at his birthday concert in St. Louis in Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
friends were denied admission to A
Tale ofTwo Cities. This is areal con-
cert. Berry is amazingly limber for a
60-year-old and performs to the de-
light of a capacity interracial crowd of
young and old patrons.
Prior to this movie, the only foot-
age I had seen of Chuck Berry were
the 30 second duckwalking clips on
the Grammy's or American Music
Awards. They do him no justice.
"Nadine," "Sweet Little Sixteen,"
"Roll Over Beethoven" and "No Par-
ticular Place to Go" are just a few of
Berry's solo performances that must
be seen to be believed. His music has
topped the charts numerous times as
an original or covered track and many
well known artists join him on stage to
offer their renditions as a tribute to
their mentor. Julian Lennon joins in
on "Johnny B. Goode" (definitely not
another trite copy) and noted blues
man Robert Cray kicks in a stirring
Nick Nolte stars in unsatisfying prison movie
Weeds
Directed by John Hancock
Weeds is one of those "based on a
true story" movies, which means that
it is up to the audience to decide what
is truth and what is fictionalized.
Certainly the basic premise of the film
is based on the true story of Rick
Cluchey, a prisoner who was serving
a life sentence, but was paroled after
writing and staging his own plays in
prison.
Now, the names are changed, but
the story is basically the same. The
convict is named Lee Umstetter and
he is a lifer without chance for parole.
Nick Nolte plays Umstetter in what
amounts to his most substantial acting
performance—and arguably his best.
In the movie we find Umstetter is
having a bad day at San Quentin. He
botches two suicide attempts and is
lying in solitary trying to sort out his
life. This opening is rather downbeat,
but fortunately the filn^. slips in
enough humor to keep the story
lively. Later, he goes to the prison
library and asks for a book, any book,
"but make it a thick one," says Um-
stetter. After reading War and Peace,
The Collected Works of Nietzsche and
other substantial works, he decides to
try his hand at writing his own play.
Of course, this is all from a man who
didn't finish the sixth grade. You can
figure out where the truth ends and
fiction begins.
Umstetter produces the play with
ART SUPPLIES ,
PICTURE FRAMING
other convicts as the supporting play-
ers. The auditions are amusing, espe-
cially when one particularly mean
looking fellow breaks into a rousing
rendition of "The Impossible
Dream."
The acting troop that is assembled
is an interesting bunch, and the film is
at its most entertaining when they are
left to participate in foul-mouthed
bantering. These scenes are much
more effective in portraying the
emotions of the prisoners than in the
more serious moments of the film,
which are surprisingly empty.
Umstetter's play is a success and he
seems to have rehabilitated himself
and his fellow actors.
As luck would have it, a local
drama critic (Rita Taggart) loves the
play and she fights to get Umstetter a
pardon after learning about what a
greathuman being he is. She manages
to get him out and then Umstetter
gathers together the members of his
troop who have been released on
parole before he was. Then, just like
in a Mickey Rooney and Judy Gar-
land movie, the happy-go-lucky
bunch piles into the ol' recreational
vehicle on a road trip across America.
The troop has its ups and downs
along this trip, much like the movie
itself. Some of it is funny, some is not.
I don't mean to give the impression
that Weeds is a comedy. It certainly
isn't, but it works best when it isn't
trying to get preachy about the Ameri-
can criminal justice system and con-
centrates instead on the comradery of
the men.
The husband and wife writing team
of Dorothy Tristan and John Hancock
come up with some winning dialogue,
but as I've said, it becomes awfully
hard to believe that very much of this
actually happened. In fact, one of the
funniest scenes of the movie, in which
Umstetter's caravan is being pursued
by the police, is a direct rip-off from a
little basketball movie called Fast
Break.
On the whole, Weeds is an interest-
ing movie, although it is not com-
pletely satisfying. Umstetter's play,
which began as biting social satire, is
transformed into a rock opera as his
work is updated while the group trav-
els across the country. This is no
earth-shattering film, but if quirky
characters, an amusing script, and a
commanding performance by Nick
Nolte appeal to you, then Weeds
might be of interest.
—David Nathan
rendition of "Brown-eyed Handsome
Man." The finale features Clapton,
Cray, Etta James, Lennon, Linda
Ronstadt (who recorded Berry's
"Living in the U.S.A.") and Richards
singing "Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll."
The movie ended with me knowing
Berry's music better but not under-
standing the man behind the music.
He rarely mentions his children (al-
though his daughter sings backup in
his band), his musical roots (before he
learned to play), or his future. From
time to time he gives advice on being
a family man and showman but all we
really have is an American History
lesson and one awesome show.
There is no plot or acting—it's
Chuck Berry being Chuck Berry and
that's enough. Keith Richards does a
great job of producing by banding
Chuck Leavell (keyboarcjf), Bobby
Keys (saxophone), Steve Jordan
(drums), Joey Spampinato (bass) and
Johnnie Johnson (piano).
Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'N'
Roll runs from Sunday, November 22
through Saturday, November 28 at
the River Oaks Theatre. If you see no
other concert this year, go see this
great concert film.
—Russell Ross
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 20, 1987, newspaper, November 20, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245679/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.