Product Details

• Actors: Patsy Kensit, Eddie O'Connell, David Bowie, James Fox, Ray Davies
• Directors: Julien Temple
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: April 4, 2000
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792844734
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,829 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A commercial disaster upon its release in 1986, Absolute Beginners is an uneven but often stunning attempt at revitalizing the movie musical with postmodern sensibilities. Director Julien Temple was making his first foray into dramatic features after an impressive string of music videos and documentaries (including the first of two Temple-directed profiles of the Sex Pistols), and he upped the stakes by harnessing his visual ingenuity to a period piece exploring London's social transformation at the edge of the '60s--a fleeting moment in the pop zeitgeist that may as well have been the Cambrian Age to Temple's MTV-generation audience. This is post-World War II London turning the corner from economic austerity, giddy with jazz and early rock, yet to witness the Beatles and the Stones.

Adapted from Colin MacInnes's novel, the story follows Colin (Eddie O'Connell), a young Londoner looking to find his place in the world. A budding romance with the intoxicating Suzette (Patsy Kensit) as well as crises of conscience over social responsibility and financial gain are the plot threads in a story that arguably tackles too many Big Ideas, including adolescent identity, British racism (directed at West Indian immigrants) and class prejudice, and capitalism itself, embodied by David Bowie as unctious, superstar executive Vendice Partners.

In wrestling with such valiant ambitions, Temple and his young cast establish the film's musical soul in a canny synthesis of '80s English pop with postwar bop and the seeds of Mod culture. Onscreen performances by Fine Young Cannibals, Sade, and Kensit, a Bowie production number ("Motivation") that cribs from Busby Berkeley, and a wonderful sequence with the Kinks' Ray Davies as Arthur (a likely nod to his own band's 1969 rock opera) are all well realized. Less obviously, Temple salutes the period's forgotten jazz legacy through a score from the late Gil Evans, and in the jaw-dropping, bravura opening sequence, an extended single-camera journey through Soho set to Charles Mingus's joyous "Boogie Stop Shuffle" that is itself reason enough to see this brave musical. --Sam Sutherland

Product Description

Colin is a brazen 19-year-old with his finger on the pulse of Soho's burgeoning scene of artists. But when his beautiful girlfriend Suzette tires of their poor and struggling existence, Colin finds himself losing touch with himself and her. And when an older, richer man sweeps Suzette away, a devastated Colin embarks on a desperate journey to win her back!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular representation of 1950's British pop culture, August 7, 2002

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absolute Beginners [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"I remember that hot wonderful summer, when the teenage miracle reached full bloom, and everyone in England stopped what they were doing to stare at what had happened."--opening narration

I also remember the number of times I tuned into MTV for David Bowie's video, which included clips from that movie. I finally saw it on TV and I was blown away.

Colin is the main character and narrator of this story. It's the long hot summer of 1958. Rationing was over, and Britain was rebuilt, thanks to the Marshall Plan--now it was time for Britain to have fun with their own pop culture explosion. Colin has a lot of colourful friends. There's Wizard, pickpocket and entrepreneur out for a fast pound, Cool, the African trumpet player, the flamboyant Fabulous Hotlife, described as "our own Oscar Wilde," Dean Swift, "a modern jazz creation," and Big Jill, a hefty but friendly lesbian. And yes, there's the luscious Suzette, Colin's love interest, whose wanting to make it to the fashion big-time causes a rift between them.

Suzette does make it big, attracting the attention of her boss, Henley of Mayfair (James Fox). She comes onstage in a daring glittering black mini, and does the hot jazz number "Va Va Voom" with some African dancers.

Colin spends time taking snaps at the neon glitter and sights of the London nightlife, but doesn't want to go mainstream. "It's not that I've got anything against money. It's just what you have to do to get it." He eventually does pictures for Harry Charms (Lionel Blair), an oily talent searcher and agent with a penchant for young boys. It's actually gratifying when his protege Baby Boom shoves a microphone full force in his happy sacks. And I don't know if anyone noticed, but early in the movie, BB's the schoolboy who ends up picking up Charms' card that Colin throws away. It took me a while to finally realize.

Kinks frontman Ray Davies plays Colin's father, a man who lives with his "pre-war photo albums and sad memories." Colin's half-brother Vern is a disgusting, barely human cretin. And his mother (Mandy Rice-Davies of Christine Keeler fame), disillusioned with life, has affairs with the numerous lodgers. The cutaway tenement for the "Quiet Life" number is a brilliant touch, as is the chaos going on in there.

David Bowie has only a small role as Vendice Partners, that seller of dreams, but his musical number "That's Motivation," where he successfully tempts Colin into selling out has a wowser of a set including giant typewriters, a globes with an airplane attached at the equator, an Everest mockup marketing frozen vegetables, and a floor painted to look like a giant 78 record.
Speaking of musicians, Sade doesn't look out of place singing "Killer Blow." She's simply exquisite!

Patsy Kensit is so much more ravishing here than she ever was before she went on to Lethal Weapon 2 and Angels And Insects. Eve Ferrett is wonderful as the bubbly Big Jill.

Notable cameos include Steven Berkoff (Clockwork Orange, Beverly Hills Cop) as a Neo-Nazi fanatic presumably modelled after Enoch Powell, Colin Jeavons (House of Cards) as the fanatic's pamphleteer, Julian Firth (Brother Jerome in the Cadfael series) is the Misery Kid, dressed in the skeleton suit, and Robbie Coltrane (Krull, Harry Potter) as Mario the store owner.

The hot swing jazz sets the pace of the movie, replicating a slice of England sadly long gone. A real blast of a movie.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visually Stunning Musical Directed by Julien Temple, November 8, 2000

By 

Ibochild (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absolute Beginners [VHS] (VHS Tape)

When you watch the opening sequence from ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS, the first thought that might come to your mind is that it's shot a lot like Janet Jackson's "When I Think of You" video. There is a reason for that -- they were both directed by Julien Temple. His background as one of the top music video directors comes to good use here. All of the musical sequences are superbly staged and choreographed. As an added benefit, you get a rare chance to see both Sade and R&B pioneer Slim Gaillard perform in a motion picture. Sade is absolutely stunning as she sings "Killer Blow," a song which she also co-wrote. The soundtrack is filled with other great songs including Slim Gaillard's "Selling Out," "Having it All" (performed by Patsy Kensit), "That's Motivation" and the title cut. The latter two songs were performed by David Bowie. In terms of plot, the makers of the film took a big chance by going beyond the basic boy-meets-girl story found in most classic musicals. The romance is still there, but it also attempts to deal with some serious social issues, including the gentrification of a community. For the most part the film succeeds in its somewhat lofty ambitions. Overall, the cast gives credible, if somewhat broad performances, but this is to be expected within the musical genre. An initial hurdle for American audiences will be to decipher the thick British accents. However, with the second viewing that shouldn't be a problem, particularly given the fact that this release comes closed captioned. Thank God for closed captioning! I previously purchased the earlier, non-captioned version, but because the film has been so popular with my friends, I had no choice, but to buy a second copy. You know how it is when you loan things, sometimes it takes a l-o-n-g time to get things back -- especially with a movie as entertaining as this one. Rather than keep waiting, I simply purchased another copy (now with closed captioning) and I'm so glad I did. If you're looking for a musical with something on it's mind, you need to look no further. You will also be hard pressed to find a musical as visually stunning as this one with great music to match. This all for just a bit more than the price of a movie ticket. In short, ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS is an absolute must see.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mindblowing classic!, March 15, 2000

By 

L. Alper (Englewood CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Absolute Beginners [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I recently spent weeks trying to dig up a copy of "Absolute Beginners" on VHS. Needless to say, it was out of print, so it's exciting to see it available again. Julien Temple, the director of "A.B" is one of the architects of the rock video. In the early days of MTV, he was "the" director of all the best videos including Duran Duran's "Rio". Needless to say, "A.B" is chock-full of 80's music stars, & the colors & editing are fabulous. There are some sequences in this film that should be required viewing for film students. The opening 10 minutes is the longest uninterrupted, uncut sequence in modern film & it's complexity is staggering. The musical number "Selling Out" will leave you gasping at it's audaciousness. The set-piece "A Quiet House" featuring Ray Davies (the Kinks) could be a music video in it's own right. I could go on and on listing wonderful bits of film-making, clever visual asides, amazing sets but I'd rather you saw the film for itself. Please, give "Absolute Beginners" a viewing & see if you agree this film is a must-see!