Customer Reviews

The Boat That Rocked (2009) ( Good Morning England ) ( Pirate Radio ) [ Blu-Ray, Reg.A/B/C Import - Australia ]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Boat That Rocked AKA Pirate Radio is set in 1966. When Great Britain was only playing rock and roll 45 minutes a day. There was a group of DJ's on a ship in the North Sea that's playing rock and roll 24 hours a day. Of course their are those who want this to end at any cost. This is also a coming of age movie for early rock and roll and young love.


I have no idea why this movie has been out since 2007 and no one has seen it. It is a quite long movie, but keeps your interest to the end. This is not a no name movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kennith Branagh, Talulah Riley and many more.
Pirate Radio aka The Boat that Rocked must have one of the best soundtracks since A Hard Day's Night (1964). This is one movie you should not MISS.

Released in the US recently as Pirate Radio, the DVD and BD discs have already been released in other regions as The Boat That Rocked (UK, Oz), Good Morning England (Fr), and Radio Rock Revolution (De). When you see the number of outtakes on the DVD (45 min worth), and the love the director has for each one (by way of his introductions), you can understand why the film is long. Decisions, decisions. Some of the best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor, but its inclusion would not have moved the plot forward, he claims. (A long scene in which Rhys Ifans describes to young Carl why he returned to Radio Rock, set in a Mexican cantina, is particularly poignant.) All the disc jockeys in the film are very "real". Ralph Brown as Bob sort of reprises his role as Danny in Withnail and I. Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Count, the token American, is as irreverent as the rest. Tom Sturridge is perfect as the lost boy, a fatherless, virgin, 18-year old sent to the ship as punishment. Kenneth Branagh, as the civil servant wanting to sink the ship, is an old-school villain born many, many drinks short. But music is king here, and the tracks are sometimes chosen to reflect the names of characters in the film. Too long? Maybe, but I bet you watch each one of the outtakes once you start. Perhaps it should have been a miniseries!

This is the British version of "Pirate Radio" and is formatted for Europe. I play it on my computer and it works fine. There are some big differences, making this purchase rewarding if you are a fan of "Pirate Radio". The characters are developed better in this version. Sometimes different music is used. The scene of Mariannne's second visit is staged for the night they become illegal which is highly improbable. The American cut is much better for this scene. The assistant of the Labor Party bad guy, Kenneth Brannaugh, actually boards the ship and the inference of sabotage is established. I remember in real life the suspicion that the Royal Navy planted a remote detonated mine on a radio ship. At any rate this version is very entertaining and a must for "Pirate Radio" fans. The music is great.

There was a period of my life during which for more than 12 years I played in rock bands, worked as a DJ in rock stations, wrote for 3 different rock magazines and a newspaper, and lost a lot of money organizing rock concerts, but man, what a gas! Were? Doesn't matter and that's another story. So this movie was more than sweet memories and like living all over again for me. Never worked in a pirate radio station though, but those days are long gone. With Internet Radio Stations, the mp3 players and music downloading, with musical magazines going virtual, with the prostitution of the music industry and the general media, it's no longer fun. I've interviewed well known bands and people in the real rock world, but now days there's nothing worth covering and few things worth playing, mostly metal. Basically, radio, as we know it, is dead and so is printed matter. Ask any radio station manager, newspaper editor and any book editor. Not everybody is thrilled with things like the iPad.
Anyway, let's get to the movie `cause if you liked this one, then you're gonna love "Almost Famous" (also with Philip Seymour Hoffman) and hell, why not, "FM", "Good Morning Nam" and even "American Graffity", the way I did. "The Boat That Rocked" (a.k.a. Pirate Radio) is a fiction movie based on real facts. That is: by 1967 there were about 20 pirate radio stations in the UK which played a Top 40 format, forgotten and probably forbidden in the Victorian norrow minded BBC. In the early 60' there were two well known pirate radio stations broadcasting from offshore ships: Radio Caroline and Radio London. The movie takes from them. There was also a government act in 1967, the "Marine Broadcasting Offences Act" ("Marine Offences Act" in the movie). It was something ridiculous then and even now, but concerning the arts and technology all governments tend to be quite illiterate. The bottom line is that even today there are over 100 pirate radio stations in the UK alone. Why? The same old story. Official radio stations live on commercials and on payola. Yes, I worked in several and I knows how it works. So, there's music that they'll never play and only the pirate radio stations will be able to cover all the rainbow of music that people want to listen to. That's why I love Internet Radio, specially those commercial free stations. I don't know of any offical radio station playing, for example, psychedelic rock now days. Thus the success of the Internet Radio.
The plot in the movie is great. Simple, straight, honest, comic, with some hints of drama, but the essence is there, the music is there. The life DJs lived, and beleive me, those DJs in the movie are too clean and decent. Well the movie is too clean in that matter. There are some insinuations about drugs but you won't see anybody smoking pot or dropping acid or getting really plastered. The stag party was too decent for guys that are supposed to be rock DJs in the mid and late sixties of the 20th century. Anyway, one gets a lot of laughs and a Hollywood end.
The OST is great but there are a few mistakes that can be explained only by the fact that the person in charge of it, chose a specific song because of the moment in the movie. For instance, Hendrix' "The Wind Cries Mary" is from the album "Are You Experienced?" released in August of 1967 long after the period which is established in the movie, but there's a very nice touch of homage towards Jimi in the scene were Quentin (excellently portrayed by Bill Nighy - don't miss him in "Wild Target") enters the lower deck of the ship just to find DJ Mark surrounded by naked girls exactly as in the cover of the 1968 "Electric Ladyland" album. Hilarious. Another song is Jeff Beck's "Hi Ho Silver Lining", a single from 1967. So is Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale". You can hear The Who with "Won't Get Fooled Again" from 1971, but it wasn't included in the OST CD. I don't understand why David Bowie's 1982 "Let's Dance" was chosen for the closing credits of the movie. It's even included in the OST CD. Bottom line, again, it doesn't matter, the music is far out.
Although there are a couple of Stone's tracks, they are not included in the OST. Copyrights I suppose, Mick and Keith think they're still poor. Arthur Brown's "Fire" was also left out. So was "Little Saint Nick" by The Beach Boys. And so was Ennio Morricone's theme "For a Few Dollars" and several other.
Some mistakes I won't excuse: the Capitol and A&M labels on the records shown in the movie were designed in the 70's; there's a modern Panasonic headphones in one scene, you don't play a 45 singles at 33 RPM, slim straight arms for turntables and tape reels were introduced in radio stations many years later (specially the arms), there's a drum head that I'm sure wasn't there around those days and man, anyone who's worked in a radio station knows what'll happen if you climb the antenna during transmissions. And finally, we didn't call them condoms, but Johnnies.
The cast in perfect. I already mentioned Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy, but not far behind are Rhys Ifans (unforgetable in "Notting Hill") as rock star DJ Gavin, Kenneth Branagh as the Hitlerian looking and dictatorial Sir Alistair Dormandy and Jack Davenport as the sleasy assistant Twatt (yes, with two ts at the end). Definitely a movie for all ages. For those who like to remember through music and for those who weren't born and have the interest and curiosity to find out how it was.
(P.S. From personal experience I know that record players are supposed to be flat horizontal in order to play and at the end of the movie there's no way they were leveled)

I saw Pirate Radio in the theater in the states and The Boat that Rocks has so much more in it! Ten times better. More music, more dialogue - awesome. If you have a blu ray player, I would advise getting it, doesn't look like universal is going to release it in the states even as Pirate Radio at this point. Awesome movie and Music!

"The Boat That Rocked" (the longer version of what is known as "Pirate Radio" in the U.S.) was criminally overlooked when it was released in theaters in 2009. I have seen this film at least 5 times now and I never get tired of watching it. The screenplay and the acting are all top notch and the non-stop barrage of
classic '60's pop/rock make this film a gift to behold. The energy in this film is infectious. I have grown to love these characters and re-watching the film is now like visiting with old friends. It's rare when a film like this comes around and I believe that someday, like "The Big Labowski", it will become a cult classic.

We saw it tonight, one of the best movies I've seen...
nostalgia, memories, artful record jackets

I will take this movie as a parody on how we view the 1960s today, with the dubious benefit of hindsight that automatically makes idiots of all authorities and the older generation and mixes it with anachronisms galore.

It is, indeed, true that BBC Radio by 1966, when this film begins, was playing very little of the kind of music we now describe as "rock". That left a market open to pirate radio stations basing their economy on advertisers. The British government, believing at the time that radio broadcasting should be non-commercial and purely based on quality, looked for ways to shut down these pirate stations, which not only played music but also commercials of the most stupid and annoying kind and probably didn't pay the musicians the royalties they should.

Also, it is only fair to say that after having managed to shut down the pirate stations, the BBC learned from their mistakes. It employed many of the DJs who had previous been working for the pirate stations and turned into the most wonderful, non-commercial, exciting and cutting-edge presenter of modern music in the world. It has stayed that way ever since.

But such a story wouldn't make much of a film, would it? Neither would conscious grown-ups being genuinely worried that their teenage daughters become pregnant or infected with sexually transmitted diseases. No, in the world of film we want colour on the screen but black and white morality, and what could be a better subject matter then than the mid-1960s?

Lets get a bunch of popular actors in and make them play some role they played several times before ... and then let the anachronisms begin. I'll list but a few of them.

1. The term "rock" and "rock and roll" runs through this film from its title onwards, but in fact nothing could be more unfashionable in mid-Sixties Britain than subscribing to this term, then only associated with the 1950s, greasy rockers, etc. Instead, youngsters would be into R&B, Soul, Modern Jazz, Motown, Blue Beat, Beat Music, Mersey Beat etc. Or simply pop music. But never, ever "rock and roll", and most certainly not the abbreviation "rock", which only came into use during the late 1980s, later to be flogged ad nausiam by Jack Black. Another term belonging to the 1980s is "vinyl" used for LPs and singles. I'm only talking about Britain here, but that is were the story takes place.

2. Loosely knitted hippie vests were not yet invented in 1966. You're at least half a decade off the mark there. Likewise, shoulder long hair and shaggy beards were not a feature for any men other than genuine tramps until very late in the 1960s. No girl would openly declare herself a lesbian to complete strangers, and if she did they would have a stroke on the spot. Men didn't talk openly to each other about their emotions, lack of sex life etc., and that's putting it mildly. In fact, as you may have noticed, most of us still don't.

3. About half of the songs played in this movie had not been recorded or released by the time the plot unravels. No wonder the film makers have omitted the dates of issue on the soundtrack credits.

4. About half of the records played in this movie display label designs from subsequent decades. Likewise, LP covers are nearly all reissues, displaying none of the characteristics of the period. It's actually dubious that these stations would play many albums at all, and certainly not in the modern CD stereo sound we get here.

5. Pirate radio station DJs in the 1960s weren't generally middle-aged, flabby, grey-bearded men. However, such people (like myself) are the most likely to watch this movie, so I'm sure they're grateful for being given the impression that they are walking sex symbols constantly hunted by silly, giggling teenage dolly birds wanting nothing more than having casual sex with them under crammed, smelly conditions on board a rusty old fishing boat in the middle of the North Sea.

Finally, I have to say that the acting, camerawork etc. is very good indeed. While nothing here makes you scream with laughter, there is a general humour running through it all which I like. However, with its pretty adolescent obsession with sexual issues and general lack of some major concept idea, this would have been much better suited for a TV sitcom than a feature film.

You'd have difficulty making up such a great story as that of UK pirate radio in the 60s. There's virtually no pop or rock music being played on the radio at the same time as the music world is being turned upside down by a seemingly unstoppable flood of new, young and hugely popular, UK artists & groups... so, some clever entrepreneurs hire a couple of beat-up boats, anchor them off the coast outside of the reach of the law, fill them with a group of equally young, inexperienced DJs, start broadcasting 24 hours a day and, within a year, are being listened to all the time by just about everyone in the country under the age of 25 who can receive a signal. And, because they're mavericks working outside of the law, the DJs can push the boundaries out as far as they dare and play whatever they like; and, because they're so popular, these DJs not only rapidly become as famous & iconic as the artists they play but have a profound affect on the development of UK music in what's now seen as its "golden age". The boats are raided, the establishment wants them closed down, and their vast number of listeners see this as the most obvious evidence of an older generation plot to stop the youth revolution that's going on all around them. How quintessentially "60s" is all of that?

A great story then and one that's just waiting for someone to turn into a film... pity that it's Richard Curtis who sees its potential. Why? Well what he comes up with is simply not what it was like - it's just a convenient backdrop for another typically slick romantic comedy which, while entertaining and funny, is a great shame for the story of pirate radio is so good that it deserves more respect and, above all, at least some attempt to make it historically accurate.

For example, virtually all of the DJs were in their early 20s and none were over 30 - a pretty important fact as it was precisely because they were so young that they could relate to, be accepted by and influence their audience. In the film, every DJ with the exception of one - the man who doesn't speak (no pirate DJ didn't speak, they all talked incessantly) - is in their mid 30s or mid 40s, with the most ridiculously glaring error being the John Peel lookalike who's in his 50s (Peel, one of the oldest pirate radio DJs, was 27 in 1966) and who's portrayed as an old "hippie" when, in 1966, there were no old hippies... in fact there were very few young hippies.

And, as another reviewer points out, none of the DJs seem to have any interest in music and there's no discussion about music between them at any point in the film. You don't get yourself banged up in the ridiculously cramped and unpleasant environment of a pirate radio boat for weeks on end unless you're heavily into music and, if you are, you'd pass quite a lot of your time talking about it. Maybe the boatloads of dolly birds braving the waves to get under the blankets with their DJ heroes made it all worthwhile... er... no, see the You Tube interview about the film with Tony Blackburn (one of the most popular pirate DJs who was 21 at the time) on this one because nothing like that happened, on board at least.

Oh and then there's the sea itself... it's pretty damn cold in the North Sea in mid winter, so cold that you don't survive long in it. Not that this seems to bother our jolly bunch of middle-aged DJs who possess super-human endurance in these freezing waters as their ship starts to sink. Odd? Even odder actually because the pirate stations were outlawed in August 1967 not, as in the film, in mid winter 1966 - getting this date right would at least have made their ability to avoid instant hypothermia partially believable. Not good, and it gets worse, because there's also the man from the ministry, Mr Twatt... Mr Twatt in both name & nature unless you'd somehow missed the double-entendre... come on, dealing with the pirate radio stations was a very serious issue for the UK government precisely because any move to shut them down was going to be so hugely unpopular, not a job for an incompetent. And, of course and as you'd now expect, several of the records played hadn't actually been released in 1966. Hmm... there's a limit to how far you can get things so wrong in the relentless pursuit of entertainment and we've reached it.

Any redeeming features? Yes, one, the opening five minutes absolutely captures the impact of pirate radio - young, enthusiastic, incredibly exciting and "dangerous" - you won't get a better recreation of what it was like to be a UK teenager listening to the Kinks' wonderful "All Day And All Of The Night" blasting out from your transistor radio and to know that, just by tuning-in, you were joining millions of other teenagers in something that was very special - I know, I was one. The rest is history, but not as portrayed here... ah well.

Funny movie of radio-pirates operating their none-knows-how-funded-with radio station from a board of an old trawler,- sex nuances following.

A bit entertaining as much as British comedy involving American souls might be.