"Stardust" starts where "That'll Be the Day" left off. References to the Kennedy assassination, the Clay/Liston fight and West Ham winning the FA Cup date the early scenes to 1963/4. At the end of the first film Jim MacLaine abandoned his wife and son in order to become a rock star; we now meet him as one of a struggling five-man band called the Stray Cats. Jim's old friend Mike accepts his invitation to become the band's manager. Mike was played in the earlier film by Ringo Starr, but he did not want to appear in the sequel, so another pop star, Adam Faith, was drafted in. Mike's change of accent from Scouse to Cockney is left unexplained. Several other real-life rock stars (Marty Wilde, Dave Edmunds, Keith Moon) also have roles.
The Stray Cats are catapulted to success after one of their records proves an unexpected hit. There are deliberate parallels between their rise to fame and that of the Beatles. (It has been suggested that Ringo refused to appear because he felt that Jim was too close to the character of John Lennon). They play at a nightclub similar to Liverpool's Cavern Club and wear Beatle-style suits and haircuts. There are even clumsy attempts to draw a parallel with the Beatles' gay manager Brian Epstein by suggesting that Mike- rampantly heterosexual in "That'll Be the Day"- might be sexually attracted to Jim.
The story then departs from that of the Beatles. Jim is by now both the band's lead singer and its songwriter, and they are billed as "Jim MacLaine and the Stray Cats". The other members of the group, jealous of Jim's greater fame, refuse to perform with him, and continue without him as a four-man combination. As a solo singer Jim initially achieves even greater success, becoming a major international star, but his hedonistic lifestyle starts to take its toll. He indulges in casual sex and heavy drug and alcohol use and this affects both his career and his relationship with friends and colleagues, especially Mike. He stars in a spectacularly vulgar neo-classical concert called "Sancta Dea", Latin for "Sacred Goddess". This is designed as a "tribute to women", which seems rank hypocrisy given how badly Jim has treated every woman who has ever crossed his path. He eventually retreats to a Spanish castle and becomes a drug-addicted recluse. (Interestingly, the phrase "castle in Spain" means an impossible daydream) The film was made by a different director to "That'll Be the Day", and is quite different in style. (This was only the second feature film of Michael Apted, later to become a big Hollywood name). The earlier film was a mixture of kitchen-sink realism and nostalgia for the fifties. "Stardust" is more of a fictionalised biography and an exposure of the seedy side of showbiz. Although in the early scenes we hear some mid-sixties hits on the soundtrack, there is little attempt at nostalgia. (The final scenes take place in the early seventies, only a few years before the film was made).
There are some weaknesses in "Stardust". Like another reviewer, I felt that the Stray Cats' music was insufficiently distinctive and insufficiently high quality for a group who are supposed to be among the most successful in the world. They may look like the Beatles but they sure don't sound like them. I also thought that there was a weak performance from Ines des Longchamps as Jim's French girlfriend Danielle. Nevertheless, "Stardust" is in my opinion a much better film overall than "That'll Be the Day".
There are two main reasons for this. The first is that "Stardust" has a much more coherent, structured plot than the earlier film, which tended to become dull and repetitive, little more than a catalogue of Jim's sexual conquests. The second is that David Essex is much better here than he was in "That'll Be the Day" where he fundamentally misunderstood the character he was playing, trying to make Jim a likable Jack-the-lad whereas in reality he was a complete bastard. In "Stardust", Jim is a much more complex figure; he can still behave badly, especially towards Mike and Danielle, but we see that he is also a pitiable character, trapped by his own success and fame, which have robbed him of the opportunity to live a normal life. This is perhaps most vividly seen in the scene where Jim is confronted with screaming fans even at his mother's funeral.
There are also good supporting performances from Faith as Mike, trapped in a love/hate relationship with Jim and from a pre-"Dallas" Larry Hagman as Porter Lee Austin, the American music tycoon who takes over the running of Jim's career. Although Porter Lee is not portrayed as an outright villain, it is clear that his control has a deadening effect on Jim's creative talents. For all Jim's fame, he still ends up working to make money for someone else.
Besides the obvious Beatles parallels, some have compared Jim to the likes of Jim Morrison, David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Yet watching this film I was most vividly reminded of another pop superstar. Like Jim MacLaine he started off in a five-man group, left to become a solo artist and became more famous than any of his colleagues. In his case too there were hints of sexual ambiguity and distasteful allegations about his private life. He too seemed to develop a messiah complex and ended up a recluse inside his luxury home. Even his initials were the same, albeit reversed.
For "Stray Cats" read "Jackson Five". For "Sancta Dea" read "HIStory". For the Spanish castle read "Neverland". For obvious reasons, "Stardust" cannot be based upon the career of Michael Jackson; in 1974 he was a teenager and his musical career only just beginning. Self-destructive tendencies like Jackson's, however, are an unfortunately common phenomenon in the entertainment industry, and "Stardust" is one of the best fictional studies of that phenomenon. 7/10
The Stray Cats are catapulted to success after one of their records proves an unexpected hit. There are deliberate parallels between their rise to fame and that of the Beatles. (It has been suggested that Ringo refused to appear because he felt that Jim was too close to the character of John Lennon). They play at a nightclub similar to Liverpool's Cavern Club and wear Beatle-style suits and haircuts. There are even clumsy attempts to draw a parallel with the Beatles' gay manager Brian Epstein by suggesting that Mike- rampantly heterosexual in "That'll Be the Day"- might be sexually attracted to Jim.
The story then departs from that of the Beatles. Jim is by now both the band's lead singer and its songwriter, and they are billed as "Jim MacLaine and the Stray Cats". The other members of the group, jealous of Jim's greater fame, refuse to perform with him, and continue without him as a four-man combination. As a solo singer Jim initially achieves even greater success, becoming a major international star, but his hedonistic lifestyle starts to take its toll. He indulges in casual sex and heavy drug and alcohol use and this affects both his career and his relationship with friends and colleagues, especially Mike. He stars in a spectacularly vulgar neo-classical concert called "Sancta Dea", Latin for "Sacred Goddess". This is designed as a "tribute to women", which seems rank hypocrisy given how badly Jim has treated every woman who has ever crossed his path. He eventually retreats to a Spanish castle and becomes a drug-addicted recluse. (Interestingly, the phrase "castle in Spain" means an impossible daydream) The film was made by a different director to "That'll Be the Day", and is quite different in style. (This was only the second feature film of Michael Apted, later to become a big Hollywood name). The earlier film was a mixture of kitchen-sink realism and nostalgia for the fifties. "Stardust" is more of a fictionalised biography and an exposure of the seedy side of showbiz. Although in the early scenes we hear some mid-sixties hits on the soundtrack, there is little attempt at nostalgia. (The final scenes take place in the early seventies, only a few years before the film was made).
There are some weaknesses in "Stardust". Like another reviewer, I felt that the Stray Cats' music was insufficiently distinctive and insufficiently high quality for a group who are supposed to be among the most successful in the world. They may look like the Beatles but they sure don't sound like them. I also thought that there was a weak performance from Ines des Longchamps as Jim's French girlfriend Danielle. Nevertheless, "Stardust" is in my opinion a much better film overall than "That'll Be the Day".
There are two main reasons for this. The first is that "Stardust" has a much more coherent, structured plot than the earlier film, which tended to become dull and repetitive, little more than a catalogue of Jim's sexual conquests. The second is that David Essex is much better here than he was in "That'll Be the Day" where he fundamentally misunderstood the character he was playing, trying to make Jim a likable Jack-the-lad whereas in reality he was a complete bastard. In "Stardust", Jim is a much more complex figure; he can still behave badly, especially towards Mike and Danielle, but we see that he is also a pitiable character, trapped by his own success and fame, which have robbed him of the opportunity to live a normal life. This is perhaps most vividly seen in the scene where Jim is confronted with screaming fans even at his mother's funeral.
There are also good supporting performances from Faith as Mike, trapped in a love/hate relationship with Jim and from a pre-"Dallas" Larry Hagman as Porter Lee Austin, the American music tycoon who takes over the running of Jim's career. Although Porter Lee is not portrayed as an outright villain, it is clear that his control has a deadening effect on Jim's creative talents. For all Jim's fame, he still ends up working to make money for someone else.
Besides the obvious Beatles parallels, some have compared Jim to the likes of Jim Morrison, David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Yet watching this film I was most vividly reminded of another pop superstar. Like Jim MacLaine he started off in a five-man group, left to become a solo artist and became more famous than any of his colleagues. In his case too there were hints of sexual ambiguity and distasteful allegations about his private life. He too seemed to develop a messiah complex and ended up a recluse inside his luxury home. Even his initials were the same, albeit reversed.
For "Stray Cats" read "Jackson Five". For "Sancta Dea" read "HIStory". For the Spanish castle read "Neverland". For obvious reasons, "Stardust" cannot be based upon the career of Michael Jackson; in 1974 he was a teenager and his musical career only just beginning. Self-destructive tendencies like Jackson's, however, are an unfortunately common phenomenon in the entertainment industry, and "Stardust" is one of the best fictional studies of that phenomenon. 7/10
