Notes

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Named after a Buddy Holly song and set to a score of early American rock hits, Claude Whatham's story of a restless working-class lad in Britain in the late 1950's [assumed to be inspired by the early life of John Lennon] is a portrait of dissatisfaction and disaffection. Real-life rocker David Essex [of the hit single "Rock On"] stars as a Jim MacLaine, a schoolboy who gives up everything in a spontaneous rebellion. Not so much an angry young man but simply frustrated and directionless, he drifts through seasonal jobs, chasing girls with his veteran carnival buddy [a cocky Ringo Starr with rocker sideburns] and killing time in dance clubs. The overwhelming emptiness finally sends him wandering back to his dreary hometown for a more respectable life, but he is still dissatisfied. While music is never the focus of the film, the nascent rock & roll scene simmers around the edges through American records and British cover bands [Billy Fury and Keith Moon appear in cameos]. The drab small towns and chilly seaside holiday camps evoke a stifling sense of conformity and social stagnation-think of it as a uniquely British take, on Rebel Without a Cause-that becomes the crucible for the rebellious British rock & roll explosion around the corner. It's considered to be one of the great rock films,