Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll (1987)
Director: Taylor Hackford
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Early on in Hackford's well-researched documentary and concert film about the legendary Chuck Berry, we see Berry outside the Fox Theatre in St Louis, from which he was excluded as a boy because of his colour, and now to be the scene of his 60th birthday concert. Interviews with Berry's contemporaries - pianist and former partner Johnnie Johnson, wild man Little Richard and Bo Diddley - stress his originality, while family members fill in the personal background. Unusually, the emphasis is on the development of his unique guitar sound, with keen insights into his diverse influences. Berry's voice is shot, and several songs - 'School Days', 'Sweet Little Sixteen', 'Memphis' - fall hopelessly flat, but his guest stars do him proud: Richard's clanging riffs on 'Little Queenie', Clapton's bluesy licks on 'Wee Wee Hours', and R & B queen Etta James' gutsy, soulful singing on 'Rock'n'Roll Music'. The sound recording is excellent, and the fluid camerawork and sharp editing capture the live concert atmosphere.Author: NF
Cast & crew
Director: Taylor Hackford
Producer: Stephanie Bennett, Chuck Berry
Cast: Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Johnnie Johnson, Etta James, Julian Lennon, Keith Richards, Linda Ronstadt, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bruce Springsteen full cast
Genre(s): Documentaries
Duration: 121 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now