The Beach Boys: An American Band

This is a fairly decent documentary on probably one of the most influential bands in rock and roll. However, they do tend to gloss over most of the problems within the band. Many people know that Dennis Wilson was involved with Charles Manson but the film barely touches on that aspect. Also, it barely touches on the physical and mental abuse the Wilson brothers went through and how it affected them especially Brian and Dennis. However, listening to all those classic songs, especially those from the aborted "Smile" project, made this a good film for me.

What's great about this film, is that it doesn't just show you a series of little fifteen second sound-bites of vintage performances, but lets each clip run it's course, so you get to hear the entire song. Although many of them are obviously lip-synched (most notably "California Girls" from the Bob Hope special), there are enough rarities here to satisfy even the hardest of hard-core fans. The highlight of the movie, for me at least, was "In My Room" with a full orchestral backing from 1963, that must have been Al Jardine's very first filmed performance with the group. If only all musical documentaries were this good!

An excellent warts and all docu-bio of the legendary Californian surf band, told by the members themselves. From the very beginning, all the way to drummer Dennis Wilson's untimely death. A mixture of vintage concert footage, interviews, film clips and narration by those concerned. Well worth an hour and three quarters of your life.

I was expecting the standard 90% obscure people who think they are experts talking to themselves and 10% sound bites through the years.

What we get is 90% songs (Most complete) and 10 of the Beach Boys themselves giving insights as to production and their personal struggles.

I realize that a lot of their later songs such as "Sloop John B," the seventh track on The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, were my favorites; however, I did not associate them with what I think of as the California surfer set.

All in all, the whole presentation is pretty professional and thorough. I hope your favorite songs were displayed.

Makes you want to retire in Capitola.

This movie contains some amazing footage and it goes from the beginning of the band until the mid 80's when Dennis Wilson passed away. It's a bit of a flaw that the live performances are sometimes out of sync making the whole thing look a bit ridiculous. In between the concert footage the band members tell their story by some scripted lines, which is more than just a bit silly, but still fun to look at.

Above all, this movie is not to be viewed as a factual documentary. Most of the band's conflicts and troubles are only addressed shortly if they are addressed at all and the movie tries to paint a picture of endless harmony between all the band members, which wasn't there for most of the time. It's like watching a propaganda movie from a time of war, where most facts have been spun around. In hindsight, if you look at such movies and you know how things really went down, it's still very intriguing to see how they have been presented at the time. That's the main fascination of "The Beach Boys: An American band".

There is some very intimate footage in this movie. We actually get to see Brian lying in his bed with the blanket up to his chin as he did for most of the late 60's and early 70's. He is giving interviews without leaving the bed, trying to act as if this behavior was completely normal. We're at Brian's 34th anniversary party with Paul McCarntey. We see the press conference the Beach Boys gave after Dennis had passed away and somehow you get more information if you read between the lines than from listening to the things the band members say in interviews.

The most amazing thing to look at is Brian, who does seem uncomfortable for most of the time, but not exactly deranged. He could actually speak fluently up until the 80's, so even though he probably feels better now he somehow seemed healthier back then than he does when he's babbling on stage these days.

It's been a long way for Brian and the band and this movie covers most of it. "It's a dramatic story! It's the story of the Beach Boys", as Brian puts it at one point in the movie.