The Beach Boys: An American Family

This was a very good movie, whether you are a big Beach Boys fan or not. However, if your not a big fan, you will be after seeing this movie. The movie was a lot easier to put together and understand if you happen to have read the book Heroes and Villains. You can see where a few things were switched around here and there, but nothing that really takes away from the truthfulness of these great musicians life as The Beach Boys. Absolutely worth the time to watch. The movie was 3.5 hours and it didn't really cover anything past about 1969. Thats the problem when you have a band that entertained America and Europe for 38 years. There isn't enough film to show it all. I would like to see a movie do the years from 1970 to about 1990, covering both Carl and Dennis' death. A very sad and tragic thing;however, remember, we still have Brian, Mike, Bruce, Al and even co-founder David ,that only appeared on the first 5 albums covering 61-63. Their talking about touring again, lets make it happen. Send comments to Brians web site. Think about it, the Beach Boys live in 2006. Wouldn't it be nice!

I like music biopics, Fred Weller makes Brian appear like a silly teenager, yes Brian had mental problems fueled by drugs but he was a musical genius and this does not show through. Matt Letscher stood out as Mike Love. Nick Stabile was well cast as Dennis but the movie stops before his drowning which was a tragic event in the Beach boys history. Where I think the movie failed is that it lacked any joy. The Beach boys music oozes joy and this was not put across. For those reasons I actually prefer 'Summer dreams'

This mini-series seemed a bit defanged, especially compared to the 1990 telefilm (which is unfortunately unavailable and all but forgotten). This is largely due to John Stamos' involvement, a close friend of the boys as well as the touring drummer. This creates a slightly biased point of view. The favor leaning towards no-one. No-one is presented as a protagonist or antagonist, even the villainous Murray Wilson is redeemed (an infuriating touch). Mike Love is generally considered the idiot Beach Boy, deterring from Brian's genius. But, personally I liked his character best (Matt Lescher's performance oughtta garner an Emmy nom). Brian Wilson is far too neutral and less tragic here than he was. And finally the series ends during the mid-seventies come-back, which no-one remembers!!! The series takes no chances and tries to be all happy, which it is far from. However, the earnest performances make it worth while. It's the best treatment of the legend to date. So it will have to do.

This movie just happened to be on when i came back home on a Sunday afternoon, and initially I thought it was going to be awful. But I was so wrong, I really enjoyed it, they could have shortened it a bit, it lasted nearly 3 hours with ad breaks, but in the main I found the performances very good, the writing credible, and I discovered stuff about the beach boys that I hadn't known before.

It doesn't just focus on the music but also the somewhat strained relationship between brian Wilson and his father, his relationship with the rest of the band, and the various screw ups that seemed to afflict most of the members.

California in the sixties and the Beach Boys are inseparable; as someone says in the course of this film, originally made as a miniseries, the Beach Boys are an expression of California culture. Yet only one of them, Dennis Wilson, was really a denizen of the beach (and not a serious musician), and the musical genius behind the Beach Boy's distinctive, haunting sound, his older brother Brian, had enough emotional problems to fill an analyst's notebook.

This 4 hour film, the latest of several attempts to put the Beach Boys story down on film, is an easy to watch, straightforward account of their `progress' from suburban garage jam sessions to pop stardom in the mid sixties, to decline in the late sixties and revival in the mid seventies. The later history of the group is not covered.

Three things stand out. The first is the fragile talent of Brian, who, timid and half deaf though he was, managed to inspire and lead the group during its early years both on and off the stage, and who, with Mike Love doing the lyrics, contributed some imperishable songs to the pop lexicon. The second is the father from Hell, Murry Wilson, a frustrated pop musician and control freak, who tried to dominate and exploit the boys and nearly destroyed them. The third is the price of fame. Brian, who had real talent, was exploited by others and nearly went under to drugs. Poor Dennis whose only real facility was seducing women got completely bamboozled and at one stage was dragged into Charles Manson's toxic circle. Carl Wilson was a more level-headed sort and hence his story is less dramatic, while Mike Love, the lead vocalist (a cousin) is portrayed as your usual vain, not over-bright popster who doesn't handle success very well either. As for the women in their lives, being married to a beach boy was almost as bad as being one.

This is a workmanlike account of the story and no better than it ought to be, but there must be a special mention of Kevin Dunne as the manic Murry, all enthusiasm and tunnel vision, a man totally incapable of listening to those he loved or understanding their feelings. It is a tribute to Dunn's acting that we wind up understanding the man rather than hating him. Fred Weller does a good job with Brian, and Nick Stabile is well cast as Dennis, the male bimbo with attitude. The best part about the film (and there aren't enough of them) is the songs. In the end they are what mattered, and many Beach Boys songs will linger on in the minds of those who heard them as teenagers for as long as they live – Good, Good, Good Vibrations!