Some People

I loved that this movie was made in my home town of Bristol. Places featured included Clifton, Filton, Patchway, Broadmead, City Center, The Downs, Totterdown, The Portway, The old Bus station, Soundwell Swimming Baths, Southville Baths covered over for Roller skating, The docks and The Clifton Suspension Bridge. Set in the early 60s it perfectly captured the atmosphere of the time. The story itself was a little light and seemed like a very long advert for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. The acting was all good and although Kenneth Moore wasn't in it as much as you would expect from a star of his caliber, he still stole every scene he was in. Now on DVD it is well worth a watch.

It is often said that 1963 was the first year of the sixties. "Some People" perfectly captures the pre-63 restlessness of youth in its quest to find its own voice and style. American rock and roll and leather jackets, motorbikes and Teddy boys, tight jeans (worn in a bath to make them skin tight) and quiffs - not to mention the brothel creepers and winkle-pickers. Man!

The Beatles in '62 looked exactly the same as the boys in "Some People" before they helped sweep youth into a new phase. What an exciting time it was but it was made so much more exciting by the fact that youth in the UK had struggled so hard to be different in the greyness of life after the war.

"Some People" stands up well. It has an authentic feel to it as it documents a moment on the cusp. No one could have been aware of what was to come and so it aims at what was happening rather than trying to give hints about its place in future history. "That'll Be the Day" did a very good job of documenting pre-63 UK youth but, because it was made in retrospect, it doesn't quite have the same effect.

Bill as played by David Andrews - like John Milner in "American Graffiti" - feels like he and his tough guy motorbike culture is being left behind by his friends. Bill represents the choice Johnnie has to make. It was bit like the Beatles choosing to accept the suits as opposed to their black leather gear from their rocker image days. As John Lennon found out, there is always a price to be paid if you want to go forward. Some, perhaps like Paul in the Beatles and Bert in the band in "Some People", gladly pay it. Others, like Johnnie and perhaps John Lennon, know that they will always be dogged by doubt and a sense of uneasiness. Isn't it another sign of what was to come as the band initially plays hard driving booggie woogie and guitar instrumentals but develop into a softer sounding pop band that uses a homemade mini pipe organ to augment their sound? Shades of the Beatles development - perhaps.

Brilliant cameo by Harry Corbett as Johnnie's dad and a moment of prescience as Johnnie plays "My Bonnie" - The Beatles first studio recorded effort albeit as the back-up band. It was used as a symbol of the past as the older people in the pub immediately warm to it. Johnnie's playing of the old standards becomes increasingly tortured as he seems intent on thrashing out the past in the hope of finding a future that is his own. Do I stay and become the despondent and heavy drinking old man like my father - as the song "Some People" says "sad about the song that they never sung"? Or can I escape? That's Johnnie's choice but escape is difficult. Ultimately "Some People" like songs such as "Fast Car" examines the eternal struggle of youth to find a path to a life that fulfils. I like the fact that the film ends with Johnnie still mulling over his future as he stands at a bus stop. There is no easy happy resolution to his problem.

So, this movie DOES actually exist after all! I've tried searching the title for years in various film guides to no avail. For some strange reason, "Some People" showed up at our local theater in Dover, NH sometime in either 1964 or 1965 and I saw it with a bunch of my 12 year old buddies. All I can remember is a scene where a teenager is sitting in a bathtub with a pair of jeans on to get that "form fit" we were all looking for back then, and the lyrics to the theme song "some people think that kids today have gone astray, but they don't know the kids the way I do," have stayed in my head for 44 years. I'm a once and future "British Invasion" junkie and was probably hoping that the movie would feature some of my current favorites such as the Searchers, Hollies, Honeycombs, Manfred Mann, Animals, etc., but I guess it was more along the lines of "That'll Be The Day," which covers the era immediately preceding "beat" music hitting it big in the States. Anyhoodle, I would like to thank the IMDb crew and all who commented on this forgotten classic (?) for restoring faith in my own sanity. If anyone out there would like to discuss music from this era, I'm more than ready to comply.

I first saw this film when I was 14 years old and have loved it ever since. It captured the atmosphere of the early 1960s perfectly and is a true snapshot of the times.

I can remember sitting in the cinema surrounded by other teenagers all dressed in black leather jackets, tight blue jeans and winkle-pickers. I can also remember seeing countless trails of blue smoke rising to the ceiling, as everyone smoked in the cinema in those days.

The music is also very typical of the time, and I am lucky enough to have the 45rpm E.P. of the soundtrack by Valerie Mountain and the Eagles.

I would love to see the film again, but I have only seen it on television once, and that was probably about 20 years ago. It was filmed in Bristol and I know that the city has changed considerably since then, so it is now of interest not only for the content and story, but also for the location in which it was shot.

I think this film is priceless and I cannot understand why it seems to have disappeared altogether. Perhaps it will be shown on TV again sometime?

Not many films used to be shot in Bristol, England in the 1960s. But Some People was shot entirely in and around the old city going out of its way to show the main characters in the very spots they would actually have been hanging about in real life as aimless teenagers. I know for certain because my parents were courting teens at that very time in that very place. I showed them the film recently (yes they're still a couple 54 years later) and the locations were very accurate to life as they knew it. My father actually worked in the Aircraft factory featured. The dance club in the film was the top spot for young Bristolians to cut a rug in 1962, a favorite place for them and all of their young friends (the front door manned by no less than Dave Prowse (not in the film unfortunately), the actor who made good as Darth Vader in a slightly better known film.) Bristol has changed but not so much that anyone familiar with it wouldn't know most of the locales.

Not much of a film really critically speaking, but well cast, well meaning, and well...it's not half bad. If you know the place it's a precious document though of a time and place which can never be duplicated.