Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story

It's nothing new or special if you have seen the Def Lepperd 'Behind the Music' episode, and I found some of the stuff-lip synching, concert set, etc-to be iffy-but otherwise, it's fine. The casting, acting, etc is good. The guys do look like Def Lepperd pretty much. You are hard pressed to get the bass player more than a cameo appearence, and that's not fair, he's been there since day one; and yeah predictably enough the drummer and doomed guitar player Clark are the ones the script centers in on. It's cliched stuff too.

But-the music is good, the band was good and important in their day, for a TV flick of the week it's alright. Beats the heck outta any 'Black Flag' or 'Ramones' bio either-it's about a group that actually sold records, filled up stadiums and had hits.

** outta ****

For factual timelines and a deeper sense of reality, die-hard Def Leppard fans should view VH1's "Behind the Music" documentary about the band rather than this dramatization, in which the real bandmembers had no real input other than contributing their songs. That being said, "Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story" has some interesting points.

This made-for-TV film does manage to convey the hardships and triumphs of Def Leppard in a thought-provoking manner, surmounting the somewhat-less-than-accurate script with fine performances by comparatively unknown (at least in the U.S.) actors. Unfortunately, due to the many artistic liberties that were taken (in order to condense the story to a manageable viewing time and to make the content acceptable for television audiences), quite a bit of crucial information was omitted, and many of the characters received short shrift as well.

The actors' abilities to make something substantial from the two-dimensional parts they were thrust into, let alone using their performances to push this film past mediocrity, is astounding. The most blatant example of this is in Adam MacDonald's portrayal of bass player Rick Savage. MacDonald breathes as much life as possible into the character, but it's plain to see the writers had no interest in its development, evidently because the fact that Savage was one of the founding members of the band -- even before lead singer Joe Elliott --was not as screenworthy as Steve Clark's fear of his father, or Rick Allen's reckless driving. This strikes me as an insult to the real Savage as well as to MacDonald, but more importantly, it suggests that there is probably a great deal more to this story than we are allowed to witness. Whether this is by choice of the bandmembers or the producers is unknown, but the overall feel is that of Cliff's Notes -- we have enough information to pass the quiz, but no more.

See this film as a supplement to, not as a substitute for, "Behind the Music".

Being a Def Leppard fan since 1992, I found this movie to be quite entertaining. The actors who play Def Leppard do pretty well, and their accents are decent. The only beef I have is with the Sheffield scenes being shot in Montreal. Montreal makes a rather poor substitute for an English city. The cars and buses don't look English either, especially since the drivers' wheel is on the left side of the car! Having the film shot in Sheffield would have been much more convenient. That aside, Def Leppard fans should enjoy this movie. The actor who plays Joe Elliott has a good singing voice, especially when he sings "Ride Into The Sun" and "Bringing On The Heartbreak".

If you live in Toronto, be sure to see them play live at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 15!

Contrary to what mtv and radio will have you believe, most 80's hard rock bands had musical ability behind the image. It is nice to see a story that pays respect to a stand out band in this genre of music.

Def Leppard has persevered through so much adversity, that there probably isn't another band who deserves a movie more. Of course there is more to their history than two hours could capture, but resolution was reached even with the events being rushed.

Solid acting made for believable portrayals and in various emotion. This is impressive as most of the actors didn't quite resemble the characters they played. This movie would be better suited for at least an R rating due to the wild parties this band is notorious for, but was handled probably as good as can be in considering tv standards.

The perks about having a non-theatrical release is that it presented a lot of new faces that most likely wouldn't get these roles because of the Hollywood bureaucracy that lately only caters to trendy actors and pop stars of the moment. It also brought back another actor in Anthony Michael Hall who played Def Leppard's producer John "Mutt" Lange.

In proving their abilities, this may be the movie that establishes these new actors as the next big wave of movie stars. Also the maturity Hall showcased in his role will hopefully gain him a widely known reputation as a versatile actor.

Overall, this movie was enjoyable and may gain cult status similar to that of This Is Spinal Tap with the exception being that instead of laughing at the band, we will be cheering for them.

I truly enjoyed Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story. It showed how the young lads from the depressing industrial city of Shefield England rose to the top of the heavy metal world. Alot of the movie deals with Rick Allen, the groups drummer, overcoming his infamous car crash where he loses his left arm and has to learn a new style of playing drums. Steve Clark was shown as a charismatic, yet insecure lead guitar player, who faces the demons of alcoholism, stage fright, and an overly-critcal father. Joe Elliott was portrayed as the driving force behind the group, a powerful lead singer who would be willing to "cut his gonads off to get out of Shefield." I wish the story would have concentrated a little more about Rick Savage, the groups bass player. After watching the movie, I still knew very little about him. Phil Collen,as a replacement guitarist for the ousted original founder of the band, Pete Willis, was a superb guitar player and had a great sense of humor. Phil and Steve were good together as the "Terror Twins" who partied hardy every night, until Phil decided to quit drinking. "What if I black-out and end up like Rick?

I enjoyed the songs and soundtrack of the movie. I thought the story was well done, considering that it was only a 90 minute TV movie. I know the movie wasn't perfect, yet I thought it was interesting and very powerful!