The Boat That Rocked

This boat really did rock

Writer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Hilary Bevan Jones

Director: Richard Curtis

Released: 2009

—

If you love groovylicious music and cool fashion from the 1960s, then you are going to LOVE this film!

It’s the kind of film where its characters are used to target the typical main-stream audience who are in their twenties and noticed Nick Frost was in it, but it’s ‘historical’ enough to capture the reminiscing kids of the sixties, yet, unique enough to entice the indie teens, and overall AWESOMENESS to be absolutely: Way. Friggin’. Cool. Man.

Philip Seymour Hoffman as one of the most rebellious and ego-driven radio stars

It’s a film about the pirate radio stars during the sixties who played rockin’ music, whilst trying to keep the government off their backs who didn’t like the kind of influence the radio stations had.

It’s an exciting film of each radio host’s personal triumphs as well as the overall capturing story of essentially giving the middle finger to society. The contrast between the conservative government workers versus the wild rock and roll supporters from the boats in the North Sea was drawn which was great to see two sides.

The government workers who are attempting to shut the pirates down

You can also see the same sort of contrast being drawn between the children and their parents. The children being the rebellious worshippers of the radio stars who hide radios in the bedrooms, and the parents being the BBC listeners who frown upon the culture of pop and rock and roll music.

Bill Nighy - EPIC as per usual

The humour was a bit hit-and-miss for me occasionally, but that’s probably because I have a dry sense of humour… As in, I find Napoleon Dynamite hilarious. The majority of the audience would enjoy it very much, I’m sure.

Fantastic music OBVIOUSLY, which compelled me to buy the double-disc album which was incredible! Think of your favourite artist from the sixties, and it’ll be on there… Except for The Beatles… That was a bit of a disappointment, actually… But if you’re not from the sixties, and you enjoyed the music on the film, buy the album! You are bound to find new favourite bands and will stock up on music from the sixties until your iPod has only Florence + the Machine and Cold War Kids left from the modern day…

A loud, crazy, colourful and hilarious depiction of a glimpse into the sixties’ uprising which was almost successful. I felt quite upset at the end when I saw the ship sink and I went into a deep daydream of how the Government should have let the ships be, how it could have been, how they should never have made laws against them and how spectacular the sixties was… and the WAY COOL music… The ending was a bit of a downer, but accurate nevertheless.

"Dancing in the street, to music! Sweet music!"

The Boat That Rocked was an entertaining film where anybody could pick out a favourite bit, moment or character, making it a movie that’s easy to talk about.  It is a perfectly orchestrated story with fewer stereotypes than I expected. The wardrobe was absolutely stupendous (I wish there was a “The Boat That Rocked Shop”) and the cut-aways to the everyday listeners was probably one of my favourite bits, because it gave you a huge scope of the world they lived in – since it could have been very isolated to the life on the boat. From Government agents to typical teenagers and families to the Gods of radio in the North Sea.

This isn’t a film worth watching, this is a film worth buying and then replaying. You will finish watching the film and feel an urge to carry a stereo around with you, liberating the boring and monotonous people of the 2000s with epic sounds of the sixties. You will feel the need to stick it to the man and be rebellious… But you’ll probably just put the film on repeat instead, and that’s cool too.

Connie’s rating: 9.1/10