This is the story of Alan Freed. He was working as a DJ in Cleveland, Ohio, and he discovered how amazing R&B or Rhytym & Blues is, however, the music is considered to be "BLACK" music. So, most radio stations won't play it. However, Freed believed that it's the next wave, so he fights to have it played on the air. Eventually, he went into the big time - New York, and he decided to dub this music "ROCK & ROLL". Despite his success, he still had a lot of opposition and made deals with the wrong people, which would lead to his downfall.
Reviews
Save your money for something good and enjoyable
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
OK it could have been better, but overall I thought it covered the lift of Alan Freed quite well. There are bound to be gaps but the main message got through. It is amazing how racist the music industry was and still is and one producer in the film said 'there are plenty of white acts doing rock and roll now, we don't need to feature blacks anymore' It was good that Mr Freed stood up to this. The actors playing the various Rock&Roll stars varied in how good they were. As usual they often over act and make it look so obvious they are miming. Watch the original Little Richard etc and you will see the charisma coming through in a way that the actors can't seem to get. Leon playing Jackie Wilson? Leon seems to play every black singer. he was David Ruffin in the Temptations story and Little Richard in the film about his life, but here as Jackie Wilson he just didn't seem right. I would recommend this film to any fan of Rock or anyone interested in the struggle of black artists.
I bought this movie on DVD because I like Judd Nelson and I like the music. I didn't know who Alan Freed was before watching the movie, I had heard the name and knew he had something to do with Rock n Roll, but that's it. I'm afraid I still don't know that much about him after watching this movie. There were quite a couple of scenes (especially those which showed his private life) when I was like "hello, did I miss something?". Sometimes there didn't seem to be much of a connection between the scenes...there simply was too much music (which by the way was great!) and very little story. I know Judd Nelson as a gorgeous character actor and I read he wanted to do this movie because he loved the music, so I'm sure he put some effort in it. I guess there simply was too little time to support any real character development, or else the movie was made for people who already know about Alan Freed's work and don't mind about the gaps. Anyway, I gave the movie 6/10, but not necessarily as an Alan Freed Story, but a Rock n Roll story.
Judd Nelson gave an excellent performance as Alan Freed the disk jockey who coined the term Rock & Roll. All of the performances were fine and the songs of course were great. The lady who played his wife was a new face and very classy. The actor who played the heavy role was also quite good. Well worth watching.
OK, so it is a TV movie. And it didn't cost 100 million to make. But there are several charming story lines throughout the movie, and you do get to re-live some of the songs and performances you loved as a teenager. The actors do passable impersonations of the real stars of yesteryear. Give it a look when it is broadcast, you'll not be disappointed!
Top Streaming Movies
