Blinded By the Light (2019)

I usually open up these posts with the cast lists, directors and so on. The only name I recognized was Hayley Atwell, who played Agent Carter in the Marvel movies (and the short-lived TV show).

I remember seeing the trailers for this last year and being blown away. My immediate reaction when I realized what this was going to be was "no way..."
We'd been doing a lot of movies featuring music by a single artist. Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman. So they're kinda riding that trend. And I kinda don't mind it. They're working through a lot of great artists. 
I also knew as soon as I picked up on this movie featuring Bruce Springsteen music... "oh boy, my dad is gonna LOVE this movie"... and I called that perfectly. 

As is often the case, he came across this movie in-flight, immediately fell in love with it, started talking about it whenever conversation with other people promoted it and insisted we have to get it. Yeah, when movies are parred with really good music, my dad just can't help himself. The Amazon package came a couple days ago.

We all gathered around and watched it yesterday... and there are a lot of thoughts I had during and afterwards. I knew I'd be less likely to want to watch it again so soon, so while everything was fresh, I wanted to get my thoughts down. 

This is inspired by a true story. A young Pakistani boy, Javet, living in Luton in the UK in 1987 comes from a strict household. Between his overbearing father and the state of the town, he wants nothing more than to escape it. He's also an avid writer, something he enjoys, but he also writes because, according to him, his dad is the only one allowed to have an opinion in his house. Someone he meets at uni (that's college in British talk) introduces him to Bruce's music ala cassette tapes and it gives him a whole new perspective on things. 

Just to get the negativity out of the way... as great as a lot of this movie was, the depressing parts of it were kinda hard to swallow. I actually checked the player for the time-- it was at least 20 minutes before things started getting good. It was almost like the beginning of Deadpool 2- it was super dark and depressing for the first 10 minutes or so. 
I have a lot of love for the 80's in general. I was born in 1986, so I love that era in general. Especially the music and movies- whether from that era or based in that era like this one. I remember being in a chat room talking about how I love that period and wish I could have lived my adult life in it. Someone said that it wasn't that great. This movie touched on that a bit.
There was a lot of unrest and hatred for Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the economy was so bad that nobody is hiring. His dad worked at a car factory, who laid off several of their workforce. At the start of the movie, we see that all of the wages earned by the hero (working a summer job) and his wife (a seamstress who works out of the house) are given to him. The only thing that would've made this picture more depressing is that he's spending all the money on booze cuz he's a belligerant drunk. The family is Muslim and drinking is against their religion, so that isn't the case. But it keeps his family from having independence. 
When Bruce comes into the picture, things do feel lighter and he more able to express himself, but there are still setbacks. Almost to the point where it was too much for me to take. While I don't know how much of the story actually happened, it comes from something real. Reality isn't always pleasant, but that doesn't mean I like enduring that harshness for long periods. That's why I like escaping into music and my writing. 

I think I also related strongly to the notion of not being free to express my opinion... granted, most of my dad's opinions on things are intelligent and they make a lot of sense to me. (More sense than a lot of the media, honestly). But there are some things I don't fully agree on and it's really frustrating to not be understood or listened to. It doesn't come up terribly often, but when it does, fireworks sometimes happen. Maybe the movie just hit a little close to home and that made it a harder watch than it should have been.

Now for some good things...

There's a lot of talk in the movie industry about being inclusive and telling stories from different races and cultures. In that respect, this movie does a great job. In this period, there was a lot of racial tension. Pakistanis have integrated into Luton to pursue a better life than in their country, but the National Front (meaning the local British folk) don't want them there. There's a lot of talk about immigration these days in America and how people are strongly supportive or strongly opposed to it. I'm somewhere in the middle-- we have a lot of people going hungry and living in poverty. How is it fair to bring more people into the country when there's barely enough for people already living here? But I'm willing to make exceptions, for people who really need to escape dire circumstances. It differs from person to person. I also don't like sanctury cities because criminals who are here illegally are hiding in them so they can't be deported. (Those stories drive me CRAZY when they've killed people and they've gotten into the country despite being deported multiple times).
The movie gives a good perspective on what Luton was like for the Pakistani population. There are slurs being scrawled with graffiti. Javet runs home to escape from a punk on the street giving him the stink eye. There are even little kids pissing through a mail slot in one scene. It's inexcusable that their parents allow them to do this or encourage it. 

The interesting thing I found-- they're a Muslim family and have a lot of friends that come from the same background. There isn't a single scene where you see them praying. Considering how important prayer is in their religion, that's kinda surprising. The closest we get to the Muslim experience is an incident where a pig head is hang by a mosque. Yikes... 

Now for the music... 
So much music... 1987 was such a great time for music. I'd been going through the 80's and found that I really enjoyed 84-85 and 87. Javet's best friend is in a band and he's doing the whole Pet Shop Boys/Boy George look. At uni, there's a radio station and the DJ was going gaga over Tiffany. 

Then there's the headliner, Bruce Springsteen.

Maybe it's cuz my folks grew up in Rahway, New Jersey... but they are huge Springsteen fans. My mom has a "Born in the USA" tour T-shirt... or she used to. I hadn't seen it in ages. So I know they saw him in concert at least once. In his lyrics, he talked about places that they'd been to. And my dad has a huge respect for singer/songwriter musicians. Part of the evolution in my musical tastes over the years was to try to find someone to bond over. It never quite happened... song to song, yes, but not a single artist. 
I remember dozens of car rides when we were kids, before we had CD players so we could listen to our own music, when the Born To Run album was playing in the car. Those songs have made such an imprint in my head that I recognize a lot of them just by sound alone. But the thing is... I don't really get Bruce. I respect the heck out of him for what he represents in music and his work ethic. But I don't like his voice that much. And I think I just got so sick of that one song because it'd been played so much. 
At the same time, considering I'd been working on my musical education over the last year or so, I should probably dig a little deeper to see if there's anything I can connect with. I also want to read his book (on my dad's old iPad) to get more behind the story. A few weeks ago, I actually looked up the lyrics to that song to see what the hell he was singing about. Just because of his vocal style, I have trouble understanding a single word. The lyrics were super helpful and I figure if I read through enough of them, I will find that common ground. Not that I'd be a complete disappointment to the family if I wasn't a huge fan. 

The way they incorportated the music in this movie was incredible. Lyrics were flying off the page so you could really see what Javet was feeling and how he was relating. The first song was "Dancing in the Dark"-- I'd known this song for ages because it was one of 3 MTV videos of his on an old VHS tape my dad put together back in 1987... I'd never heard the song like this before. Mainly because I had no idea that it was so dark. It's this nice poppy song. The music video is a boppy live performance where he's smiling and he pulls Courtney Cox on stage and dances with her. This isn't a new concept in music- upbeat music with dark lyrics... but it just blew my mind. 
And yeah, Born To Run got put into the movie in epic fashion... it was kinda hard not to. The way they did it was so over the top and cheesy, beyond anything Glee ever did (trust me, I know, I never missed an episode). So ridiculous. But at the same time, it was hard not to get swept up in the excitement. And if there wasn't any indication before this was a Springsteen house-- yeah, at least 2 voices were singing along to this song as it played. Another reason to not watch the movie multiple times close together- just dealing with that over and over. Regardless of how much I like or dislike a song, repetition is gonna kill it for me. 

Going back to Hayley Atwell- she played his teacher. Another great inspirational teacher. She teaches his English class and encourages him with his poems and helps get him started with his writing career. The funny thing was watching the movie, knowing that I knew who she was and finding at the end "oh, that was Agent Carter." Maybe it's cuz I had "SuckerPunch" on my mind lately, but I thought it was Carla Gugino.

The guy who introduced him to Bruce. First of all, it's cool to find out that they are still friends to this day. And also Javet saw Bruce in concert at least 150 times... dang! That's dedication. 
It also made me sad cuz I didn't get to see Prince in concert a single time. Heck, the only time he came to the east coast when I was following him, I didn't have the guts to ask to get tickets at Madison Square Garden or the Meadowlands. Other fans have crossed oceans to see him in concert and I couldn't even get up the courage to travel a couple states. This just brought those feelings back, that one regret I'm always going to have. 
And the two of them get to go to New Jersey (yeah, I know NJ gets a lot of crap for being an earpit and "Born to Run" was literally about wanting to get out of Jersey... trust me on this) and go to all the sites that are associated with him. A really cool montage- that was way too short, by the way. Cuz it felt like so much of the movie was building to that point. But that wasn't the end of it. 
We went to Asbury Park two summers ago after years of trying to find the time to go. We have a shore house in Tuckerton, so we're talking 50+ exits for a day trip. It was great to finally see the place. Actually stand in front of the Stone Pony- that was a pretty awe-inspiring moment. Even as someone who's not a huge fan, just to be right next to a place where rock n' roll history built their reputation- it's something special. 
I really hope I get to do that in Minneapolis- even if all I get to do is First Avenue, Paisley Park and maybe a couple random places having something to do with Prince. I have a list of them. I just don't have anyone to do it with. None of my immediate family like Prince, not as much as I do. They tolerate him and they support my passion for his music, but not so much they want to vacation there. We'd have gone ages ago if there was something for everyone else to do. I've made friends through Prince, but only on the Internet, so that doesn't exactly make things any better. 
I'm also glad that his friend wasn't a casualty of all the anti-Pakistani protesting going on during the movie. I don't know why, but I kept having this fear something bad was going to happen to him. Nope... he's good and they're still friends, like I said. 

Things do blow up with him and his dad, when he finally gets the courage to speak his mind. And there is a reconcilation at the end. Honestly, part of me still wanted to be mad at him and not forgive him so quickly. But it's still family and it's hard not to want to make things right with them. 

I guess what this movie ultimately is-- just the universal appeal of music and how it can span generations. There's a scene where Javet bonds with his friend Matt's dad over Bruce and it's another great musical number- I think "Thunder Road" was the song that time.  

And music has the ability to give us a voice we didn't know we had inside of us. Some things about this movie, I can definitely relate to. And I'm sure my dad thought of me when he saw this because I had this awakening with Prince. My mind expanded with him to where I was seeing things in technicolor. Or seeing an old movie on an HD TV and getting to see every little nuance and detail clearer than before- the way I described hearing the remaster of the 1999 album. 
I was able to see music in new ways I never imagined and then things in my life and artwork. Heck, he helped me get through college whether the music was clearing my head when I didn't know how to start a massive paper or I was writing about artistic things in Chinese Culture class (just one class) from a different perpective. And the crazy part is that there are so many nooks to his music and personality and everything to do with him-- there are hundreds of places to crawl into and escape from the world for a while. (And the world has been pretty really good lately, but sometimes I just like Prince World better). Even if I'm upset about something having to do with him, he's the person I run to to work through and feel better. When he passed away, I leapt into his music with a vigor I hadn't had in a couple years and aside from a few breaks here and there, it's been that way ever since. 

Music changes lives... the only thing that makes it better is to have people to share it with... but there are also times I don't want to share Prince with anyone :P cuz I don't think they'll understand or certain songs are just too embarassing to share. (I'm still kinda surprised my mom and I saw all the "50 Shades" movies together and were able to talk about some of it. But I can't imagine doing that movie with my dad... that'd be weird). I know enough to know general likes and dislikes and I'd played him on occasions, but only the albums I deem "safe" for mixed company.