The Idolmaker [VHS]

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It's a bit disheartening how hard I had to search to be able to watch The Idolmaker. I'm not sure what twigged the desire but it was a film that made a big impression on the young aspiring rock star me. I saw it several times in an actual theatre and am pretty sure I saw it on TV as well. Filmed in the 1980 but set at the tail end of the '50s it is now double retro but holds up remarkably well.Not only is The Idolmaker engrossing as a film but it also now seems eerily prescient. In the era of punk and new wave, it was humorous, and tragic, to look back at the pop idols who manufactured because of their looks rather than their talent. In hindsight, after boy bands and Spice Girls and Kardashians, it all seems rather innocent. At least they bothered to work to find, dig out or hammer in some talent to back the looks up.Ray Sharkey plays an aspiring songwriter/producer who tells his mother, the luminous Olympia Dukakis in a drab role, that despite the voice she has just complimented, he doesn't have the looks to be a singer. So he sets out to find a face and body to svengali. His buddy played by Paul Land pressures Sharkey to come see his band because,We got a great new singer, blond hair, blue eyes.to which Sharkey states emphatically,Women don't want blond singing idols. They want dark hair like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley.Sharkey sees the band as they rock the club. Land is the saxophone player and, clad in a red suit with a conspicuous bulging crotch, he drives the crowd wild with chants and thrusts. The singer, similar coloured suit but buttoned over a Ken doll crotch, appeals to no-one and Sharkey convinces Land to become the front man. And then not only trains him to be a star but also connives, begs, borrows, bribes and steals to make him one.The breakout role, and the one I most remembered, was Peter Gallagher as Guido transformed into Caesare. It is impossible to express just how stunning Gallagher looks in the film. And he sings and dances impressively. So much so that when he comes into his own with "Baby" the film is effectively over. Plotwise we still need to see him emulate Elvis and to follow Sharkey's trajectory in becoming a singer himself (a tragic footnote where instead of a pop idol he becomes an embarrassing soft-rock crooner). Caesare has found and expressed his sexuality and the film climaxes and loses all momentum.(full review at [...])

"I've been up, I've been down, I've been playing women all around ..." It amazes me that this great movie seemed to have bypassed modern audiences to the extent that no-one even remembers it anymore. I remember when it was released in South Africa in 1981, my best friend and I went to see it four times in the same week. At that time, we were uncritically into movies about music, rock 'n roll and disco (Grease; Saturday Night Fever; Thank God it's Friday; I Wanna Hold your Hand etc)and this movie delivered big time in terms of our low expectations. As I've matured, movies like these have either dated rather badly (Saturday Night Fever) or gradually revealed their mediocrity (Thank God it's Friday). The Idolmaker has only become better! This is truly a movie that succeeds in being all things to all people. As kids, it delivered the most basic kind of entertainment that made going to the movies a weekly pleasure. As adults, it delivers an intelligent, bittersweet and admirably unsentimental look at the unforgiving dynamics of an industry and culture prizing image and packaging over substance and content. Featuring a remarkably confident career best performance by Ray Sharkey ably supported by the always reliable Joe Pantoliano and a suitably weeny Peter Gallagher, The Idolmaker is the forgotten classic of the musical drama genre. In a funny way, given the setting, the neighbourhood, the wiseguy attitude - I've always kind of considered The Idolmaker as a kind of sub-Scorsese movie - an upmarket, glamorous companion piece to Mean Streets, Raging Bull and other such Italian American neighbourhood tales. But that would be unfair to director Taylor Hackford, who has fashioned a remarkably original stand-alone homage to the hardworking, entrepreneurial, fame-hungry neighbourhood kids who were the real, unseen backbone of the rock 'n roll industry. Breezy and pacy, yet tinged with profound pathos, The Idolmaker is the best of its kind. The fact that it has a terrific soundtrack that'll have you humming all day doesn't hurt either. This is the best, most insightful and intellectually stimulating movie about rock 'n roll ever made. Add The Idolmaker to This is Spinal Tap and A Hard Day's Night in your collection and you'll own the only movies you need to about the music industry and the stupidities -and undeniable attraction - of its attendant celebrity. Oh yes - and I guarantee that after watching this movie, you'll never be able to take groups like the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync seriously again.

Anyone who loves music and what goes into making a good performance will love this movie. The actors have been perfectly cast with obvious great care. The idea and the execution of the story line is fast paced and engrossing. I"ve only seen it once when it came out and I knew I had to buy it when it became available on BluRay. Unfortunately, the sound qulity is not apropos to the content which is high quality music... This disc suffers from the same problem many older movie digitizations produce, which is a fluctuating up and down level between the speaking voices of the actors qand the music production and background music itself. I found myself constangly adjusting the volume for each section and scene of the movie. Still, I enjoyed the flick so much I had to give it a 4 overall. In this way maybe those of you who wouldn't mind too muchahving to baby yourself through the loud and quiet spots will still buy it and do the work without too much niggling. You will enjoy this show if you've never seen it and appreciate it even a little more than you did before if you've already seen it. So, go for it, but beware of the poor final mixl of sound level of the conversion to modern media and you won't be disappointed..

There are very few films that can captivate the mind as well as this one,The Idolmaker is based on the life of Bob Marucci, The Rock promoter andproducer.Featuring an excellent musical score by Jeff Bary and showcases Peter Gallagher's debut and Ray Sharkey.A story of a man driven to discover the next face of talent creating twounique stars of their time the question isn't how to make them into starsits how to keep control of them?An excellent film Suitable for the whole family, overall the only negative is a short dialogue spoken in Italian without English subtitles.

I've always loved this movie. The DVD did not disappoint!

I love this movie! It brought me right back to 1980! It was great to watch a good old fashioned movie again.

Love it, works great!!

Terrible sound, too expensive for the crappy quality!