Eddie and the Cruisers (1983)

My Second-Favorite Movie Of All Time
A fantasy story about a Jersey bar-band that makes good, but TOO good! Great music by the Cafferty band. Includes "On The Dark Side". After you watch this, watch the sequel. Great fun!

Just a Bunch of Guys from Jersey
Back in the Dark Ages, when cable television first reared its ugly head in and around Dearborn, MI, Jonesy and I welcomed our local provider's sales people with open arms and a cold Molson. They politely declined the suds, but appreciated the sentiment.

We wound up with a basic cable package and an introductory offer of all available movie channels for 90 days, but someone downtown fell asleep at the switch and we enjoyed the fruits of their blunder for well over a year until we had to enter a service call, at which point we came crashing back to earth. On the bright side, our electric bill plummeted dramatically.

So we watched a lot of "Scarface," which seemed to be on constant rotation along with this sleeper. Michael Pare shines as Eddie Wilson, a working-class jamoke from the Jersey shore, whom we meet via a series of flashbacks to the early 60's. He has the black leather jacket, the attitude, and even a band, but the planets don't align until he meets Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger), the "Word Man," a real college graduate who knows how to spell Rimbaud. With Wilson's tunes and the Word Man's lyrics, Eddie and the Cruisers climb the charts. With success in their grasp, however, Eddie drives his car off a bridge and his body is never found. The end.

Not really. Flash forward 20 years when an entertainment report (Ellen Barkin) convinces her editor that Eddie may have faked his death in order to disappear, perhaps unknowingly providing the inspiration for Ritchie Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers in the process. The key to the mystery, she decides, are tapes of the band's last, unreleased album, "A Season in Hell."

I won't spoil the ending, but "North by Northwest" this is not. It will, however, keep you guessing while the acting and ambience take you back. And for those who like Bruce Springsteen soundalikes, John Cafferty's original music sure makes the film go down easy.

eddie & the cruisers
movie was a little worn when I got it, but I bought it used, really like the movie, just have to get passed the fuzzy part and then it is good