first reaction when seeing this clip

[punkinhead]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gn1ziY6G-tg


i know you're gonna hate it, but i actually used to like this part of the movie a lot

[Chris Brown]

I didn't hate it when I first saw it...it seems to approximate the crazyness of the Smile period fairly well.  Obviously the portrayal of Brian is a bit extreme, and it fails to show that despite his issues, he recorded a lot of great music during that period.  The band reactions seem about right though.

The other thing that annoyed me was showing Brian singing "Let the Wind Blow" using Carl's voice from the recording.

[punkinhead]

i love hearing the piano parts of let the wind blow (did brian record this special for the film?)

also, if you see the comments below the video, i'm the JustinPlank dude.

[Ebb and Flow]

What bothers me is the way "Let The Wind Blow" is portrayed as some sort of post-Smile concession  to make poppy, commercial boy/girl songs again.  Wild Honey is, to me, as much a part of Brian as Smile or Pet Sounds.

[b00ts]

Fred Weller (Brian Wilson) is my soon-to-be brother in law. No sh*t.

[Chris Brown]

Fred Weller (Brian Wilson) is my soon-to-be brother in law. No merda.

Really?  That's cool, tell him he did a fantastic job for me!

[Doo Dah]

Michael - "Sooner or later they'll learn...positivity and harmony lasts forever..."
 

I dunno - watching that clip as well as the program back in the day has the same morbid fascination of a supermarket tabloid.
'Oh that's stupid. Real stupid. Oh well - I guess it won't hurt to thumb through it while I'm waiting...'

[Alex]

As bad a wrap as this movie has gotten (e.g. that its pro-Lovester), it looks better than the 1990 movie, and I like how they use an actual SMiLE sleeve with the Frank Holmes artwork, The acting seems little shoddy, though. No matter what, I want to see the whole thing now just out of curiosity. Maybe that new BW movie will finally do the BB story, or at least Brian's part, justice.

[John]

Man, they made SMiLE look like nothing BUT silly noises. Surf's Up? Cabin Essence? They could have showed something of worth.

[Roger Ryan]

Interesting that the clip is from the initial broadcast before Van Dyke Parks' name was changed to a fictional one. The only thing I like about the sequence is the fake SMiLE music (by Gary Griffin, I believe) and the fake Parksian lyric "Geronimo leaps and bounds for glory over the dustbowl" which is a perfect approximation of a SMiLE lyric (if I remember correctly, the lyric was an off-hand suggestion by Alan Boyd).

Otherwise, it's a real disappointment and fails to work as drama. Parks really comes off as an ass; Brian almost completely incompetent. That moment where Brian decides to burn the SMiLE album covers before sitting down to record an overdub on "Let The Wind Blow" is an example of how absurd the direction of this film was.

[Awesoman]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gn1ziY6G-tg


i know you're gonna hate it, but i actually used to like this part of the movie a lot

Oh, so that's how it all went down!  :-)

[Mr. Wilson]

I think there is more truth in that movie that anyone of us would ever care to admit.... But i dont think BW was as wacked
out as portrayed..Just different or ahead of the curve.. But then again BW did dig his own grave in his backyard then claimed it was just a joke..!!.. Who really knows..??..Just the insiders.. We should just focus on the great music they made..We ALL have ghosts in the closet...

[Aegir]

I thought this was all pro-Mike Love at first, but later in the film Mike is shown being just as crazy due to TM.

People who don't know the Beach Boys story probably wouldn't be entertained by this, and people who DO know the Beach Boys story wouldn't like it because of the inaccuracies.

[Amy B.]

Wow, it's even worse than I imagined.

Is Brian eating cheesecake in the first scene?

[Quincy]

so of the mark..pure puke...get some truth

[Chris Brown]

I actually enjoyed most of the movie, inaccuracies aside.  My biggest problem is the ridiculous portrayal of Brian from "California Girls" through "Smile".  They show him as a drugged out moron (except when he is in the studio during "Pet Sounds") during the period where he was producing some of his best music.  Yes he was certainly eccentric and having mental problems, but the film took it way too far.  He did a lot more during that period than bang out 2 chords on the piano over and over.  And the overlooking of major Smile tracks like "Surf's Up", "Heroes and Villains", "Cabinessence", etc is a glaring omission, probably the worst of the film.

The part that bugged me most of all was when Brian was basically begging Mike to help him with "Good Vibrations".  There is no way in 1966 that Brian needed anybody to tell him what the hook of his record was.  Mike came up with some great lyrics, no doubt about it, but it wasn't because Brian begged for his help.  From the accounts I've read, it was more like "if you think you can come up with better lyrics, bring them to the studio by tomorrow".  The whole thing just made Brian seem like a mentally challenged idiot who couldn't finish anything on his own anymore, which wasn't the case until much later.

Other than that though, I really did enjoy most of the rest of the movie.  The studio scenes were especially great, seeing Brian at work and Murray in there with his diatribes.  All of that felt very authentic...I liked how they pulled direct quotes from interviews and Murray's "I'm a genius too" speech (even though they spaced that out over a few different sessions, none of them actually being "Help Me Rhonda").  The acting was pretty good, and the looks were virtually dead on...at many times, I swore that was actually Mike!  It wasn't perfect, but until something better comes along, I'd say this movie is, for the most part, more than passable.

[lance]

After seeing that, my first reaction is "Phew! Thank God Mike Love et al pressured that mentally handicapped person Brian into not making that acid alliteration xylophone crap and pressured him into making "Let the Wind Blow" instead."

 

History will win out. SMiLE is awesome. "Sumahama", not so much.

[John]

I quite liked the first half of the movie.

[Alex]

The guy who played Murry was on an early episode of Seinfeld. Him and Kurt Fuller, who played Milt Love, were both on Ghostbusters II.
And if you ask me, I think they gave Nik Venet wayyy too big of a part. I also hate how they skipped straight from 20/20/Sunflower to Endless Summer; what, no Blondie or Ricky? Bruce was not in the group in '74, yet he's still portrayed as a member at that time. Dennis' hand injury never happened until a couple years AFTER the Manson mess. I also couldn't stand how Brian went straight to his 15 Big Ones-era look during the Sunflower-era. Brian was forced on tour with them 2 years too early in the movie...he didn't do the tracksuit thing until Landy came along in '75. No trip to Holland? No Love You? No return of Bruce for L.A. Light? Where's the death of Dennis? All the 80s and 90s BBs cheesiness? Brian's 2nd time with Landy? Landy being kicked out? Brian's comeback? The endless lawsuits? Dave coming back? Carl's death? Al being fired? The group's breakup? The Mike and Bruce Endless Summer Oldies Revue aka "The Beach Boys"? Brian's first tour with Darian, Jeff, Taylor, and Co.?

[Mr. Cohen]

I don't think the movie is that bad. Yes, there was a deep side to Brian that fans love to romanticize, but you have to remember that Mike Love and the other Beach Boys were not really included in the creative process of SMiLE.  Brian probably hid his intellectual side from his conservative family. Remember, what might sound intellectually edgy in academic circles could easily sound ridiculous and naive to a more conservative crowd. Look at how evolution is still mocked even to this day by some conservatives.  Also, I've known people who got really into amphetamines (I have experimented as well), and if you have been up for a day or two on amphetamines and have been smoking marijuana, you are going to sound "wacked out"  to someone straight-laced, even if you still have the mental capacity to produce profound works, such as many of the SMiLE songs. It's a very queer state of mind. I think the movie provides an accurate portrayal of what Brian most likely appeared to look like to the band at the time, not necessarily what he was like on a day-to-day basis. Remember, there are a lot of people who viewed Brian almost as a sort of idiot savant, which goes in line with whole "amateur human being" bit.

[Wrightfan]

Kind of silly but I agree with Chris Brown in that it really showcases the craziness from that era.

The Geronimo song is pretty good. Nice takeoff the SMiLE period although Da-Da is much better 

Yes...I did cringe when the SMiLE sleeves were burned 

[Alex]

Kind of silly but I agree with Chris Brown in that it really showcases the craziness from that era.

The Geronimo song is pretty good. Nice takeoff the SMiLE period although Da-Da is much better 

Yes...I did cringe when the SMiLE sleeves were burned 

Burning a SMiLE sleeve is sacrilege!

[Mark H.]

Brian is portrayed as a total idiot.  The guy had issues with drugs and bipolar disease....he wasn't mentally retarded.  Listen to interviews and sessions through 1973....the guy was cognitively intact.

I thought Dennis and Mike came off relativel realistic.

I found it as difficult to watch now as when it was released.  Some of the musical segments were fine.

[mikeyj]

As much as people hate this movie, I still have a soft spot for it. Partly because it was how I became aware of the Beach Boys. I think it is a much better movie than Summer Dreams. I think Mike+Murry look the best and I think those two as well as Dennis are portrayed pretty well. I do have a problem with the portrayal of Brian, just like everyone else here. And of course the second part of the movie sucks.

[MBE]

Brian is portrayed as a total idiot.  The guy had issues with drugs and bipolar disease....he wasn't mentally retarded.  Listen to interviews and sessions through 1973....the guy was cognitively intact.

I thought Dennis and Mike came off relativel realistic.

I found it as difficult to watch now as when it was released.  Some of the musical segments were fine.

Very good insight on Brian. He was played a lot more normal in the 1990 film.