As a music fanatic, I love watching music movies. And by music movies, I don't mean music documentaries or biopics. I mean real movies with a fiction plot, great soundtracks and the occasional cameo appearances from music legends.
Yeah, I'm talking about movies like Juno, Rock N' Roll High School, Once, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Suck, This Is Spinal Tap, August Rush and of course School of Rock!
School of Rock was one of my movie collections that brought tears to my eyes. Hahaha. Now, I'm telling you guys, I'm not really the kind of guys who would be weeping easily over melancholic soap operas or romantic movies. As an 'abang long' and as a man, I was taught by my dad to conceal any sad feelings to myself.
OMG. I'm gay after watching School of Rock! LOL (Credit: A Story) |
School of Rock is movie for rock fans. It's all about rock and roll attitude from start to finish. In this movie, a fraud teacher, Dewey Finn (Jack Black) 'uses' a bunch of prep school kids to be his bandmates and crews for Battle of Bands. The kids are talented in music but they don't seem to possess the rock and roll attitude. So, Dewey teaches these kids everything they should know about rock and roll. The history, theories....all of it!
Rock n' Roll mind map |
The movie is so good that I decided to bore you guys with my take and perspective on this movie and what kind of reflection does it have in our real world.
1. Dewey Finn (Jack Black)
Dewey represents the kind of ideal musician IMO. He was kicked out of his own band due to his crazy stage antics while the band is trying to pose a 'serious musician image' to secure a deal from record label. This literally reflects much to our 'indie' scene. Some formerly proclaimed 'indie' bands have gone all corporate in order to be the next big thing on TV and radio when all that matters is your music integrity.
2. Ned Schneebly (Mike White)
Ned represents the kind of musicians who give up on their dream due to creativity blockage, lack of musicianship, not having pretty face or not being fit enough to survive in music. Since the emergence of MTV, a lot of musicians were forced to give up on their music dream for lacking the 'it' factor. Some of them tried to stay 'indie' but eventually being 'indie' doesn't give you the money. So, they quit and become pretty much like any other proletariat.
3. Zack Mooneyham (Joey Gaydos Jr.)
Zack represents music prodigies from the good old Mozart to Björk. These prodigies are insanely talented that they even start writing their own materials and capable of playing 2-minutes guitar solos below 12 years old!
4. Freddy Jones (Kevin Clark)
Freddy represents the kind of punk rockers in real life. He mentioned that he likes burning stuffs, much like a typical and anarchy attitude which are usually best portrayed by punk rockers. He did mention a reference to punk rock in this movie which is: "Sex Pistols never won anything". Plus, he wears a Green Day Warning Tour t-shirt during the credit roll performance. Punk's not dead!!
5. Katie (Rebecca Julia Brown)
As a bassist, I was a little bit disappointed by lack of significant scenes involving Katie. Plus, Katie didn't get to perform his bass solo during the credit roll performance. Bummer. I think movie fails to fully capture how important the sound of bass in a band despite its low end sound. Anyhow, Katie represents girls in a rock band, much like Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, D'arcy Wretzky of Smashing Pumpkins, Chua of Kotak, kugiran Candy (ingat tak?) and many hot rock and roll chicks out there!
6. Tomika (Maryam Hassan)
Tomika represents every musicians who suffers major insecurity issue due to their physique. Be it a 'gempal' body, an ugly face (yes Justin Bieber. It's you) or a crippled body (pakcik-pakcik main keyboard di pasar malam). They have an enormous talent but the world isn't a nice place to live on. But there are some of 'em who made it like Adibah Noor, Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah and many more!
I omitted the keyboardist because he's pretty much like Zack the guitarist. They're both prodigies.
Selamat berweekend, y'all!
Picture credit: Listal and Movie Screenshots
Idea credit: Blog Obe