Pirate Radio, 2009.
Directed by Richard Curtis.
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, and Kenneth Branagh.
SYNOPSIS:
Pirate Radio is one of those movies that’s a fun little ride, but not a lot more. Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Kenneth Branagh lead an ensemble cast in a story about a 1960s era pirate radio station that broadcast from a boat anchored in international waters. Such things did exist, although this particular endeavor is inspired by various pirate stations and people, rather than dramatizing a specific one. This is the same disc released in 2010, so you get a nice little smattering of bonus features too.
I’ve been thinking a lot about movie storytelling for a project I’m working on, and as part of that, I came across a great video by screenwrier Michael Arndt that dissects great endings in movies. He notes, of course, that his analysis isn’t meant to be the only way a movie should end, but it’s certainly the most crowd-pleasing method.
Which leads me into this review of 2009’s Pirate Radio, also known as The Boat That Rocked outside North America. It’s a fun little film about the rise of pirate radio stations that set up shop in international waters in the late 1960s, garnering an avid following among many British radio listeners who were frustrated by the BBC’s refusal to play rock music.
The story centers around Carl (Tom Sturridge), a precocious youth sent by his mother to live aboard the boat Radio Rock, which is run by his godfather, Quentin (Bill Nighy). The DJs Carl encounters are the band of misfits you’d expect to see in such a setting: The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman; how he’s missed), a brash American DJ; Gavin Kavanaugh (Rhys Ifans), a popular DJ brought out of retirement by Quentin who ends up clashing with The Count; “Midnight” Mark (Tom Wisdom), who doesn’t say much during his shows but has tons of ardent female fans; “Doctor” Dave (Nick Frost), who fancies himself the ultimate ladies’ man; and “Simple” Simon Swafford (Chris O’Dowd), the morning DJ.
There are several others, of course, and Emma Thompson pops in for a few scenes as Carl’s mother Charlotte while January Jones plays Elenore, who tricks Simon into marriage so she can live aboard the boat with her true love, Gavin. Kenneth Branagh is Sir Alistair Dormandy, a deadly serious government bureaucrat who vows to shut down all the pirate radio stations, especially Radio Rock. Jack Davenport is the appropriately named Domenic Twatt, who is tasked by Dormandy with finding a legal loophole that will allow him to do his dirty work.
Most of the main characters have tidy little arcs, and the movie builds to a conclusion that made me think of Arndt’s analysis when he talked about film endings that provoke a “So what?” response from the audience. Pirate Radio’s climax isn’t bad, of course — it’s just not particularly memorable.
I haven’t owned this one on home video before, but my understanding is that it’s the same disc issued by Universal in 2010. The bonus features kick off with a commentary track featuring writer/director Richard Curtis, producer Hilary Bevan Jones, and actors Nick Frost and Chris O’Dowd, all of whom seemed to enjoy working on the film as well as getting the chance to chat about it. It’s heavy on anecdotes about filming, as opposed to how the movie came about, but that’s a minor quibble.
Next up are six featurettes that total only 20 minutes. They skim the bare essentials of the making of the film, which is a bit of a bummer since the commentary track doesn’t dig too deep into that subject.
Finally, Curtis introduces a whopping 68 minutes of deleted scenes, which show how different Pirate Radio could have been if some of them had been included. The existence of that much substantial footage (as opposed to trims and such) isn’t a surprise for an ensemble movie like this one, since there are many stories to follow among the motley crew aboard the ship.
Finally, there’s no trailer to round out the platter, but you do get BD-Live functionality, although I’ll confess I didn’t try it to see if it even works in the year 2025.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
