Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) * *

Directed by:  Martin Davidson

Starring:   Tom Berenger, Michael Pare, Joe Pantoliano, Matthew Laurance, Ellen Barkin

Spoilers are present. 

Knowing that Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives was released in 1989, you know Eddie Wilson, the lead singer of the titular up and coming band who vanished in 1963, is alive at the end of this movie.    Even if there were no sequel, the movie can't end any other way.     If it turns out Eddie is dead or still missing, then what was all of that about?     It's an ok film, with a good soundtrack, but it all seems inevitable.      We begin to wait impatiently for the outcome we know is coming.

The movie opens in the present day (or 1983 when the film was released).    A television reporter (Barkin) hears of supposed lost tapes from Eddie's last recording sessions before his car plunged off of a bridge in 1963.    She follows the story, tracking down former members of The Cruisers to learn more about Eddie.     Her most helpful source is Frank Ridgeway (Berenger), who played piano and wrote the words to the Cruisers' songs.     He is now a schoolteacher, but remembers the Cruisers fondly.     The other Cruisers work in different areas of South Jersey, including bassist Sal Amato (Laurance), who performs an Eddie Wilson tribute show and sums up his feelings about Eddie succinctly, "Some nights I'm mad at him for living and others I'm mad at him for dying."  

Do the tapes exist?    There are conflicting reports.    While this is being sorted out, there are flashbacks to several Eddie and the Cruisers performances.     The songs, (from John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band) are well done and the actors convincingly perform them.     Pare looks the part of a rock star, but in the scenes where he isn't singing, Eddie is a quiet, sometimes sulking dullard.     More credit is given to him as a visionary than we ever actually see.     He isn't given much of a personality, but Pare tries valiantly to give him substance.

The "Season in Hell" recording sessions, as they came to be known, was Eddie's attempt to branch out into darker, edgier material.      He was Jim Morrison before Jim Morrison was Jim Morrison.     The Cruisers' manager (Pantoliano) was correct in thinking that Season in Hell was crap, because it is.     The movie also teases the possibility that Eddie is alive before it is revealed in the final scene that he is.     What was Eddie doing all of these years?    How did he make a living?     Why did he fake his death?    How did he dodge the questions of people who recognized him?   Was the beard really all he needed to do to disguise his identity?    How did he manage to stay unnoticed for 20 years?   The movie ended just as soon as it started to get really interesting.     We had to wait for the sequel some years later, and based on what I recall from seeing it, those questions were still never answered.  

I saw a recent TV show dealing with accusations that Elvis Presley faked his death in 1977.    People all over the country swore they saw a heavy-set man with a jet black pompadour running around in public places, so it must have been Elvis.   Assuming Elvis faked his death and went into hiding, wouldn't the first thing he would do is drastically change his appearance?    Make himself unrecognizable so people would let him live in anonymity.     Perhaps even grow a beard?