Great Balls of Fire (1989)
MGM / Shock DVD (region 4)
d. Jim McBride; pr. Adam Fields; scr. Jack Baran, Jim McBride; book. Myra Lewis, Murray Silver Jr.; ph. Affonso Beato; ed. Lisa Day, Pembroke Herring, Bert Lovitt; cast. Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder, Stephen Tobolowsky, Alec Baldwin (108 mins)
The rock n’ roll movie was a staple of the 1950s. These films, arguably joyful and even rather naïve, celebrated a youthful energy that encouraged sexuality even though the social conventions of the time prevented the explicit depiction of moral change. Indeed, some films tried to make the rock n’ roll aesthetic wholesome. Such laundering efforts, however, were not helped by the behaviour of several singers, especially one Jerry Lee Lewis. Some initially held Lewis to be the next Elvis as his songs steadily rose through the music charts of the day. But when the public realized that Lewis had married his thirteen-year-old second cousin, the challenge to contemporary morality was too much even for the social reforms set in motion by American rock ‘n roll. First in England and then in America the moral outcry was pervasive, effectively ending Lewis’ career. The unusual story of the success and fall of Jerry Lee Lewis is the subject for the retrospective biography Great Balls of Fire. Yet what is perhaps most intriguing and even subversive about this movie is director Jim McBride’s refusal to condemn Lewis in any way, and indeed his outright mockery of those who would seek to do so. What thus emerges is a film that is so filled with energy and mocking caricature that it stands as the most vibrantly and deliberately cartoonish of period films to emerge from then-contemporary Hollywood.
Great Balls of Fire starts with Lewis as a child in the American South. He is fascinated by Afro-American music, which his cousin and future evangelist soon terms “devil’s music”. The impression is a lasting one. As an adult (and played with tremendous gusto by Dennis Quaid) Lewis is a pianist who, with friends, takes a demo record of work to a local producer (the very same one who discovered Elvis). When it is played on the radio, Lewis becomes a genuine rock ‘n roll star even if the morally questionable lyrics of some of his rock ‘n roll songs cause them to be banned in the South. Lewis moves in with a relative and fellow band member and begins a flirtation with his younger second cousin (Winona Ryder). The more successful he becomes the fonder he gets of her and eventually the two of them marry, much to the initial dismay of her parents although they eventually do accept it along with the money that comes with success. Lewis takes his child bride on tour with him to England where the local critics (especially one not at all fond of American culture) discover her age. Outrage subsequently spreads throughout the country and Lewis is booed and ridiculed at his concerts. He leaves England and feels that the USA will welcome him back like the King of Rock he believes that he is. This proves not to be the case and when he returns to the USA his career declines and his marriage soon suffers. read more