Every time I watch this movie(and I do - over and over), the scene where Frank introduces his first song to the band - nearly whispering it in a high, cracking falsetto: "...from out of the shadows she walks like a dre-eam...", and while the other band-members giggle and squirm as though they're in 8th grade and just saw Mary Ellen's tidy-whities when the wind blew her skirt up - Eddie's silencing them and kindly guiding Frankie The Wordman's stumbling efforts toward something that can really get your blood moving("This is Rock 'n Roll!" he exclaims joyfully)always makes me marvel at the unexpectedly-good acting coming out of pretty boy Michael Pare'. I always think the same thing: 'How did Martin Davidson get that out of him? Why, in every other movie I've seen him in, did other directors fail to tap into that?' When you see this movie, you absolutely know that it isn't Pare's fault that he's so wooden elsewhere...because if he can do it here - he can do it anywhere, right? With the right director, the answer is yes. The proof is here; right here, in his very authentic portrayal of an artist trapped in the too-confining skin of a 60's rock star(Eddie: "If we can't be great, then there's no point in ever making music again!"). But don't just watch this movie for Pare'. Everything works. Everybody rocks. It all goes together just like...yeah, I'm gonna say it: words and music.
Review of Eddie and the Cruisers
