Free to Rock (2017) User Reviews

An Eye Opener

[kate-schertz · 10/10 · 1 April 2015]

Just saw this at the 18th Sonoma International Film Festival and it was super great. As a Foreign Service Officer posted to Budapest, Hungary 1989-92 all throughout the opening up of the Eastern Bloc I was astounded by how the people knew all the music, words and sounds, as one after another Western musicians came to play Budapest. This documentary helped me to better understand just how rock and roll and other forms of western music got through the repressive and sometimes violent acts by the authorities to try to keep it out. Essential viewing for anyone who cares about the influence of pop music in repressive regimes. GREAT ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE!!

Free to Rock (2017) the latest and most successful film to examine the significant role of music as an agent capable of stirring up social change.

[mspudic · 11 March 2017]

What could be more relevant to today's East/West dialogue than a film that brings together both politicians and musicians to help add clarity and understanding to one of the most significant historical upheavals of modern times? FREE TO ROCK is that film and is the long-awaited result of a decade long quest. Knitting together a musical/pictorial mosaic of archival source material, this film sheds further light upon the pivotal role American rock music played as a soft power accessory in helping to escalate, if not promulgate social change throughout Cold War, Communist-dominated Eastern Europe. Other cinematic attempts have been made with a more limited scope; see ROCKIN' THE WALL, 2010; HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN, 2009. But with noted filmmaker Jim Brown's valuable contribution, we now have the most up-to-date and comprehensive cinematic assessment. The film is significantly enriched by archival and rare footage as well as recent interviews with the likes of Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev. Indeed, the spirit of Marshall McLuhan hovers throughout the course of this one hour journey. For this reviewer it is nothing less than a meditation on McLuhan's thought-provoking concept of a "global embrace;" one of his futuristic ideas that humanity will more and more be transformed through the heightened availability of images and sounds. As indeed this film carefully traces the accumulation of masses congregating in isolation in major cities all throughout the former Eastern Bloc and that especially includes Moscow, Riga, Kiev, Budapest, and ultimately East Berlin. The point is increasingly hammered home that music was demonstrably the most significant factor in helping sway so many solitary individuals into full participatory engagement. FREE TO ROCK provides the most salient and convincing argument to-date that it was most likely the soft-power role of rock music, both in idea and in substance that more than any other factor helped usher in Cold War Europe's surprisingly peaceful collapse.

A compelling illustration of the power of music

[pjbreeden-56973 · 27 February 2017]

I was a cultural diplomat for three decades in the U.S. Foreign Service, and I know that art can change the world. This film shows you how some brave rockers did just that. I had the honor of organizing a showing of Free to Rock for students and faculty at the Institute for American Universities (IAU College) in Aix en Provence, where the films co-writers and producers first met 50 years ago. The film is an emotionally powerful and historically compelling work, helping a new generation discover the power of music to promote peaceful change and support for human rights. It boosts rare archival footage and great music (of course) while painting a picture of brave artists willing to risk life and limb in order to pursue their art. This film is a must for anyone interested in the Cold War, rock music, and U.S.-Russian relations. Rock On!