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"Almost Famous" revisited


Bluesyzep

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I know this has probably been covered before but I finally gave in to the hype and watched Almost Famous for the first time. Excellent. You'd have to be a serious Zeppelin fan to recognize all the references to them. So much about the movie cracked me up but if I had to choose one scene it would be the plane ride towards the end. :D

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I know this has probably been covered before but I finally gave in to the hype and watched Almost Famous for the first time. Excellent. You'd have to be a serious Zeppelin fan to recognize all the references to them. So much about the movie cracked me up but if I had to choose one scene it would be the plane ride towards the end. :D

It's in the list of my top ten films. As well as the plane journey, I love the t-shirt scene :D

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I need to watch this movie again. It's one of my favorites, but the last time I saw it was before I became a Zep fan. So I missed all the Zep references, except for the "golden god" part.

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my effing DVD got bust....Almost Famous is now without sound and my Unledded CD keeps freeezing mid song.

damn...I want to watch that movie again....

I love the crazy fan with the "Have you seen the bridge?" t-shirt...

"He touched it! he touched it! mr. Robert Plant, Mr. Jimmy Page!"

"He's with Led Zeppelin...well, not WITH Led Zeppelin" lolz

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  • 1 year later...

Just watched this movie again. Love it.

Now I've read that Glenn Frey of the Eagles is who Cameron Crowe based the Russell Hammond character on.

I don't see it. Maybe the Jeff BeBe character (lead singer) but not the Russell character who is lead guitarist. That is sooooo Jimmy Page in my humble opinion.

Any thoughts? Sorry if this has been discussed before.

Maid

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I loved it too, great movie, I loved that Cameron Crowe used Peter Frampton as a manager! I don't tire of watching it.

If I'm not mistaken he was also used an authenticity advisor on the movie to be sure the musical instruments and equipment were true to the time period.

Too bad the director's Bootleg Cut edition of Almost Famous is no longer available, at least according to Amazon.

tt0181875_largeCover.jpg

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Just watched this movie again. Love it.

Now I've read that Glenn Frey of the Eagles is who Cameron Crowe based the Russell Hammond character on.

I don't see it. Maybe the Jeff BeBe character (lead singer) but not the Russell character who is lead guitarist. That is sooooo Jimmy Page in my humble opinion.

Any thoughts? Sorry if this has been discussed before.

Maid

If I remember right I don't think the characters were based on any one musician or band but were a conglomerate of several Crowe covered during his early days at Rolling Stone. I'm pretty sure the DVD of Almost Famous includes some old Crowe Rolling Stone articles on which the movie was based or maybe some links to them. I'm sure you can probably also find a shit ton of info about the connections at Rolling Stone's site itself.

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i liked the film, but i think the appeal rests largely on the amount of zep references... but it's niced up a bit too much, i'd like to see a more realistic depiction of the mayhem and not twee tidbits. good film though.

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i liked the film, but i think the appeal rests largely on the amount of zep references... but it's niced up a bit too much, i'd like to see a more realistic depiction of the mayhem and not twee tidbits. good film though.

I liked it quite a bit and not just based on the references to Zeppelin. It has often been billed as Cameron Crowe's "love letter to rock n' roll". That was the appeal of it to me. Most of all I was able to relate to young William Miller as inside my Algebra textbook you would likely find the latest issue of Creem, Circus, Hit Parader, etc. as my passion has always been music. I also agree that it was "niced up" as you put it but that's something Cameron Crowe addressed early on. Anyone that's even the most casual music fan is already pretty well versed in the "sex, drugs and rock n' roll" side of it. Crowe merely chose not to focus on that aspect of the story. It wasn't an attempt to gloss over it, it was because that side of the story has so often already been told (and usually very poorly I might add). Is it the best motion picture ever made? Far from it. Is it one of the best movies about rock n' roll ever made? Maybe not but in my book it's definitely up there, especially for someone who grew up during the very time period in which the movie was set in. In case no one has noticed, rock n' roll is a subject matter that's very hard to capture on film and very few ever get it right. Either you end up with utter crap such as Rock Star which is riddled with every cliche in the book or something like Almost Famous which is far from perfect but with scenes like William Miller listening to Quadrophenia for the first time or Penny Lane telling him on the tour bus that this is "home", it's the closest any filmmaker has come to conveying my passion for music.

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Although we get the Zep references, I don't think most audiences would pick up on 95% of them.

I have to agree with you on that. Most of today's audiences would miss many of the references. And I agree with Jahfin, not the best rock film perhaps but very sweet. Was better than I expected it to be which is why I liked it.

Little Miss liked it too and she's a tough cookie :D

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I liked the film - but not because of the Zep references. If you appreciate the music, you'll appreciate all the references. I didn't see it as a 'real-life' depiction, or an honest account of how things went down as seen by Crowe. I just saw it as a film that just so happened to appeal to me with regards to era, music, and scenario. I don't think you could've asked any more of it, because, personally, I don't think that they were making it out to be more than it was. It's a light-hearted drama, and an engaging one at that. That's all I could've asked for.

And it has a bloody good soundtrack.

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I liked the film - but not because of the Zep references. If you appreciate the music, you'll appreciate all the references. I didn't see it as a 'real-life' depiction, or an honest account of how things went down as seen by Crowe. I just saw it as a film that just so happened to appeal to me with regards to era, music, and scenario. I don't think you could've asked any more of it, because, personally, I don't think that they were making it out to be more than it was. It's a light-hearted drama, and an engaging one at that. That's all I could've asked for.

And it has a bloody good soundtrack.

I liked it because it was more about a dialogue and drama that 500 million in special effects and hype. It was a love story too. And I do love love stories mixed with great music. I shed a tear with this one and if it can do that I like it.

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I liked the film - but not because of the Zep references. If you appreciate the music, you'll appreciate all the references. I didn't see it as a 'real-life' depiction, or an honest account of how things went down as seen by Crowe. I just saw it as a film that just so happened to appeal to me with regards to era, music, and scenario. I don't think you could've asked any more of it, because, personally, I don't think that they were making it out to be more than it was. It's a light-hearted drama, and an engaging one at that. That's all I could've asked for.

And it has a bloody good soundtrack.

I agree and I think it's interesting that Crowe didn't make it so "obvious" in his references to one particular band, but more an amalgam of the times. I also liked the aspect of rock and roll he did depict. As stated above, the whole sex, drugs and rock and roll theme has been done and most people are pretty aware of it. This was looking at a different side to the business.

Sound track is great!

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