The Differences Between The Boat That Rocked and Pirate Radio Explained

Editor’s Note: I met John Rabon at Dragon*Con this year when we were on a couple panels together. He was lucky enough to see The Boat That Rocked in Europe earlier this year and decided to write up a review of the differences that Pirate Radio has compared to The Boat the Rocked. Thanks John!

So I took my time to see the film yesterday, and while it had a lot of the great moments and music I remembered from seeing it in Rome this summer, it’s further proof that a director shouldn’t be allowed to re-edit a film except to make a “director’s cut” DVD.

Again, for the most part, the film remained the same. One reason the film was pushed back to a November release in the United States was due to complaints about its length, something Curtis wanted to fix by re-editing it. However, the edits for the American release do the film a disservice. Little things, like Angus playing The Seekers twice in a row weren’t terribly missed, but some of the more comedic scenes were just gone. First, you have a great scene with Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd), who plays DJ Simple Simon Swafford, who deals with the pain of his marriage ending with a hilarious lip-sync to “Stay with Me Baby.” Second, before his marriage, the film completely replaced the wild pub-crawl stag party (set to The Small Faces) with much less funny collage of a party held on the boat.

Also, they cut out a scene where Jack Davenport’s character, Ministry underling Mr. Twat (I kid you not), sneaks on board with fans and is caught by Quintin (Nighy), meanwhile, ladies’ man DJ Mark corrals about half of the female fans into his room, where Quintin finds them all undressed. This scene (in the trailer with all the ladies clothed) helps the film towards the end when Mark is asked how he gets so many women to sleep with him.

Further, certain songs and scenes were moved around in a way that didn’t make as much sense. Our protagonist Carl (not Philip Seymour Hoffman as American trailers imply) meets and falls in love with a girl named Marianne (Miss Evangelista from Doctor Who), who promptly sleeps with Nick Frost instead. In the original version, AFTER Parliament passes an act banning pirate radio stations, Radio Rock defies the ban and plays on to Rolling Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” Marianne then comes back to apologize to Carl and finally sleeps with him, cementing their relationship and her return at the end of the film.

In the American re-edit, her return to Carl occurs before the act’s passage, and doesn’t make as much sense, whereas before she was choosing to be with him despite the fact police may storm the boat and arrest everyone. Also, the song changes to “My Generation” by the Who, still appropriate, but the DJs’ dancing to it makes less sense with regard to the songs’ different tempos. The song at the end of the film too changes from David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” to The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night.” Again, doesn’t make as much sense where we see all the main characters dancing to the music.

So, aside from all these complaints, it’s still a great film, Hoffman, Nighy, Frost, O’Dowd, Rhys Ifans, and everyone else generate great performances that make their characters truly memorable. Great scenes left in unaltered include Simon’s wedding, Frost helping to make a man out of Carl, Emma Thompson’s cameo as Carl’s mum, Ifans’ character returning to the station, Hoffman and Ifans’ big ego showdown (set to music from Sergio Leone westerns), and various bits from the DJs. A great amount of 60s rock is left in as well, and should be welcome to those whose advanced years enable them to recall when they first heard such great music. Branagh also turns out a fantastic performance as the villainous Sir Alistair, who shows no redeeming qualities whatsoever throughout the film, he’s about as bland, stuck-up, and square as you could expect an old school Tory to be.

All-in-all, I give the original version 5 stars, and the American version gets 4. I certainly hope when the American DVD release occurs, they include the original with it.

The Movie is Not Called Pirate Radio – It’s The Boat That Rocked

Sitting in the movie theater last month I was horrified to see a movie trailer for some movie called “Pirate Radio.” And I was horrified. The movie is not “Pirate Radio” – it’s called “The Boat That Rocked” and it’s been assaulted by the American Movies studios.

Let me preface this by saying that I didn’t think that “The Boat That Rocked” was a particularly awesome movie – it certainly wasn’t as good as Love, Actually or other offerings from writer/director Richard Curtis. However, it was decent enough and I really enjoyed watching it. It will certainly become part of the Anglotopia movie collection.
I haven’t seen the cut-up American version – all I have to go on is the trailer but from what I’ve seen in the trailer, the TV commercials and the online advertising campaign, they are fundamentally altering the details of the movie to sell it to an American audience.

The major difference is that they have decided to focus on the American DJ in the movie played brilliantly by Philip Seymour Hoffman. They’ve made it seen like he’s actually the focus on the movie and is singlehandedly bringing Rock and Roll to Britain. They are making it seem like one American DJ started the Rock and Roll revolution in Britain in the 60’s. Further from the truth, we did not bring Rock and Roll to the UK D-day style. He’s NOT the focus of the movie. They’ve even changed the title to make the movie seem edgier than it actually is.

“The Boat That Rocked” is an ensemble movie – and it’s being marketed as being all about Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s character. However, ensemble movies are difficult to market to American audiences. Americans want a ‘hero’ to focus on. Who knows – it might make the movie even better as one of the weaknesses of the “The Boat That Rocked” was it’s lack of focus.

I just don’t think I’ll be spending my time seeing this travesty. We’ve seen it time and time again – movies from around the world brought over to America and butchered because movie studios think they know what we like. For example – the first Harry Potter movie is actually called ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in the UK and they actually went to the trouble to film scenes twice so that Americans would only hear ’sorcerer’s stone’ instead. Even Love, Actually differs from the UK version – we watched the UK version this year for the first time and there are actually subtle differences that we only noticed because it was the 10th time or so we’d seen the film.

They do the same things to British TV shows by remaking them for an American audience. It’s insulting to our intelligence and it’s a waste of money and resources. Just give it to us straight. Don’t assume the worse.

Who knows – they may not have actually cut the movie up and it’s all just typical marketing ploys to get people in the theater. Either way you slice it – it’s dishonest and insulting.

Long live “The Boat that Rocked!”

Original UK Trailer:

American Trailer:

Talking Telly: Things US TV Should Steal From the Telly, Pt. 1

I have been enjoying my nice, legally purchased access to UK telly, via UKTV2C.com, and I am making a lot of random finds and observations that I have as someone who has addictively watched American cable since first getting it in my 20’s. And I thing the Americans have stolen all the wrong ideas, like remaking UK sitcoms word for word (note: “The Office” never did that.) So here are some ideas I kinda gleaned from the old country. We’re in a recession, so steal what works.

1. 4Music Big Ones: Real, honest-to-God music videos. Like in those really fondly remembered days when MTV actually played videos? I was on Twitter on the day Michael Jackson died, and you should search for the Tweets about MTV playing old MJ tunes from back in the day when they ALWAYS had MJ on. But this channel actually mixes up Beyonce (I’d never heard her new single before, and the video made me like it much more than I ever liked “Single Ladies”, which I somehow managed to miss until the MTV Awards flap) with the new Whitney (obsv: She’s not what she was in the 1980’s, but I think I like what she’s now even more) with old school P1NK “Just Like A Pill” with my 2nd fave Brit song of the moment, Daniel Merriweather’s “Red” (haven’t seen “Bodies” by Robbie Williams yet) to James Morrison. It’s 1/3 cheese, 1/3 emo and 100 percent shameless. And I now have to get a Pixie Lott album.

2. Dave. At night on that network, they play marathons of panel shows. From “Mock the Week” to “Here Come the Buzzcocks” to “The Friday Night Project” tthe Holy Grail: “QI”. American cable networks, please meet Stephen Fry. He’s been in a ton of movies, has a life history that writes a bit like “The Great Gatsby” and is best mates with his former comedic double act, Hugh Laurie, whom American women tend to think is one of the sexiest men alive. Please, pick up his most enduring project.

I digress. Americans may not have enough panel shows to fully stock a whole channel even one night a week. The only shows I know who are even in the ballpark are “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”, because they make fun of political things. Just buy the rights to “Mock the Week” and try to find six people who can make fun of the news apolitically and stick them on a set 30 minutes a week. There are people who would find that refreshing in the current environment. Then do a strictly entertainment-based one, and make sure it’s twice as funny as any “Best Week Ever” rerun could ever be.

3. SoapNet, meet “EastEnders” and “Coronation Street”. You should meet. You might really like each other.

Add your own ideas that you think Viacom and NBC Universal should pick up (Fox is already doing it — check out the Sky nets.) Or just tell me your idea of what you as an American have loved about British telly. If you think my ideas are rubbish, tell me.

American Right Trashes the NHS – The Brits Stand Up in it’s Defense

I will make a rare foray into American politics to highlight something that has suddenly involved Britain.

As most people in America are aware, we’re fighting to reform our health care system, which is a mess. I won’t get into the politics of it here as this is not a place for it (if you want my opinion, we need our own NHS but it will never happen).

Anyway, the far right has been dredging up rumors and scare tactics to try and stall any real reform and one of the common talking points they use is to criticize the British National Health Service.

Now, for those that aren’t familiar with the NHS, the UK has a cradle to the grave healthcare system. It’s free at the point of use and is a fundamental right. There’s never an issue of paying a medical bill, it’s all funded by taxes. So, if you were to get cancer, you wouldn’t have to sell your house and cash your life savings to pay for treatment to live. Or if you got into a car accident, you wouldn’t have to worry about how much the ambulance ride will cost – or if the insurance company will cover it. I could go on.

Here’s a informative little video from Michael Moore’s Sicko about the NHS:

Here’s another Video where he interviews an NHS Doctor:

The NHS is run directly by the government and is actually one of the biggest employers in the world. They provide great healthcare to everyone at a much lower cost compared to the USA.

Just don’t say that to the American right. Well, sick of AMERICAN Republican blathering about the state of the BRITISH healthcare system, Brits are standing up and defending something they never thought they’d have to defend.

From the Telegraph Today:

Experts within the NHS condemned the allegations made in speeches and television adverts as half-truths and distortions.

“The NHS does a damn fine job,” said Dr Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health. “These claims are complete and utter rubbish.

“The horrific thing about the American system is that there are tens of millions of people without health insurance.

In addition to that, Downing Street got involved along with the citizens of Britain and spontaneously a #WeLoveTheNHS campaign made the rounds on Twitter.

Thousands of Brits all over the country gave a reason why they love and support the NHS, which many admit is not perfect and never will be. Not only that, for awhile it was the top trending topic on Twitter, pushing the Miley Stripper Pole debacle off the top (thank god!). Even Stephen Hawking chimed in when some claimed that he would be dead because of the NHS.

So, to any American conservatives who are trying to use the NHS as a talking point of evil socialism gone bad, you should read this article from the Guardian refuting most of your talking posts with actual facts.

Is public healthcare in the UK as sick as rightwing America claims?

All I gotta say is Go Britain. Don’t listen to American whining about YOUR healthcare system. You’re the lucky ones with a national health care system after all. As an American you have my permission to be quite smug about it.

What Do you Think?

American Top Gear Will Be Bollocks

It’s happened again and again. A wildly popular show in Britain is such a hit, the Americans want to get in on the action.

Logic would dictate they simply air the show in it’s current form. But when has logic ever played into the entertainment industry? No, the American way is to take an idea and completely remake it, usually spending more money than necessary

‘Top Gear‘ is a British Classic. I’m not even that big of a fan of cars and I love it. The thing I love most about it is that particular brand of British Humor that you can’t find anywhere in the world. It’s been airing, albeit in a bastardized edited form, on BBC America for the last year. It’s been a huge hit.

Now, it’s time for it to get Americanized.

America is filled with the corpses of failed Britain to America conversions. To name just a few, Coupling, The Office (American version is ok), Doctor Who (1996 telemovie, nuff said), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link, Big Brother (American BB is a snore compared to the rest of the world).

So, it’s very clear that we don’t usually get it right. This does not bold well for the new, better ‘American Top Gear’ to be hosted by smarmy smart ass Adam Corolla. The best feature of the new show being touted is it’s larger budget.

I give it 4 episodes. Simply put, the American Top Gear will suck.

I may be wrong. But you can pry my pirated, uncensored BBC copies of ‘Top Gear‘ from my cold dead hands.