A pre-fame Beatles head for the seedy clubs of Hamburg in search of success. The band meet up with a group of trendy German beatniks, one of whom (Astrid Kircherr) bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe falls in love with. Whilst best friend John Lennon can only watch, Sutcliffe has to choose between rock 'n roll and a new life in Germany...... (Full plot summary below)
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A pre-fame Beatles head for the seedy clubs of Hamburg in search of success. The band meet up with a group of trendy German beatniks, one of whom (Astrid Kircherr) bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe falls in love with. Whilst best friend John Lennon can only watch, Sutcliffe has to choose between rock 'n roll and a new life in Germany...
Leave your thoughts about Backbeat.
| DVDJournal.comMark BourneYou can't miss the affection and sincerity Backbeat carries from start to finish.... Softley bottles the attitude and energy, the excitement of the new, that were as integral to the Beatles' success as their songs. |
| VarietyTodd McCarthyThe early, pre-fame days of the Beatles are a great subject for a film, but the potential has been only partly realized in Backbeat. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThere's nothing very profound here, but we do at least get a nice handling of period and milieu, and pretty good performances of the songs. |
| NewsweekDavid AnsenGet back, get back to where you once belonged, you want to shout. But the movie is stuck in the wrong groove. |
| Deseret News (Salt Lake City)Chris Hickshen Stu begins his relationship with Astrid, the film begins to lose its way, partly because it sinks into bathos and partly because Lee never captures the character. And we're talking about the bulk of the movie. |
| Empire MagazineAngie ErrigoIain Softley directs his feature debut with simplicity and feeling, and you don't have to have been a Beatles fan to get with the beat. Gives you hope for the British film industry. |
| Spirituality and PracticeFrederic and Mary Ann BrussatA raucous film about the Beatles before they made it big |
| rec.arts.movies.reviewsScott RenshawDorff's Stu is always a bit too low-key, even when he's doing his painting, so as a dramatic character he never becomes all that interesting. |
| Hartford CourantMalcolm JohnsonIt is the band, the group - with or without Sutcliffe - that makes Backbeat such a powerfully emotional elegy. |
| Draxblog Movie ReviewsDragan Antulovpoints to the tragic irony of immortality being achieved through early death |
