FM (film)


Free Web Hosting with Website Builder
FM
Directed by John A. Alonzo
Produced by Rand Holston
Written by Erza Sacks
Starring Michael Brandon
Eileen Brennan
Alex Karras
Cleavon Little
Martin Mull
Distributed by Universal Studios
Release date(s) April 1978
Running time 104 min.
Language English
Budget N/A

FM is a 1978 film directed by John A. Alonzo, and starring Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Alex Karras and Cleavon Little. The screenplay was written by Ezra Sacks.

This film was produced by Universal Pictures, and originally released to movie theatres in 1978.

Contents

Plot summary

QSKY radio station manager Jeff Dugan builds a large fan base by assembling a group of charismatic DJ personalities playing popular rock and roll. He soon finds that corporate management expects Jeff to use the station's position atop the ratings to sell more advertising time.

The conflict grows until sales manager Regis Lamar presents him with the chance to advertise for the US Army using a series of cheesy radio ads. When Jeff refuses to endorse the contract, Regis takes the issue to upper management. Jeff is then ordered to run the ads as provided by the Army and on the schedule specified in the advertising contract. Rather than comply, Jeff quits his job.

All of the remaining DJs decide to take control of the station in a sort of lock-in/sit-in/protest. They get listeners to gather in the street outside the station as a sort of protest while the DJs play music without any commercials.

Jeff Dugan wakes up to hear the DJs take control of the station. The crowd is already present when he arrives at the station. The DJs lift him up to the second story with a fire hose as they have already barracaded the front doors.

The lock-in lasts only until the police get an injunction to remove the staff. A tow truck rips off the front doors and the police enter the building. The DJs battle back using a fire hose and throwing tapes and other office objects at the police.

The battle is resolved when Jeff Dugan finds himself fighting a policeman outside on an overhang. Jeff saves the policeman from falling off and decides that fighting is the wrong thing to do. He calms the crowd and announces that the DJs are coming out.

Unknown to him, the company owner Carl Billings has watched from the crowd as the events unfolded. He insists that the DJs stay in the station, fires his management staff responsible for the advertising conflict, and then joins the DJs inside the station.

The story unfolds across a background of concerts, broadcast music, appearances by various rock stars, and public appearances by the station DJs. A minor sub-theme to the movie is the competition between QSKY and another area radio station. The major event of that sub-theme is when Jeff arranges to broadcast a live concert by Linda Ronstadt that is being sponsored by the competitor's radio station.

Another minor sub-theme is the ongoing task of massaging egos of the various DJs to keep them happy and on the air.

Martin Mull appears in his feature film debut as a zoned-out record spinner. He plays Eric Swan, a libidinous disc jockey with eyes for everyone female. The character is self centered, smarmy, quick tempered, and overbearingly insincere. During the course of the film, Swan beds a supposed girlfriend, encounters a female fan with a peculiar physical "gift", and barricades himself in due to a severe emotional breakdown, all within the confines of QSKY's studio.

Also rounding out the cast are Cleavon Little, who plays the Prince of Darkness, QSKY's overnight host; Eileen Brennan as "The Mother", the 40-something nighttime DJ, Michael Brandon as Jeff Dugan, the station's morning DJ and program director, and Tom Tarpey as new sales manager Regis Lamar, the bane of the disk jockeys' existence.

In addition, the film includes live appearances by Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, Tom Petty, and REO Speedwagon. Steely Dan perform the title theme, and Dan Fogelberg, Joe Walsh, Boz Scaggs and Queen also contributed soundtrack music. The film utilized such future hits as We Will Rock You (in a protest rally sequence) and Life's Been Good integrated into the plot.

Critics

Rolling Stone magazine considered the music heavily biased towards musicians who had been managed by Irving Azoff, who was head of MCA Records at the time. [1] and Keith Phipps of the Onion AV Club took issue with the premise. [2]

Main cast

Soundtrack

Main article: FM (soundtrack)

The original soundtrack to the film won the 1979 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

References

  1. ^ Marsh, Dave (1982). The New Rolling Stone Record Guide. New York: Random House, p. 590. 
  2. ^ Phipps, Keith (2002-03-29). "Review of FM". The Onion AV Club. Retrieved on 2007-06-07.

External links

This 1970s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.






Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History