Eddie and the Cruisers
Encyclopedia
Eddie and the Cruisers is a 1983 American film directed by Martin Davidson
with the screenplay written by the director and Arlene Davidson, based on the novel by P. F. Kluge
. The film is about a television reporter named Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin
) investigating the mysterious death of musician Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré
) and the search for his band's second album, which disappeared from the vaults of Satin Records the day after Eddie's alleged death.
The film was not very successful at the box office, grossing USD
$4.7 million in North America. It also received many negative to mixed reviews from critics. However, in the fall of 1984, the soundtrack album suddenly climbed the charts, as the film was rediscovered on cable television
and home video
, prompting the studio to re-release the album.
The film was followed by one sequel, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! in 1989. It was marketed with the tagline "Rebel. Rocker. Lover. Idol. Vanished."
club called Tony Mart's. It is there that they meet Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger
), whom Eddie Wilson (Paré) hires to be the band's keyboard player and lyricist, and who he nicknames "Wordman". Doc Robbins and Sal Amato are skeptical of hiring Frank, who is not a trained musician or experienced song writer, but Eddie believes that Frank is crucial to the band's development.
With Ridgeway's help the band stops playing cover songs and releases an album of original material, Tender Years, that instantly becomes a hit, especially with the song, "On the Dark Side". The band members spend a year recording their next album, A Season in Hell, during which Eddie's artistic and creative talents often are buried beneath his arrogant and rebellious traits, leading to arguments between him and band manager Doc Robbins (Joe Pantoliano
). At one point, bassist Sal Amato (Matthew Laurance) tells Eddie he doesn't understand what he's looking for, to which Eddie responds that he wants to be great. Sal replies "We're not great. We're just some guys from Jersey". Eddie makes it clear that if the band cannot be great, then there is no reason to ever play music again.
The band's second album is a culmination of all that Eddie had ever hoped to do with music, different from anything that anyone else had ever done to that point, and he was satisfied with it. However, it is controversial and considered dark and strange by the record company, Satin Records, and is rejected, not to be released. In the early morning hours after Satin refuses to release the new album, Eddie's car crashes through the railing going over the Stainton Memorial Causeway
. Eddie's body is never found, and he is declared dead.
Almost 20 years later, Satin re-releases the band's first album, which becomes a surprise hit, climbing higher on the charts than it had on its original release. The producers of a television show decide to do a documentary on the band, with an attempt to bring light to the band's second album, which disappeared from the vaults of Satin Records the day after Eddie's alleged death.
Though the namesake of the documentary is the band's lead singer, it revolves around the other members of the Cruisers, especially Frank Ridgeway, and their memories of the band. All of them have moved on with their lives except saxophone player Wendell Newton, who had died of an overdose in 1963 at age 37. Only Sal Amato remained in the music business, leading a new lineup of Cruisers. Ridgeway is now working as a high school teacher, Doc is a local radio disc jockey and drummer Kenny Hopkins works in an Atlantic City casino. Much of the story takes place in flashback, prompted by television reporter Maggie Foley's (Barkin) interviews with the band members. Tensions building within the Cruisers during the flashback sequences coincide with Frank's willingness to be more open with Maggie. Frank recalls that the band wanted to play at Benton College where Frank was a student, but Eddie felt uncomfortable there, stating that they would not belong there if it was not their kind of place. When Eddie sees Frank kissing Joann Carlino (Helen Schneider
), Eddie's girlfriend, he angrily tries to get back at Frank by referring to him as "Toby Tyler" to the audience when naming off his band members in an attempt to make Frank look bad. When Frank tries to quit, Eddie realizes his error and reconciles with him, telling Frank that they need each other.
The story's climax involves Joann, completing the one piece of the flashback puzzle that Frank could not: what happened the night that Satin refused to release the band's second album? After storming from the studio, Eddie brought her to the Palace of Depression
, a makeshift castle made of garbage and junk that he visited often as a child. She reveals it was in fact she who took the master tapes for A Season in Hell from Satin Records, hiding them in the Palace of Depression, where she felt they belonged.
Frank and Joann go back to the Palace of Depression to retrieve the master tapes. After returning to Joann's house, she receives a phone call she believes to be from Eddie, who has been missing for almost 20 years, and with whom she remains in love. Frank does not believe it to be Eddie who called her, and hides outside and watches as a blue 57 Chevy
, identical to Eddie's, arrives at the house, and a voice that sounds like Eddie's calls to her. Before Joann can reach the car, Frank pulls the driver from behind the wheel, who turns out to be the band's old manager, who was using the trickery to obtain possession of the master tapes. They nonetheless give him the tapes, which he promises to release under a deal that will benefit all of them.
The film closes with Maggie's story about the band, being viewed on televisions in a store window and watched by a crowd outside. The credits roll as a song from A Season in Hell is premiered for the first time, and as the lights from the television dim, the crowd walks away, leaving only one person standing at the window. The reflection appears in the store window, revealing it to be the long-lost Eddie Wilson. Much older, he smiles serenely, proud to know that his work, misunderstood all those years ago, is finally being heard, and he disappears into the night.
player for John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, and Helen Schneider
were professional musicians in the fictional band.
's novel with his own money and at great financial risk. He wrote the screenplay with Arlene Davidson and decided to use a Citizen Kane
-style story structure. He remembered, "That was in my head: the search." Davidson made a deal with Time-Life, a company that was going into the movie-making business. However, they quickly exited the business after making two films that were not financially successful. He was understandably upset and a couple of days later he went out to dinner and met a secretary who had worked on his first film. He told her what had happened to his film and she gave his script for Eddie and the Cruisers to her business partners. In a relatively short time, a deal was struck with Aurora and Davidson was given a $6 million budget. During their short existence, Aurora made three films - The Secret of NIMH
, Heart Like a Wheel
, and Davidson's film.
In order to get a credible looking and sounding band for the film, Davidson hired Kenny Vance
, one of the original members of Jay and the Americans
. He showed Davidson his scrapbook, the places the band performed, the car they drove in, and how they transported their instruments. Vance also told Davidson stories about the band, some of which he incorporated into the script. Tom Berenger has said that he did not try to learn piano for the film but did practice keyboards for hours in his trailer. Matthew Laurance actually learned how to play the bass through rehearsals. Only Michael "Tunes" Antunes, the tenor saxophone player for John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, and Helen Schneider were professional musicians in the cast. Michael Pare was discovered in a New York City restaurant working as a chef. He said of his role in the film that it was "a thrill I've never experienced. It's a really weird high. For a few moments, you feel like a king, a god. It's scary, a dangerous feeling. If you take it too seriously ..." Davidson had the actors who played in Eddie's band rehearse as if they were getting ready for a real concert. Pare remembers, "The first time we played together - as a band - was a college concert. An odd thing happened. At first, the extras simply did what they were told. Then, as the music heated up, so did the audience. They weren't play-acting anymore. The screaming, stomping and applause became spontaneous". Davidson recalls, "One by one, kids began standing up in their seats, screaming and raising their hands in rhythmic applause. A few girls made a dash for the stage, tearing at Michael's shirt. We certainly hadn't told them to do that. But we kept the cameras rolling".
According to Davidson, when he completed making the film three different studios wanted to distribute it and he went with Embassy Pictures
because they offered him the most money. However, they had no prior experience in distribution and were unable to properly release it in theaters. Davidson remembered, "And six months later, somebody said, 'Your picture is appearing on HBO this weekend,' and I didn't even know".
, but when they meet Frank, they have elements of Jim Morrison
and The Doors
. However, Davidson did not want to lose sight of the fact that the Cruisers were essentially a Jersey bar band and he thought of Bruce Springsteen
and the E Street Band
. The filmmaker told Vance to find him someone that could produce music that contained elements of these three bands. Davidson was getting close to rehearsals when Vance called him and said that he had found the band - John Cafferty
and the Beaver Brown Band from Providence, Rhode Island
. Davidson met the band and realized that they closely resembled the band as described in the script, right down to a Cape Verdean saxophone player, whom he cast in the film. Initially, Cafferty was hired to write a few songs for the film, but he did such a good job of capturing the feeling of the 1960s and 1980s that Davidson asked him to score the film.
After successful screenings on HBO in 1984, the album suddenly climbed the charts, selling four million copies. The studio re-released the soundtrack in the fall of 1984. Nine months after the film was released in theaters, the main song in the film, "On the Dark Side" was the number one song in the country on Billboard's
Mainstream, Rock, and Heatseeker charts; and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100
chart. Another single from the film, "Tender Years", peaked at #31 on the Billboard Hot 100.
. Embassy Pictures threw a promotional party for the film at a West Hollywood dance club in September, 1983 where Cafferty and his band played. The film was released into theaters on September 23, 1983 and grossed USD
$1.4 million on its opening weekend. It would go on to make $4.7 million in North America. The film was pulled from theaters after three weeks and all of the promotional ads pulled after one week.
gave the film two out of four stars and wrote, "the ending is so frustrating, so dumb, so unsatisfactory, that it gives a bad reputation to the whole movie". In her review for The New York Times
, Janet Maslin
wrote, "Some of the details ring uncannily true, like the slick oldies nightclub act that one of the Cruisers is still doing nearly 20 years after Eddie's supposed death. Other aspects of the film are inexplicably wrong. Eddie's music sounds good, but it also sounds a lot like Bruce Springsteen's, and it would not have been the rage in 1963". However, she did praise Pare's performance: "Mr. Pare makes a fine debut; he captures the manner of a hot-blooded young rocker with great conviction, and his lip-synching is almost perfect". Gary Arnold, in the Washington Post, wrote, "At any rate, it seemed to me that what Eddie and the Cruisers aspired to do was certainly worth doing. The problem is that it finally lacks the storytelling resources to tell enough of an intriguing story about a musical mystery man".
In the novel, Frank Ridgeway is a second guitar player rather than the piano player. Additionally, Sal Amato is a first guitar player, Wendell Newton plays both piano and saxophone, and there is no bass player mentioned.
Wendell Newton is in prison rather than deceased.
Kenny Hopkins is a preacher who keeps in contact with Newton rather than a casino dealer.
Joann Carlino runs a blueberry/Christmas tree farm in the novel, while she appears to be in a performing arts field (she says that she just came from a rehearsal) in the film.
The Maggie Foley character is a composite of two characters from the novel: Elliott Mannheim, a rock journalist, and Susan Foley, a law student and friend of Mannheim's.
The circumstances of Frank Ridgeway's early life are explained in more detail. In the novel, he enrolled in college at 16 due to skipping grades earlier in life, and dropped out after one year, eventually becoming a porter at Vince's Boardwalk Bar where he meets the Cruisers.
The tapes being sought in the novel are tapes from a secret session at a Quonset hut in Lakehurst, New Jersey involving numerous notable black and white musicians of the era, including Bo Diddley
, Buddy Holly
and Elvis Presley
. The sessions "didn't work" and the tapes were never submitted to the record company as they were in the film. This later became part of the plot of Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!, although without Presley and Holly (Holly's death in 1959 would have made this impossible, due to the first film's change of the time period).
Arthur Rimbaud is not mentioned in the novel, either as an inspiration for Eddie's disappearance or the "hook" used to create a story years later.
Frank Ridgeway is married with children in the novel, and his wife files for divorce during his trip to see all the old Cruisers. In the film, his personal life is not mentioned, and he is not wearing a wedding ring.
Eddie Wilson is married in the novel, and Joann Carlino is his mistress. His wife is not mentioned in the film.
"Far Away Woman" is the name of the Cruisers' biggest hit, although "On the Dark Side" is one of their other songs.
Martin Davidson
Martin Davidson is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. After attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he spent five years as an actor in Off Broadway shows and regional theater. His directorial debut was The Lords of Flatbush starring Sylvester Stallone and Henry...
with the screenplay written by the director and Arlene Davidson, based on the novel by P. F. Kluge
P. F. Kluge
Paul Frederick Kluge , commonly known as P. F. Kluge, is a novelist living in Gambier, Ohio.Kluge was raised in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. He graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier in 1964 and teaches creative writing there now...
. The film is about a television reporter named Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin is an American film, television and theatre actress.-Early life:She was born Ellen Rona Barkin in Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York, the daughter of Evelyn , a hospital administrator who worked at Jamaica Hospital, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman...
) investigating the mysterious death of musician Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré
Michael Paré
- Early life :Paré was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Joan, a homemaker, and Francis Paré, who owned print shops. He had six sisters and three brothers. Paré's father was of French-Canadian ancestry and his mother of Irish ancestry....
) and the search for his band's second album, which disappeared from the vaults of Satin Records the day after Eddie's alleged death.
The film was not very successful at the box office, grossing USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$4.7 million in North America. It also received many negative to mixed reviews from critics. However, in the fall of 1984, the soundtrack album suddenly climbed the charts, as the film was rediscovered on cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
and home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
, prompting the studio to re-release the album.
The film was followed by one sequel, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! in 1989. It was marketed with the tagline "Rebel. Rocker. Lover. Idol. Vanished."
Plot
The film portrays a 1960s rock 'n roll band called Eddie and the Cruisers. The band makes a name for itself while playing regularly at a Somers Point, New JerseySomers Point, New Jersey
Somers Point is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 10,795.The City of Somers Point is in the eastern part of Atlantic County, southwest of Atlantic City.-History:...
club called Tony Mart's. It is there that they meet Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
), whom Eddie Wilson (Paré) hires to be the band's keyboard player and lyricist, and who he nicknames "Wordman". Doc Robbins and Sal Amato are skeptical of hiring Frank, who is not a trained musician or experienced song writer, but Eddie believes that Frank is crucial to the band's development.
With Ridgeway's help the band stops playing cover songs and releases an album of original material, Tender Years, that instantly becomes a hit, especially with the song, "On the Dark Side". The band members spend a year recording their next album, A Season in Hell, during which Eddie's artistic and creative talents often are buried beneath his arrogant and rebellious traits, leading to arguments between him and band manager Doc Robbins (Joe Pantoliano
Joe Pantoliano
Joseph Peter "Joe" Pantoliano is an American film and television actor. He played the character of Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and Jennifer Tilly's...
). At one point, bassist Sal Amato (Matthew Laurance) tells Eddie he doesn't understand what he's looking for, to which Eddie responds that he wants to be great. Sal replies "We're not great. We're just some guys from Jersey". Eddie makes it clear that if the band cannot be great, then there is no reason to ever play music again.
The band's second album is a culmination of all that Eddie had ever hoped to do with music, different from anything that anyone else had ever done to that point, and he was satisfied with it. However, it is controversial and considered dark and strange by the record company, Satin Records, and is rejected, not to be released. In the early morning hours after Satin refuses to release the new album, Eddie's car crashes through the railing going over the Stainton Memorial Causeway
New Jersey Route 52
Route 52 is a state highway in the southern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The highway runs from Palen Avenue in Ocean City, Cape May County north to U.S. Route 9 in Somers Point, Atlantic County. It is composed mostly of a series of four-lane undivided bridges over Great Egg Harbor Bay...
. Eddie's body is never found, and he is declared dead.
Almost 20 years later, Satin re-releases the band's first album, which becomes a surprise hit, climbing higher on the charts than it had on its original release. The producers of a television show decide to do a documentary on the band, with an attempt to bring light to the band's second album, which disappeared from the vaults of Satin Records the day after Eddie's alleged death.
Though the namesake of the documentary is the band's lead singer, it revolves around the other members of the Cruisers, especially Frank Ridgeway, and their memories of the band. All of them have moved on with their lives except saxophone player Wendell Newton, who had died of an overdose in 1963 at age 37. Only Sal Amato remained in the music business, leading a new lineup of Cruisers. Ridgeway is now working as a high school teacher, Doc is a local radio disc jockey and drummer Kenny Hopkins works in an Atlantic City casino. Much of the story takes place in flashback, prompted by television reporter Maggie Foley's (Barkin) interviews with the band members. Tensions building within the Cruisers during the flashback sequences coincide with Frank's willingness to be more open with Maggie. Frank recalls that the band wanted to play at Benton College where Frank was a student, but Eddie felt uncomfortable there, stating that they would not belong there if it was not their kind of place. When Eddie sees Frank kissing Joann Carlino (Helen Schneider
Helen Schneider
Helen Schneider is an American singer and actress working mainly in Germany.Born the daughter of Dvora and Abraham Schneider , she studied piano before starting to perform as a singer in venues in New England and New York.Between 1978 and 1984, she achieved success as a rock singer in Germany;...
), Eddie's girlfriend, he angrily tries to get back at Frank by referring to him as "Toby Tyler" to the audience when naming off his band members in an attempt to make Frank look bad. When Frank tries to quit, Eddie realizes his error and reconciles with him, telling Frank that they need each other.
The story's climax involves Joann, completing the one piece of the flashback puzzle that Frank could not: what happened the night that Satin refused to release the band's second album? After storming from the studio, Eddie brought her to the Palace of Depression
Palace of Depression
The Palace of Depression was a building made of junk that was located in Vineland, New Jersey. Built by the eccentric and mustachioed George Daynor, a former Alaska gold miner who lost his fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929...
, a makeshift castle made of garbage and junk that he visited often as a child. She reveals it was in fact she who took the master tapes for A Season in Hell from Satin Records, hiding them in the Palace of Depression, where she felt they belonged.
Frank and Joann go back to the Palace of Depression to retrieve the master tapes. After returning to Joann's house, she receives a phone call she believes to be from Eddie, who has been missing for almost 20 years, and with whom she remains in love. Frank does not believe it to be Eddie who called her, and hides outside and watches as a blue 57 Chevy
57 Chevy
The 1957 Chevrolet is an automobile which was introduced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors in September, 1956. It was available in three series models: the upscale Bel Air, the mid-range "two-ten", and the "one-fifty". A two-door station wagon, the Nomad was produced as a Bel Air model....
, identical to Eddie's, arrives at the house, and a voice that sounds like Eddie's calls to her. Before Joann can reach the car, Frank pulls the driver from behind the wheel, who turns out to be the band's old manager, who was using the trickery to obtain possession of the master tapes. They nonetheless give him the tapes, which he promises to release under a deal that will benefit all of them.
The film closes with Maggie's story about the band, being viewed on televisions in a store window and watched by a crowd outside. The credits roll as a song from A Season in Hell is premiered for the first time, and as the lights from the television dim, the crowd walks away, leaving only one person standing at the window. The reflection appears in the store window, revealing it to be the long-lost Eddie Wilson. Much older, he smiles serenely, proud to know that his work, misunderstood all those years ago, is finally being heard, and he disappears into the night.
Cast
- Tom BerengerTom BerengerTom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
as Frank Ridgeway - Michael ParéMichael Paré- Early life :Paré was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Joan, a homemaker, and Francis Paré, who owned print shops. He had six sisters and three brothers. Paré's father was of French-Canadian ancestry and his mother of Irish ancestry....
as Eddie Wilson - Joe PantolianoJoe PantolianoJoseph Peter "Joe" Pantoliano is an American film and television actor. He played the character of Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and Jennifer Tilly's...
as Doc Robbins - Matthew Laurance as Sal Amato
- Helen SchneiderHelen SchneiderHelen Schneider is an American singer and actress working mainly in Germany.Born the daughter of Dvora and Abraham Schneider , she studied piano before starting to perform as a singer in venues in New England and New York.Between 1978 and 1984, she achieved success as a rock singer in Germany;...
as Joann Carlino - David Wilson as Kenny Hopkins
- Michael "Tunes" Antunes as Wendell Newton
- Ellen BarkinEllen BarkinEllen Barkin is an American film, television and theatre actress.-Early life:She was born Ellen Rona Barkin in Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York, the daughter of Evelyn , a hospital administrator who worked at Jamaica Hospital, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman...
as Maggie Foley
Cast notes
Only two cast members, Michael "Tunes" Antunes, the tenor saxophoneSaxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
player for John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, and Helen Schneider
Helen Schneider
Helen Schneider is an American singer and actress working mainly in Germany.Born the daughter of Dvora and Abraham Schneider , she studied piano before starting to perform as a singer in venues in New England and New York.Between 1978 and 1984, she achieved success as a rock singer in Germany;...
were professional musicians in the fictional band.
Production
Martin Davidson has said that the inspiration for the film came from a desire to "get all my feelings about the music of the last 30 years of rock music into it". He optioned P. F. KlugeP. F. Kluge
Paul Frederick Kluge , commonly known as P. F. Kluge, is a novelist living in Gambier, Ohio.Kluge was raised in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. He graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier in 1964 and teaches creative writing there now...
's novel with his own money and at great financial risk. He wrote the screenplay with Arlene Davidson and decided to use a Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
-style story structure. He remembered, "That was in my head: the search." Davidson made a deal with Time-Life, a company that was going into the movie-making business. However, they quickly exited the business after making two films that were not financially successful. He was understandably upset and a couple of days later he went out to dinner and met a secretary who had worked on his first film. He told her what had happened to his film and she gave his script for Eddie and the Cruisers to her business partners. In a relatively short time, a deal was struck with Aurora and Davidson was given a $6 million budget. During their short existence, Aurora made three films - The Secret of NIMH
The Secret of NIMH
The Secret of NIMH is a 1982 animated film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The film was produced by Aurora Pictures and released by United Artists. While released to critical acclaim,...
, Heart Like a Wheel
Heart Like a Wheel (film)
Heart Like a Wheel is a 1983 biographical film based on the life of drag racing driver Shirley Muldowney. It stars Bonnie Bedelia and Beau Bridges....
, and Davidson's film.
In order to get a credible looking and sounding band for the film, Davidson hired Kenny Vance
Kenny Vance
Kenny Vance is an American singer and music producer who was an original member of Jay and the Americans....
, one of the original members of Jay and the Americans
Jay and the Americans
Jay and the Americans was a pop music group popular in the 1960s. Their initial lineup consisted of John "Jay" Traynor, Howard Kane , Kenny Vance and Sandy Deanne , though their greatest success on the charts came after Traynor had been replaced as lead singer by Jay Black.-Early years:They were...
. He showed Davidson his scrapbook, the places the band performed, the car they drove in, and how they transported their instruments. Vance also told Davidson stories about the band, some of which he incorporated into the script. Tom Berenger has said that he did not try to learn piano for the film but did practice keyboards for hours in his trailer. Matthew Laurance actually learned how to play the bass through rehearsals. Only Michael "Tunes" Antunes, the tenor saxophone player for John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, and Helen Schneider were professional musicians in the cast. Michael Pare was discovered in a New York City restaurant working as a chef. He said of his role in the film that it was "a thrill I've never experienced. It's a really weird high. For a few moments, you feel like a king, a god. It's scary, a dangerous feeling. If you take it too seriously ..." Davidson had the actors who played in Eddie's band rehearse as if they were getting ready for a real concert. Pare remembers, "The first time we played together - as a band - was a college concert. An odd thing happened. At first, the extras simply did what they were told. Then, as the music heated up, so did the audience. They weren't play-acting anymore. The screaming, stomping and applause became spontaneous". Davidson recalls, "One by one, kids began standing up in their seats, screaming and raising their hands in rhythmic applause. A few girls made a dash for the stage, tearing at Michael's shirt. We certainly hadn't told them to do that. But we kept the cameras rolling".
According to Davidson, when he completed making the film three different studios wanted to distribute it and he went with Embassy Pictures
Embassy Pictures
Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as The Graduate, The Lion in Winter, This Is Spinal Tap and Escape from New York.-Founding:The company was founded in 1942 by producer Joseph E...
because they offered him the most money. However, they had no prior experience in distribution and were unable to properly release it in theaters. Davidson remembered, "And six months later, somebody said, 'Your picture is appearing on HBO this weekend,' and I didn't even know".
Soundtrack
Vance asked Davidson to describe his fictitious band and their music. Initially, Davidson said that the Cruisers sounded like Dion and the BelmontsDion and the Belmonts
Dion and the Belmonts was a leading American vocal group of the late 1950s. The group formed when Dion DiMucci, lead singer , joined The Belmonts - Carlo Mastrangelo, baritone , Freddie Milano, second tenor , and Angelo D'Aleo, first tenor , in late 1957.-History:After an unsuccessful first single,...
, but when they meet Frank, they have elements of Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
and The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
. However, Davidson did not want to lose sight of the fact that the Cruisers were essentially a Jersey bar band and he thought of Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
and the E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
. The filmmaker told Vance to find him someone that could produce music that contained elements of these three bands. Davidson was getting close to rehearsals when Vance called him and said that he had found the band - John Cafferty
John Cafferty
John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band is the name of an American rock band from Narragansett, Rhode Island, that began their career in the 1970s and achieved mainstream success in the 1980s...
and the Beaver Brown Band from Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. Davidson met the band and realized that they closely resembled the band as described in the script, right down to a Cape Verdean saxophone player, whom he cast in the film. Initially, Cafferty was hired to write a few songs for the film, but he did such a good job of capturing the feeling of the 1960s and 1980s that Davidson asked him to score the film.
After successful screenings on HBO in 1984, the album suddenly climbed the charts, selling four million copies. The studio re-released the soundtrack in the fall of 1984. Nine months after the film was released in theaters, the main song in the film, "On the Dark Side" was the number one song in the country on Billboard's
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Mainstream, Rock, and Heatseeker charts; and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart. Another single from the film, "Tender Years", peaked at #31 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Reaction
Eddie and the Cruisers was originally intended to open during the summer but a scheduling error resulted in a September release when its target audience - teenagers - were back in school. The film had its world premiere at DeauvilleDeauville
Deauville is a commune in the Calvados département in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.With its racecourse, harbour, international film festival, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino and sumptuous hotels, Deauville is regarded as the "queen of the Norman beaches" and...
. Embassy Pictures threw a promotional party for the film at a West Hollywood dance club in September, 1983 where Cafferty and his band played. The film was released into theaters on September 23, 1983 and grossed USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$1.4 million on its opening weekend. It would go on to make $4.7 million in North America. The film was pulled from theaters after three weeks and all of the promotional ads pulled after one week.
Critical reception
Eddie and the Cruisers was not well-received by critics. Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film two out of four stars and wrote, "the ending is so frustrating, so dumb, so unsatisfactory, that it gives a bad reputation to the whole movie". In her review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
wrote, "Some of the details ring uncannily true, like the slick oldies nightclub act that one of the Cruisers is still doing nearly 20 years after Eddie's supposed death. Other aspects of the film are inexplicably wrong. Eddie's music sounds good, but it also sounds a lot like Bruce Springsteen's, and it would not have been the rage in 1963". However, she did praise Pare's performance: "Mr. Pare makes a fine debut; he captures the manner of a hot-blooded young rocker with great conviction, and his lip-synching is almost perfect". Gary Arnold, in the Washington Post, wrote, "At any rate, it seemed to me that what Eddie and the Cruisers aspired to do was certainly worth doing. The problem is that it finally lacks the storytelling resources to tell enough of an intriguing story about a musical mystery man".
Re-release
In 1984, Eddie and the Cruisers was re-discovered by audiences when it was aired on HBO. Embassy Pictures re-released the film for one week based on successful summer cable screenings and a popular radio single, but it once again failed to perform at the box office. Looking back, Davidson said, "that picture should have been a theatrical success. There was an audience for it. People still watch it and still tell me about it". Davidson was offered the sequel, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!, but was not crazy about the idea and wanted no part of it.Differences between the book and film
The novel takes place in 1958, while the film is set in 1963.In the novel, Frank Ridgeway is a second guitar player rather than the piano player. Additionally, Sal Amato is a first guitar player, Wendell Newton plays both piano and saxophone, and there is no bass player mentioned.
Wendell Newton is in prison rather than deceased.
Kenny Hopkins is a preacher who keeps in contact with Newton rather than a casino dealer.
Joann Carlino runs a blueberry/Christmas tree farm in the novel, while she appears to be in a performing arts field (she says that she just came from a rehearsal) in the film.
The Maggie Foley character is a composite of two characters from the novel: Elliott Mannheim, a rock journalist, and Susan Foley, a law student and friend of Mannheim's.
The circumstances of Frank Ridgeway's early life are explained in more detail. In the novel, he enrolled in college at 16 due to skipping grades earlier in life, and dropped out after one year, eventually becoming a porter at Vince's Boardwalk Bar where he meets the Cruisers.
The tapes being sought in the novel are tapes from a secret session at a Quonset hut in Lakehurst, New Jersey involving numerous notable black and white musicians of the era, including Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. The sessions "didn't work" and the tapes were never submitted to the record company as they were in the film. This later became part of the plot of Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!, although without Presley and Holly (Holly's death in 1959 would have made this impossible, due to the first film's change of the time period).
Arthur Rimbaud is not mentioned in the novel, either as an inspiration for Eddie's disappearance or the "hook" used to create a story years later.
Frank Ridgeway is married with children in the novel, and his wife files for divorce during his trip to see all the old Cruisers. In the film, his personal life is not mentioned, and he is not wearing a wedding ring.
Eddie Wilson is married in the novel, and Joann Carlino is his mistress. His wife is not mentioned in the film.
"Far Away Woman" is the name of the Cruisers' biggest hit, although "On the Dark Side" is one of their other songs.