First let me emphasise - I fuckin love Ian Dury. He is a huge inspiration and influence on me. As a person and a performer he represents the kind of complex, unique character we just don't get in pop music these days. Would he get through the opening round of X-Factor? Would he fuck. Is this a good thing? Absolutely. He did it his way and he took it to number one. Literally - check out "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" (one of my all time favourite tracks, like, ever) live on TOTP below. The character of Ian Dury was defined by no-one but Ian Dury himself (and some unfortunate mitigating circumstances).
Unlike the never-ending piss stream of crap pop muppets we are served up in modern times, there's no whiff of stylising-by-commitee to Dury. In fact, those corporate pop-commitees would have rejected him outright simply because he lived with a disability. Cos nobody finds cripples attractive, yeah? Ian fought against all kinds of odds to make it, which made his success all the sweeter, and offers hope to anyone whose talent outweighs their desire to conform.
As for the Blockheads, where can you start? In my humble opinion, this is the closest the UK has ever gotten to the big band funk all-star groups of the states, like the JBs or Parliament. Yes they really are that funky. And while it's obvious they are influenced by American funk, soul, jazz and disco, they could only possibly have come from one place, that being North London of the mid-to-late 70's. Ian didn't try to ape his American peers, and that made him even stronger. Here's "What A Waste" for proof:
OK, onto the film. I felt drained when when the lights came up and we left the cinema, and it took a few days to process the film. It's fast-moving, funny and incorporates elements of spoken word, musical hall performance, animation, and live concert footage. But even though I enjoyed it a lot, I had my reservations and it took me a while to work out. Looking back Matt nailed it on the head when he mentioned that Ian Dury was much better looking than Andy Serkis. So, at the risk of sounding shallow, why should that matter?
Well, Ian Dury was a complex, self-created character. He took a set of random factors that effected his life and moulded the image of "Ian Dury" out of them. He HAD to create his own image, his own niche, because he was subject to disabilities that should have excluded him from being a successful pop music performer. And those disabilites, and his overcoming of them, have defined his character ever since (while also making him an inspiration to lots of other performers). But they weren't ALL there was to the man - he had talent of course, but he had charisma to burn and he just outright looked iconic.
Unfortunately for Serkis the character of Ian Dury is now so well defined that it feels a bit too much like caricature to me. Andy Serkis' Ian Dury doesn't feel like someone to whom shite happens and whose fight against that shite defines him. Andy Serkis' take on Ian Dury feels like a retrospectively-approached "that's-how-the-character-was" performance, which strips the danger, difference and (most importantly) the self-definition from Ian Dury's "Ian Dury". For me this was one of the major failings of the film. We were never shown much of a "struggle" for Ian within the music industry (which must have seemed huge), his success seemed pre-determined. Of course, the audience knows he WAS a success even before we went in, but the cinema experience is all about suspension of disbelief.
And unfortunately for Serkis he just doesn't look as good as Ian did - he has the clothes, the make-up and the stance right but he lacks the handsome face that cemented Ian Dury as an icon. I know this is a pretty subjective point, that says more about me than the film, but I have to make it. And I know it makes me sound shallow, but it's got less to do with attraction and more to do with recognition and empathy. Like I said above, Ian Dury is one of my idols. However, one strange after-effect of S&D&RnR is that every time I think of a scene now I see Ian's face magically CGI'd onto Serkis' body, - I don't think Serkis would have a problem with that, and in my own strange way it is in fact high praise for his performance. In effect what I have problems with in the film are typical of any bipic made about anyone's favourite artist/performer/etc.
I don't wanna be too down on the film! It is very well produced and directed, making the most of the obviously limited budget, and at no point does the pace let up enough to get bored or distracted. The music is fantastic (of course) though it could have done with showcasing more of the funky disco pops (of course). And Serkis IS good - so good in fact that he's a shoe in for a Bafta. He will get nominated for an Oscar too I reckon, though he will lose out to Jeff Bridges for best male actor. He's destined for a best supporting actor Oscar someday though. I would highly recommend this film for the folks who know nowt about Ian Dury, and for the fans as well, but with reservation.
Writing in the Guardian Peter Bradshaw mentioned the possibility of this film getting turned into a stage musical, which would be great - it would let lots of other actors give their intrepetations of "Ian Dury" and of course it would be a great context for the man's excellent music to live on and inspire future generations.
And on a related note, there is currently a campaign on Facebook to get Ian's banned 1981 anthem "Spasticus Autisticus" the number one spot it rightly deserves. To see something which was comissioned for a cause so close to his heart get banned (by the non-disabled, overly cautious BBC) must have been crushing. In many ways the song is his masterpiece and I for one will be buying it in the week leading up to March 27th. Here's a clip which even features the chairman of the Spastics Society (the people who commissioned the song and chipped in to have it banned) saying he regrets his decision and wishes that somehow it could get to number one in the future. It can be done. We call that pop justice!
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