Pirates of the North Sea (The Boat That Rocked (DVD))

Member Name: wendyloo

Product:	The Boat That Rocked (DVD)
Date:	13/09/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good, funny and entertaining film with excellent sound track

Disadvantages: the deleted scenes should have been kept in

I am getting on a bit, but when I was a young girl, right through to my teens, I loved listening to pop music. I still do. But it isn't as much fun these days as there are so many bands, and stations on the radio, cable channels or internet to choose from. You don't get to 'know' the DJ's in the same way, unless you stick to a few radio stations, such as the range of BBC's, or Heart.

Back in the day, reception was really poor for listening to the radio. We used to use 'trannie's' ( a very different use of the word exists now!) which was short for Transistor Radio's, and they were usually quite small, with a long ariel, and you had to wave them about to pick up the signal. I lived in surburban south London, but spent many weekends each year on the Kent Coast. One thing about the Kent coast was, it picked up Pirate Radio really well!! My favourites were Radio North Sea and Radio Caroline. The music was great, and they had far less chat from the DJ's than Radio One with the likes of Tony Blackburn.

A few months ago, I went to the cinema and watched The Boat That Rocked. It was great, and it was such a blast from the past watching it.

Yesterday, I went to ASDA as I had heard Richard Curtis talking on Radio 2 (this is what it has come to!) advertising that The Boat That Rocked was now out on DVD. Hooray!! I couldn't wait until Christmas to put on my stocking filler list, so hense the trip to the supermarket to buy it.

It didn't disappoint.

As mentioned, Richard Curtis, (he of Four Weddings, Notting Hill, and Love Actually fame) wrote and directed the film, and some of his usual suspects are there - Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, cameo from Emma Thompson. No Hugh Grant in this one, but interestingly, Nick Frost is, which is the first time I have seen him without Simon Pegg. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kenneth Branagh also head up the cast. As you watch this, you recognise so many other faces, and if you are like me and my partner, you start saying 'wasn't he/she the one who was in.....? Thank goodness for IMDB.com.

So what is the film about?

Back in the mid 1960's, the government were very worried about our young minds being corrupted, or so they wanted us to believe, and there was little legislation to ban these radio stations. In reality, the BBC had the monopoly on the airwaves, and it was all subject to listeners paying the license fee. Again, I remember when you used to have to pay a license to listen to the radio, and additional payments for watching a TV too (and a separate charge for colour,) It was big business in those days, and especially as the government still had (and probably still has got) a huge debt to America for help in WW2. They needed to get as much money back from the population as possible. The pirate ships were out at sea, on international waters, so the government had to devise a plan to make them illegal. This is the back drop to the film.

The film itself is quite a funny romp with the relationships between the 'almost' all male crew and DJ's. The ship's cook is a female, but she is a lesbian, so that was all right. It has a very '60's feel to the film, all sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Everyone smiling, the sun shining for the most part, and all well with the world apart from the dreaded government. Of course, there were hideous things going on in the world really, but that is washed over with a good dose of syrup.

Girls are shipped in from the shore, to the sex starved DJ's, then sent back home again. The plot line is a loose story about a young man sent to work on the pirate radio boat as he has been expelled from school. What better place for a young man to earn his right of passage to manhood? It transpires that, just maybe, his father (who he has never known) is on this boat, too. Who could it be, we all wonder? How could that be, we all wonder, when we find out who it is?

To balance all of this, you have the authority figures. On the boat, you have Bill Nighy, who takes his job quite seriously, and realises that if they don't upset the government, they will probably be left alone. He has a wonderfully dry sense of humour, and manages his crew well. On the mainland, we have Kenneth Branagh as the MP who is finding a way of outlawing the pirate radio stations. He is crisp, starchy, robotic, and reminds me of Alan Wicker for some reason.

Why the 15 rating? Well, censorship is censorship, even with a film about censorship. There is the occasional obscene word (deliberately put in to shock the censorship police of the 1960's, ironically) and there are bare breasts, and bare bottoms. Nothing to harm many young minds, and I am surprised it is not a 12 as there are worse things on TV before the watershed, but then, I am not on the censorship board. The warning says it 'contains stronge language and moderate sex references'.

It is a very funny gentle film, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also love the extras that the DVD has. There are several deleted scenes as Richard Curtis said they made the film too long. Some were well edited as they were unnecessary, but to be honest, they cut a large part out, which was good. This was a scene where another pirate ship starts to get higher ratings, and how 'our boat' deals with it. That should have been left in.

There is another deleted scene where Rhys Ifans is seen in a café in some foreign clime, and he realises what is missing from his life. Not earth shattering, but funny none the less and could have been edited to be a shorter version, but kept in.

The film runs for 2 hours and 25 mins. There is an additional 38 minutes of deleted scenes to watch, and commentary with Richard Curtis, (I skipped through that, but you may be interested) and with actors Nick Frost and Chris O'Dowd.

My DVD cost £9 from ASDA.

Definitely put it on your Christmas list!

Thanks for reading

Wendyloo 2009

Summary: 1960's pirate radio ship that government want to shut down