AC/DC: Let There Be Rock

1980's concert movie AC/DC: LET THERE BE ROCK truly is for fans only, but it may well convert a viewer or two.  Not necessarily because of any cinematic skills courtesy of directors Eric Dionysius and Eric Mistler. Oi, it's the music! Now you may think the Australian bad boys are just noise, with shrieky vocals and ribald lyrics to augment the grinding guitar wails, but in addition to being a bit slapdash in your summation you'd also be perhaps unfairly dismissive of their talent.  These guys started with the blues and tore off in their own disorganized but inspired directions. And they rock.

You might have read in an earlier entry describing how, at the age of twelve,  I became an instant fan in my friend's bedroom one afternoon, when he spun a 33 1/3 of Back in Black.  It was like nothing I had heard in my cloistered existence.  Soon after, I began listening to the older albums, like High Voltage and Highway to Hell, learning those tunes were sung by one Bon Scott, who co-wrote many of the lyrics and died before Back in Black was recorded.  Brian Johnson did, um, a hell of a job in his place but Scott was one of a kind.  He's stated that his vocals were inspired by Little Richard, and you can hear that.  Not everyone dug Scott's voice, though I never read anything as caustic as I had of Johnson's singing, described by one critic as "an automatic fart shooter."

AC/DC proved a problematic listening choice for my church going self, however.  It seemed every other song was about or had the word "hell" in the title.  I later interpreted this to be tongue in cheek, an effort to irritate authority figures and record burners.  But did Bon Scott have some odd obsession with the concept of damnation?  

LET THERE BE ROCK, named after AC/DC's 1977 album, was shot in Paris during the Highway to Hell tour.  The set list is choice, and not just the hits.  It's good to hear lesser knowns like "Walk All Over You" and "Shot Down in Flames" alongside fan faves like "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Girl's Got Rhythm".  "Bad Boy Boogie" is highlighted by guitarist Angus Young's playful striptease out of his trademark school boy uniform.  Young truly is a "live wire" -  pumping his thigh in a jerky march across the stage and sometimes falling down and doing 360s on it, never missing a note.  He enters the crowd and later rides on the shoulders of Scott during an extended version of "Rocker".  He alone makes the movie worth seeing.

Interestingly though, for all the energy exhibited the concert footage simultaneously feels subdued, even muted at times.  It's really difficult to explain why.  Perhaps because everyone else seems anemic by comparison to Angus.   The camerawork is mostly standard, though there is the novelty of some overhead shots.  The music never suffers; each rendition creates the same excitement as when listening to the albums, stack of pennies on the stylus, under huge Koss headphones.  Would've loved to have been old enough to be at this show, or to have gone to the Plaza Theater in West Palm Beach, FL to catch a midnight showing (along with THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK).

There are also periodic interludes - semi-coherent band interviews and a few silly outdoor sequences, including a plane/car race and soccer kicks.  These scenes are filler, easy to take, but add little.  The off screen interviewer, who sounds like a computer, asks the guys how they perceive their band mates, how they contribute to the music, etc.  Bon Scott has a moment where he reminisces about his early days with the band, how he began as their chauffeur before grabbing the mic.  It's a bittersweet moment, knowing that he would pass away two months later.   The end credits dedicate the film "To Bon."  Did he get a hero's welcome in the sort of afterlife of which he sang?