Sutcliffe’s story is a sad one, but Softley’s film is far from a dirge. When The Beatles take the stage (with their five man lineup of Lennon, Sutcliffe, McCartney, Harrison, and Best), the boys perform with a revivalist fervor. It’s the unfettered joy of lads who have no idea how barely-above-average they sound, and don’t care. To capture the sound of the nascent Beatles (and work around their lack of access to the band’s catalogue), Softley assembled an all-star band of ace musicians like Dave Grohl, Thurston Moore, Greg Dulli, Mike Mills, and Henry Rollins, and they are brilliantly ragged. Does the film commit some historical sins (like Lennon singing “Long Tall Sally” instead of McCartney)? Yep. But it captures the profane spirit of kids piss-drunk on the power of rock-and-roll, and that’s worth a factual liberty or seven.
Why was such a wildly entertaining movie about the most popular band on the planet a box office failure? “Backbeat” didn’t lack for publicity (the soundtrack was a big deal), but Gramercy Pictures bungled the distribution (after way underestimating the Gen-X appeal of “Dazed and Confused” in 1993). The film was also a year ahead of schedule. Beatlemania never goes away, but it raged with renewed fervor in the fall of 1995 with the release of “The Beatles Anthology.”
“Backbeat” is not a Beatles origin story. It is a unique tale about an artist whose best chance at happiness was to leave The Beatles, which would’ve never been The Beatles with him. What Sutcliffe would’ve been without The Beatles is a question worth asking, and Dorff’s heartbreaking performance leaves you lamenting a world where both thrived.
(You cannot watch “Backbeat” on streaming at the moment, but you can purchase the Blu-ray via Shout Factory.)