MovieChat Forums > 'Round Midnight (1986) Discussion > Just awful, a complete flop

Just awful, a complete flop

posted 16 years ago by jackboot
7 replies | jump to latest

I don't know how anyone could rave about this film. I thought it was unbelievably long, slow, very, very boring. I gave it two stars out of ten.

I must say that Dexter Gordon is one of my least favorite players of his generation, but to focus so much attention on him and to have to listen to him hoarsely whisper or mumble his lines of two hours was torture.

I thought the music was very disappointing, and mostly because of Dexter Gordon. It seemed like he was holding everyone else back. He was appearing alongside a bunch of other guys who all looked like they came to play and he could barely squawk out a few notes. In general, all the music was too slow, it barely held together and it was pretty much lifeless and dull. I was so disappointed, especially after the build-up this film got. I don't see how anyone with even the most cursory and superficial interest in jazz can call the music in this film "great jazz".

I don't know what kind of a fetish or obsession this director had with jazz, but I thought all of the discussion about the music sounded completely sophomoric and pretentious. It also bugged me greatly to hear Dexter Gordon's character speaking of the evolution of advanced harmony and some of the players who helped usher it forward with new technical and theoretical innovations and placing himself in the timeline alongside the likes of Basie, Charlie Parker, etc. Of course, this was not Dexter Gordon talking, but his character, but it was irksome for me to hear Gordon, who is a second class jazz man, talk like he was the Son of God or something.

The story line was really stupid, why this Francis character would ever get so worked up over the Dale Turner character didn't wash for me. Okay, if this was about the real-life relations between Bud Powell and Francis Paudras, I could see why he'd basically give his life over to help the guy, but from what was shown in this film, it landed like a lead turkey. I fault the director and also the whomever it was that made the terrible casting decision to use Dexter Gordon. Gordon, at 63, was way too old for the part. Powell would have been 34, Lester Young would have been 50 in 1959.

For a film that is supposed to be anthemic and give a definitive view in the jazz world, 'Round Midnight misses the beat.

[–] stephan-128 15 years ago

sorry you feel that way. i found it to be very.........good.

[–] steveco3 15 years ago

Boy are you wrong about Gordon. Open your ears, man!

He's one of the all-time great tenor players.

[–] franzkabuki 14 years ago

"I thought it was long, slow, very very boring".

It´s kind of difficult to imagine a film about jazz to move at a pace of modern action movies.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] jackboot 14 years ago

With all courtesy and respect, I completely disagree about Dexter Gordon. Gordon was not an all-time great. He was an also-ran in a field of much greater tenor men who made truly great contributions. His name will never be held up as a great. He just managed to live a long time and found continuing work in Europe.

franzkauki, sorry pal, you're not going to get any traction dismissing me as an action movie viewer with no attention span. This movie was horrible. It is indefensible. Bird wasn't bad. Straight No Chaser I like. Hell, I even like the Benny Goodman Story, the Glenn Miller Story and, while it's another horrible film supposedly based on the life of a jazzman, Young Man With a Horn has wonderful music in it.

This thing is a clunker. While I can sit through, and enjoy, and even prefer, a quiet drama that moves in small steps and without bombast, I could not sit through the incompetent mess that this film was. It is the cinematic equivalent of watching paint dry, or even worse. At least after paint dries, there's some hope of enjoying a nice paint job. This is more akin to watching a bumbling moron completely *beep* a paint job, and then having to wait for it to dry. The story was a lame premise for a film and Gordon does a great job of dragging it down. And Gordon is not worthy of being associated, indirectly or otherwise, with the real life greats, Lester Young and Bud Powell, his character was supposedly modeled upon.

I would love to see more films on the important modern jazz greats. They have been neglected and their stories deserve to be told and need to be part of the American narrative and picture album, which is our movie legacy.

[–] fuzzybeasty 14 years ago

Regardless of your opinions on the film itself, I suggest you read up more on Mr Gordon. A very strong, distinct and long-lasting saxophonist, he is one of the greats of the instrument, and while he may not have the discography to back him up, it's because he, like many others from the same time, chose to focus more on spellbinding live performance.

"He just managed to live a long time and found continuing work in Europe." is also a slightly iffy statement. He lived a longer time than many from the same era because his heroin problems weren't quite as bad, and the working in Europe statement is just wrong. Many black American musicians (including Kenny Clarke and Bud Powell to name just two) moved to Europe, not because of the work, but because they were treated like people and like 3rd class citizens that they were in the US.

If you don't like the film that's one thing, but don't criticize the man with vagueness and incorrect ill-informed 'facts'.

[–] marcelo-menezes 13 years ago

I haven't read up on Gordon, but going by his performances in the movie, he was simply an unimpressive player IMHO. In that context his next-to-godly of a character does seem quirky...

[–] eelb 10 years ago

Although racial equality was an important factor in the exodus to Europe, White musicians also left the US for Europe, most notably Stan Getz. The overriding issue, was the eradication of jazz in the US, by the advent of rock-n-roll, and the necessity of musicians to earn a living elsewhere. If race was the main issue, then Black musicians would have left the US much earlier than the late 1950's and early 60's.

Most of the racial equality in Europe stuff, was espoused by Miles Davis, and people repeat that as the issue causing musicians to leave the US. The presence of gainful employment was the main reason. Even today, the most financially rewarded jazz musicians, are international in scope. Very few can earn a decent living playing in the US alone.