Radio pirates keep music and film afloat

“Pirate Radio”
Universal Pictures
Rating: 3 stars (out of 4 stars)

From the stormy waters of the North Sea come the airwaves of the illegal “Pirate Radio” ship named Radio Rock, its counter-culture broadcasts pillaging the shores of a conservative 1960s England day-in and day-out.

Set in 1966, the film takes place after a traditionalist United Kingdom government has outlawed rock ‘n’ roll on the airwaves. In response, groups of pirate DJs station themselves in ships outside of British waters to give the public what they want — rock, and lots of it.

The main character, played by Tom Sturridge and known only as Carl, arrives on one of the ships after being expelled from school for drug use. His mother, played by Emma Thompson, has apparently sent him to the ship to get his life back on the straight and narrow with only his godfather Quentin (Bill Nighy), the station’s quirky businessman, to watch over him. As both Carl’s roommate Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke) and Quentin note, it’s exactly the worst place in the world to focus on sober matters.

Angry at the changing values the stations and their characters represent, the government, led by Sir Alistair Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh), attempts to put a stop to all of it — the stations and their 25 million listeners be damned. The government side of the plot is under-emphasized, but acted well. The two sides of the conflict dance around each other but never come face-to-face — instead, they play a cunning chess game of evasion.

Carl’s crewmates are a collection of amusing and odd characters. The Count (Philip Seymour-Hoffman) is the big star of the waves until a radio legend returns to the station in the form of Gavin Kavanagh, played by Rhys Ifans. Bob, played by Ralph Brown, is a late-night reclusive DJ who apparently preferring his record collection over life itself until Carl rescues him from drowning.

The character acting alone is worth a look, as viewers will no doubt recognize many among the cast by face, if not by name. Filled with British-style humor and gags, the film toys with several serious themes but drops them in favor of laughs. With a host of comedic talent, the movie might be as wise a choice as any.

• Facebook Comments
• Site Comments

1 comments

sophomore movie fan

Tue Nov 17 2009 11:35

This review was pretty dead on. I'm not sure why it got such mediocre reviews by the press, but I thought it was pretty great. I would have forgone the second to last paragraph in favor of more criticism or analysis, but otherwise spot on. I look forward to Mr. Dentel-Post's (okay, is that really his last name?) reviews each week.

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out