Pirate Radio

Pirate Radio reinvigorated my sense of radio and the art form of listening to same. Pirate Radio details a fictionalized account of a mid-60s effort to expose rock music to a virgin audience via a freighter reconfigured as a radio station sitting off the coast of the UK. The BBC barely played contemporary music and this was a way for music from the Kinks to the Beatles to be heard late at night. Just like the nascent civil rights movement of that time seems inconceivable in light of the modern status quo so too is it hard to believe that what today constitutes a top 40 of golden oldies was all but banned during its initial release. Whenever "You Really Got Me" comes on the radio I hardly listen because it seems so cliche. But when it launches a sequence in Pirate Radio it's like rocking out to the song for the first time.
There's a longer international version of the film with more scenes and perhaps a bit racier. The UK title is The Boat That Rocked. Just thinking about Pirate Radio makes me want to revisit all the great movies (Play Misty For Me, FM, Pump Up the Volume, Talk Radio) or television shows (Good Morning, World or WKRP in Cincinnati) that are primarily set in the world of a radio broadcast booth. The radio station setting and multiple characters makes a perfect match for writer/director Richard Curtis who used converging stories with individual players to great effect in Love Actually, his previous and first film. Curtis made a name penning shows like Blackadder and films like Four Weddings and A Funeral.
Cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rhys Ifans who battle for alpha male status on the air waves and on the mostly men populated cargo ship. Nick Frost, Bill Nighy and Kenneth Branagh also make the most of their pivotal scenes. But it's the dozen or so other characters who pop in and out that keep the boat sailing smoothly. Music soundtrack of 60s hits never let me down.