Pirate Radio (known as The Boat That Rocked in the U.K.) is based on the true story of how a handful of renegade DJs influenced the future of music forever. In the 1960s, rock and roll was incredibly popular in Britain, but it only got a fraction of airtime on the radio. A few enterprising radio people sought to remedy this, and began broadcasting 24/7 rock and pop music from ships stationed in the North Sea. The pirate station known as 'Radio Rock' was the most popular among them.
It's into this picture that we are introduced to young Carl (Tom Sturridge), who has recently been kicked out of school and is sent out to sea to visit with his godfather Quentin (Bill Nighy), the de facto manager of Radio Rock. Dave (Nick Frost), one of the many DJs on board, takes a liking to Carl, and before long the rest of Radio Rock considers Carl to be one of their own. While the DJs go through various exploits of debauchery and clashes of ego, Carl discovers one of the DJs on board may be his father, and he decides to seek him out before his return home. Meanwhile, on the mainland, Sir Alistair Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh), and his new assistant, one Mr. Twatt (Jack Davenport) are determined to shut down the noise pollution of rock and roll for good, whether it's done by legal means or otherwise. Carl eventually discovers the identity of his father, but only moments later, the entire crew are put into a life threatening situation at sea, and brought out of it in a most unexpected way.
The first thing I noticed about Pirate Radio was the amount of sexual content. While I was a bit shocked at first, it was certainly true to the era, and it would hardly be fair to judge a movie for that. The other major attribute of this Pirate Radio is that it's an ensemble film. Thankfully director Richard Curtis has done very well with other ensemble films like Love Actually. No one character ever truly feels left out of the story, even if they appear for a few brief moments. In fact, one could argue that these brief moments are more impactful than the larger set pieces of the movie. One of my favourite scenes in the film is an exchange between Carl and early morning DJ Bob (Ralph Brown). It's a very short scene with very little dialogue, but there's a great deal of emotional information packed into that little scene. I think this stands as both proof of my theory and proof of the great acting and direction of this movie.
As I mentioned above, just about everyone in this film gets their moment in the sun, and each character is memorable in their own way. One of the most memorable characters is 'The Count' (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who bursts with the kind of rebellious spirit and bullish confidence that could only come from an American. On the flipside of this, we have Kenneth Branagh's performance as the humourless, yet fiercely determined bureaucrat Dormandy. He's a character you instantly hate, not only for his personality, but also for what he represents to the fun loving people of Radio Rock and their fans. These are just a few small examples, of course. Pirate Radio is so well cast, I could easily pick any given actor and have something good to say about them in this film.
It would be negligent to talk about Pirate Radio without mentioning the music. What's most interesting is the sheer variety of music there is to hear. It seems that not a scene goes by when we aren't hearing something play in the background. The soundtrack is filled with all kinds of different music, from Smokey Robinson all the way to a novelty Christmas song by the Beach Boys. At its heart, the love of music is the driving force of Pirate Radio, and it communicates this tremendously well.
If you're fond of classic rock and roll, or have an interest in radio, Pirate Radio is a great movie for you. It has a good mix of seriousness and comedy, and a brilliantly curated soundtrack to hold everything together.
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