What IS Rattle & Hum about?

[Dorian Gray]

PJ: "What's this film about?"
Larry: "It's a musical journey..." [laughter ensues]

Well I guess the band isn't quite sure what that movie was about, but maybe we can come up with some good ideas.

Is this film really "A journey into the heartland of two Americas"? Or is it really just about the music? Does the film even have a theme?

What does everyone think?

 

[IWasBored]

and then adam tries explaining and larry does "the itsy bitsy spider" motions with his hands

 

[HelloAngel]

The theme is just the Joshua Tour and the band's ascension to arena-playing rock stars. Also, a celebration of U2 in a live setting.


Oh fuck it. I dunno.

 

[u2popmofo]

I have no clue what it's about. It's about a band on tour, that's what it's about. It's a great tour/concert/band movie none-the-less.

 

[arw]

Damn! When I saw the title I was going to be a smartass and say "it's a musical journey."

I think Rattle and Hum is a wonderful look into the life of U2 during that time period. I remember them well from 1987 but I hated U2 with a passion...I'm not going to go there now....anyways for me to see that 13 or 14 years later, whenever it was that I first saw Rattle and Hum, it completely changed my views on U2 from back then and helped me understand even more how this incredible band blew right past me.

That didn't answer the question did it? I have guilt like no other about the lack of U2 in my music filled life so I tend to ramble about what I missed.......

 

[u2popmofo]

Right on arw9797, I totally hated U2 for a long time too. Zooropa was the first album of theirs that won me over, then I went crazy and bought them all over a year or 2 period.

Just so everyone knows, U2 is the shiznit. You can quote me on that.

 

[IWasBored]

Just so everyone knows, U2 is the shiznit. You can quote me on that.

oh don't worry, you WILL be quoted


i didn't like u2 for a while cos i thought they were a bad synthisizer pop band...i was all of 3 years old in 1987, so i can't say i remember the joshua tree when it came out...

every single one of my favourite bands i have hated at one point or another. that goes for the beatles, and yes, even the clash...

 

[arw]

Right on arw9797, I totally hated U2 for a long time too. Zooropa was the first album of theirs that won me over, then I went crazy and bought them all over a year or 2 period.

Just so everyone knows, U2 is the shiznit. You can quote me on that.

Um...well unfortunately it took me until 2000 when I bought the Best Of and then about 6 months later ATYCLB for me to see the U2 is the shiznit.

 

[arw]

Here we go again, IWasBored, posting on the same thread at the same time....how weird.

 

[IWasBored]

i wasn't aware that u2 was the shi--how is that spelled again?

ah, shiznit...i didn't realise that until 2000 either...it's a long story...

 

[u2popmofo]

shi-how huh? That hippie hair is getting to your brain.

 

[IWasBored]

it'll all (or most of it) be gone tomorrow

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Oh fuck it. I dunno.

Haha! .

Some of you hated U2 at one time?

I've never hated them. I'd always liked their music (but I just knew them from their popular songs I'd hear on the radio).

Then I heard "Angel Of Harlem", and that was the start of U2 reeling me in as a fan. .

Angela

 

[u2popmofo]

Some of you hated U2 at one time?

I've never hated them. I'd always liked their music (but I just knew them from their popular songs I'd hear on the radio).

Angela

I still have a hard time hearing U2's Joshua Tree "glory days" singles on the radio (With or Without You, Streets, Havent Found What I'm looking For) .

I really love those songs, I just get sick cause I know there are people out there who think U2 sucks except for those songs. It make me resentful or something. I guess I like most of their recent stuff a lot more than that periods songs.

I just went to Acrobat to Warchild. Yea me.

 

[IWasBored]

angel of harlem can do that to you. i think that's what happened to my little brother...

 

[arw]

LOL, I love that part.



Haha! .

Some of you hated U2 at one time?

I've never hated them. I'd always liked their music (but I just knew them from their popular songs I'd hear on the radio).

Then I heard "Angel Of Harlem", and that was the start of U2 reeling me in as a fan. .

Angela

hmmm...

If you were a teenager in 1987/8, and I was, you either liked U2, REM, INXS, and those types of bands (can't think of who else was around back then) OR you liked the wild heavy metal boys.

Every single person I was friends with and that my older brother was friends with listened to heavy metal and not U2 and the other bands so it was very easy to not like them. But I did have a mind of my own and I could choose for myself who to listen to and I still didn't like U2. I loved INXS but the rest of it sucked. U2 was in your face all of the time and it got old.

That's all I want to say because U2 is the most important music that has ever been in my life. I would be lost without them.

 

[IWasBored]

I still have a hard time hearing U2's Joshua Tree "glory days" singles on the radio (With or Without You, Streets, Havent Found What I'm looking For) .

I really love those songs, I just get sick cause I know there are people out there who think U2 sucks except for those songs. It make me resentful or something. I guess I like most of their recent stuff a lot more than that periods songs.

I just went to Acrobat to Warchild. Yea me.

yeah for being a war child

and those people who only like the JT singles need to get the same kind of ass-kicking that the people who don't appreciate the clash (aka the ones who didn't reply to the clash thread)

 

[Bono's shades]

I think Rattle and Hum captures what U2 were about in the late '80s. It also gives those who missed The Joshua Tree tour the chance to see the incredible live performances from that time period.

That's about it. It's not like it's a regular movie with a plot. But I still love it!

 

[IWasBored]

arw9797, i beleive that you posted at the same time as me again...

 

[u2popmofo]

and those people who only like the JT singles need to get the same kind of ass-kicking that the people who don't appreciate the clash (aka the ones who didn't reply to the clash thread)

I most definately agree. Ass-kicking here we come.

 

[arw]

arw9797, i beleive that you posted at the same time as me again...

 

[IWasBored]

*straps on boots in preparation for ass-kicking fest 2003*

 

[u2popmofo]

I hope those boots are shined and have steel toes.

 

[Chrisedge]

So I take it most of you have never seen it on the big screen (when it first came out)?

I had the luck to see the special screening at the directors guild in Los Angeles the night before the Los Angeles Premiere (At Mann's Chinese Theater). The band wasn't there but we drove back up to L.A. the next night and saw the band perform on the street in front of Mann's theater. I saw it a few times in it's first run at the theater.

 

[u2popmofo]

That's awesome Chisedge. I've never seen it on the bigscreen. Unless you count my 31inch tv as a big screen (I dont count that). Rattle and Hum is great, I remember watching it for the first time, and being completely blown away by how great all of those songs sounded live.

 

[Popmartijn]

What Rattle & Hum is about?

Well, during an interview in 1987 Edge said "It's going to be ET mixed with Star Wars."

So there you have it.

C ya!

Marty

 

[u2popmofo]

Hahahahaha, that's awesome. Adam does kinda look like ET with his shirt off... Edge kinda has the Obi Wan Kenobi think going for him with that beard and all...

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I'm a Refugee now.

Booyah.

I like the JT singles and the songs that weren't singles from that time. .

I never got to see "Rattle and Hum" in the movie theater when it came out, no.

I didn't see it until last August when it was on the Trio channel.

And since then I've made up for all those years I'd never seen it. . (Seriously, I've lost count of how many times I've watched that thing)

angel of harlem can do that to you. i think that's what happened to my little brother...

.

That's one of the reasons why that's my favorite U2 song (the other being that the song just kicks arse).

Angela

 

[U2Kitten]

I still have a hard time hearing U2's Joshua Tree "glory days" singles on the radio (With or Without You, Streets, Havent Found What I'm looking For) .

I really love those songs, I just get sick cause I know there are people out there who think U2 sucks except for those songs. It make me resentful or something. I guess I like most of their recent stuff a lot more than that periods songs.

That would describe the majority of people I know. They call War and JT/R&H 'the GOOD U2' and they really don't like anything made before or afterwards except maybe One and Walk On. But I don't 'resent' them for it. At least they like some U2 instead of only liking crap music. Not every person digs every single thing any band does. It's better for them to like some things by U2 than nothing at all, right? U2 probably gets a lot of business from fans who only buy the ones they like, but at least they bought something by them instead of hating them. Even though I'm a gung-ho U2 fan type like most of you, I still remember the 'glory days' with pride and the rush of excitement they brought to have U2 reach the mountaintop and rule MTV and radio.

Last night on my radio station, after ISHFWILF played, the DJ said after JT and R&H and the long tours of the late 80's when they were 'on top of the world' he didn't think they could possibly get any bigger, until he saw Elevation and realized their greatness went beyond that, and they had a legacy that would live forever. "Kings of the Universe" he called them. So there's always hope for people!

 

[u2popmofo]

Good points U2Kitten.