ALMOST FAMOUS

'''Almost Famous''' is a 2000 film written and directed by Cameron Crowe. It tells a fictional story of a teenage journalist initially writing for ''CREEM'' magazine and then later for ''Rolling Stone'' covering the rock band Stillwater, and his efforts to get his first cover story published.
The film is semi-autobiographical, as Crowe himself was a teenage writer for ''Rolling Stone''.
Despite very good reviews, the film was not a box-office success. The film received four Oscar nominations, one of which led to an award to Crowe for his screenplay. It was also awarded the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Roger Ebert hailed it as the best movie of the year.
The film itself is based on Crowe's experiences on tour with rock band The Allman Brothers Band, and somewhat about his tour with Led Zeppelin in the early 1970s. It is also based on him touring with Lynyrd Skynyrd. He even said that Ronnie Van Zant was a big basis on the movie. In the ''Rolling Stone'' article, he talks about how he lost his virginity, fell in love, and met his heroes, experiences that the main character William has in the movie.
The tagline for ''Almost Famous'' is "Experience It. Enjoy It. Just Don't Fall For It."

Contents

Synopsis

Credits

Awards

The Bootleg Cut

Major changes to the film

Soundtrack

DVD release date

Cultural references

Production notes

See also

External links

Synopsis

William Miller is a teenager aspiring to be a rock-and-roll journalist, despite the desires of his eccentric, overprotective mother, Elaine, who wants him to go into law. Shunned by his classmates (most of whom are two or three years older than he is), he writes for underground papers in his hometown, San Diego.
He goes one morning to watch as a local radio station interviews pioneering rock journalist Lester Bangs. The two hit it off, and Bangs gives William an assignment to interview Black Sabbath. William, without credentials or a ticket, cannot get into the arena. He meets up with some "Band-Aides," semi-groupies who draw the line at intercourse with rock stars (everything else is fair game) and their leader, Penny Lane. He manages to meet the opening band on the card, Stillwater, who first dismiss him as a journalist, but then take him to their hearts (and backstage) when they realize he's also a fan.
A week or so later, he goes with Penny (deceiving his mother) to the “Riot House” — the Hyatt Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. He first meets Vic Munoz, an extreme Led Zeppelin fan who follows them all over the country, and they are soon in a room with Stillwater. Penny goes off with the band’s “guitarist with mystique,” Russell Hammond, to a vending room, where they have sex. William is beginning to appear jealous.
William is called by Ben Fong-Torres, editor of ''Rolling Stone''. They have read his material and want him to do a story. However, Ben is under the impression that William is several years older than he really is. William does nothing to disillusion Ben and accepts an assignment to follow Stillwater on the road to write an article.
Elaine consents, under strict conditions, which will be repeatedly violated, to her chagrin. Penny and other Band-Aides will be riding the bus as well. William tries to get interviews with each band member, but his attempts to interview Russell are repeatedly frustrated. The young journalist witnesses Russell receive a severe electric shock on stage in Phoenix. A new band T-shirt showing the band (with all members but Russell out of focus) sparks a bitter argument between Jeff and Russell, with Jeff angry that what was once "The Jeff Bebe Band" is now dominated by Russell. In reaction, Russell and William go off to a teenage house party where the musician has too much acid. William calls for the band bus to come by the house, and Russell is persuaded to get on the bus. It is made clear that, however much they might argue, the band is a family.
Both Penny and Russell know that Penny must leave the tour before New York, where Leslie, Russell's girlfriend, will be joining the tour. During a poker game, he allows the manager to put up the groupies as a stake in a poker game. The band loses the groupies to the band Humble Pie for $50 and a case of beer. When William tells Penny about this, she acts nonchalant but is devastated.
Penny goes to New York on her own anyway, and, as the band celebrates in a restaurant together with Russell's girlfriend, Penny shows up in the background. Band manager Dick Roswell (Noah Taylor) asks her to leave. William goes to Penny's room and finds her overdosed. While trying to wake her up, he tells her he loves her. William has called a doctor, who comes and pumps her stomach. She confides in William the next day, even telling him her real name — a secret even Russell doesn't know.
On a plane ride to another concert, the plane is caught in poor weather and looks like it will have to make a crash landing. Believing they will all die, the band members and entourage start confessing their secrets. When Jeff and Russell start arguing, and Penny is referred to as "that fucking groupie," William, to the surprise of all, defends Penny and speaks his anger that the band used her, declaring his own love for her. The plane lands safely, leaving all to ponder the changed atmosphere.
William must continue on to San Francisco to finish the story. As William is leaving to fly to San Francisco, Russell tells him to go ahead and write whatever he wants. The ''Rolling Stone'' editors love the story and can't wait to publish it, but first they have to ask the band to verify it. The band, fearful of the effect the article will have on their image, deny everything. William is crushed and the story is dead. While sitting dejected in the airport, he sees his sister, who had left both home and Elaine to become a stewardess. They go back home together, and William stages a reconciliation.
While backstage at the Miami Orange Bowl back on the Stillwater tour, Sapphire (one of the Band-Aids) talks to Russell about Penny's near-suicide and how despite the many warnings she received about having too many people fall in love with her, one of them ended up saving her life. Russell is initially curious about the person Sapphire talks about (William), but Sapphire immediately chastises him, saying that everyone, including Penny, knows what Russell and the band did to him. Russell then calls Penny and asks for her address, telling her that he wants to meet. Instead she gives him William's address in an attempt to solve the conflict between them. Russell goes to the house thinking it's Penny's but finds Elaine instead. Upon learning who he is, she sends him in to see William. The two of them reconcile and Russell finally gives William the long overdue interview. He then reveals that he called ''Rolling Stone'' and told them that William's story is true.
The final scenes are a picture of the cover of the ''Rolling Stone'' issue that will feature William's story with Russell's picture on the front with the rest of the band behind him. We then see images of Penny leaving on her dream trip to Morocco, William at home with his sister and mother, and of the bus which will take the band (without William) on its 1974 tour (with the marquee "no more airplanes, tour 1974"). Though, as Bangs suggested, rock 'n' roll may be changing from an art form to a profit center, it is implied that at least Stillwater will be immune from this.

Credits

The film stars:

★ Patrick Fugit as Crowe's alter ego, William Miller

★ Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, and Noah Taylor as lead guitarist, lead singer, and band manager respectively, of the band Stillwater

★ Mark Kozelek as the band's bass player (Kozelek is the real-life leader of the Crowe-favored bands Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon)

★ Terry Chen as Rolling Stone's editor Ben Fong-Torres, the man who gave William the chance to prove himself

★ Frances McDormand and Zooey Deschanel as William's mother and sister, respectively

★ Kate Hudson, Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin, and Bijou Phillips as groupies known as "Band Aids" (Hudson's character Penny Lane was based on several women Crowe knew, including "rock star muse" Bebe Buell, but primarily one Penny Trumbull, as he specifically states in the DVD commentary to the long "Director's Cut" of the film. He says Penny Trumbull is still alive and living in Oregon.)

★ This film is noted for containing numerous comedians including Jimmy Fallon (in his first feature film role) as the band's new manager Dennis Hope, Nick Swardson as "Insane Bowie Fan", Marc Maron as "Angry Promoter", and Mitch Hedberg as the "Eagles Road Manager." Hedberg specifically noted this film in his act saying, "I did a movie where I had to smoke pot with Peter Frampton... it was fake pot though: DO NOT BUY POT ON A MOVIE SET! But yeah, I got to smoke fake pot with Peter Frampton, which is a good story, its almost as good as smoking real pot with a guy who looks like Peter Frampton. And I've done that way more." The Bootleg Cut also includes a performance by Tenacious D guitarist Kyle Gass.

★ Philip Seymour Hoffman as real-life journalist Lester Bangs.
The film's award-winning soundtrack featured an eclectic mix of period rock, other period genres, and songs written by Crowe's wife, Nancy Wilson, expressly for the movie. Highlights include Simon & Garfunkel's "America", Elton John's "Tiny Dancer", and "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters", Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years", Joni Mitchell's "River" and Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air".

Awards

Academy Awards record
'1. Best Original Screenplay', Cameron Crowe
Golden Globe Awards record
'1. Best Picture - Musical or Comedy'
'2. Best Supporting Actress', Kate Hudson
BAFTA Awards record
'1. Best Original Screenplay', Cameron Crowe
'2. Best Sound', Jeff Wexler, Doug Hemphill, Rick Kline, Paul Massey, Michael D. Wilhoit

★ Academy Awards, 2001

★
★ 'Won' - Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen - Cameron Crowe

★
★ Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Kate Hudson

★
★ Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Frances McDormand

★
★ Nominated - Best Editing - Joe Hutshing and Saar Klein

The Bootleg Cut

Along with the standard DVD version, Crowe compiled an alternate version entitled "Untitled," which was a compilation of both released footage and his favorite deleted scenes. Running for over a half hour longer than the theatrical release, "Untitled" was subtitled 'The Bootleg Cut', with its packaging resembling a cheap seventies bootleg. (Incidentally, a variant of the Bootleg Cut is the basis of the network television version of ''Almost Famous''.)

Major changes to the film

★ The hand in the opening titles writes "Untitled" instead of "Almost Famous". (Untitled was the title that Cameron Crowe originally wanted for the cinematic release of the film.)

★ Elaine berates a man for painting "Merry Xmas" on a storefront, saying "Xmas" is not a real word.

★ Young William is mocked in the school shower for his lack of pubic hair.

★ Additional albums are glimpsed in the scene in which young William finds the record bag under his bed.

★ William arrives at school to see that his classmates have changed the marquee on the school's sign to read "William Miller is too young to drive or fuck".

★ Bangs talks in more detail about The Guess Who and mentions a live version of "American Woman" from the band's ''Live at the Paramount''.

★ Before cutting to the restaurant scene with Bangs, William and Lester stand on a street corner in silence, as Lester waits for a bus.

★ Before the first concert, Russell tells William how the littlest details in songs are the ones that people remember the most, citing a vocal sound in Marvin Gaye's "What's Happening, Brother?" as an example.

★ Anita's ex-boyfriend climbs through the window of her bedroom and reminisces to William about the sex that the couple had there.

★ Before he leaves for the Hyatt House, William is given a wad of 'gas money' by his mother.

★ Penny and William's arrival at the Hyatt House is heavily extended, featuring a longer section with Peter Frampton, as well as William being told to "blow me!" by a comedian he recognizes.

★ Before having sex in the ice room, Penny and Russell have a conversation about their failing relationship.

★ Stillwater attends a radio interview, hosted by a stoned DJ (Kyle Gass) who falls asleep mid-conversation. Band members argue and spout profanities on-air as the DJ snoozes.

★ An extra scene before Russell's electric shock shows William attempting to interview Stillwater's dimwitted bassist in the pouring rain.

★ The backstage fight over the blurry t-shirt includes an added exchange in which Russell asks Jeff if he's on cocaine.

★ In addition to "Page, Plant...Mick, Keith", Jeff also mentions Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple when he gives examples of frontmen/guitarist songwriting teams.

★ A couple of lines were added to the scene in Aaron's bedroom, in which Russell gives his belt to a young admirer.

★ The scene after Russell jumps into the swimming pool is extended to imply that there was some concern over whether or not he would resurface before everyone else jumps in.

★ The band holds a birthday party for Penny Lane, where she first learns that she is not welcome on the airplane.

★ Upon exiting the band's car in New York, William's bag tears, spilling his (stolen) souvenirs from hotels all over the pavement. He is assisted in picking them up by Dick. This explains, in the regular cut, why William is holding a torn bag when he is confronted by superfan Vic.

★ After Penny Lane's recovery from her Quaalude overdose, she and William walk by the lake in Central Park. She proceeds to tell him her real name, and in the extended cut, says: "Keith Richards looked at me, pulled me on stage, he took me backstage, and gave me a Coke with ice and a lemon. And I never went home."

★ A short scene is added near the end as Jeff and Russell talk their relationship through.

Soundtrack

Main articles: Almost Famous (soundtrack)

DVD release date

Cultural references

★ In the scene where the tour plane hits turbulence, Russell starts to sing "Peggy Sue". This is in reference to Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash while on tour. Russell then continues "Woah baby!", referencing The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson), who died in the same plane crash.

★ At the party, when he is on acid, Russell Hammond cries out, "I am a Golden god!" This is a reference to Robert Plant of the band Led Zeppelin, who is purported to have said the same thing (sober) while looking over Sunset Strip from a hotel balcony.

★ When William goes to Rolling Stone's offices, Terry Chen, playing RS music editor Ben Fong-Torres stands in front of a poster for Hunter S. Thompson's Freak Power campaign.

★ Stillwater's arrival in New York, by limo, is a homage to the Led Zeppelin film The Song Remains the Same.

★ In the Riot House (Hyatt West Hollywood) scene, William passes a room in which a couple sing a duet. This is a dedication to Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons. The couple are performing "Small Time Blues" by Pete Droge, who sings it with Elaine Summers.

Production notes

★ Featuring over 50 songs, the film's music budget was $3.5 million. Most music budgets for films are less than $1.5 million.

★ During the opening credits, the hand that's writing on the notepad belongs to Cameron Crowe

★ Stillwater's songs were written by Cameron Crowe and his wife Nancy Wilson of the rock band Heart, a fact indicated early in the credits although the music acknowledgments credit Russell Hammond and Stillwater as if they were authors and performers.

★ According to the commentary on the director's cut, Noah Taylor stayed in character as the band's manager during breaks in filming.

★ Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready plays some of the guitar bits in the film.

See also

★ Detroit Rock City (film)

★ Dazed and Confused (film)

External links

★

★ ''Almost Famous'' on Cameron Crowe's Official Website

★ The Allman Brothers Story, the December 1973 ''Rolling Stone'' cover story by Crowe that partially inspired the film.

★ Romancing the Stone, a September 2000 ''Rolling Stone'' article by Crowe about the writing and making of the film.

★ Reviews for Almost Famous at TopTenReviews

★ Original movie script containing scenes never shown in cinema but available on the director's cut

★ Cameron Crowe article on Led Zeppelin article made from experiences on tour with Led Zeppelin that inspired "Almost Famous"

★ ''Believer'' interview with Nancy Wilson

★ Website for real-life Penny Lane/Trumble