Almost Famous Review

For this blog I will be analyzing and reviewing my all-time favorite movie, Almost Famous directed by Cameron Crowe. The movie is about a young boy named William who becomes a rock journalist over all odds of a strict mother who doesn’t believe in Rock and Roll. He soon goes on tour with a rock and roll band, Stillwater. As the story progresses he travels with the band in order to write a story for the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. He is brought through city to city with a midlevel band in crisis along with multiple beautiful groupies or known as “Band-Aids”. William falls in love with the girl of his dreams, Penny Lane, but is in competition for her love with lead guitarist of the band. William goes through the classic teenage problem of loving a girl who doesn’t love him back. The movie includes an extremely famous cast including: Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Zooey Deschanel, and Billy Crudup.

The biggest cinematic element used in this movie was sound. Any type of sound you could think of really. Crowe used diegetic music as well as non-diegetic music in order to fill the film with flourishing sounds of creative artists featured within the movie. The sound track to this movie is more than impressive. It includes many artists such as Elton John, Led zeppelin, Simon and Garfunkel, and other very influential artists. The constant sound that flourishes the movie, I believe is used to imitate the constant sound that circulates within a musician’s heads. Music wasn’t the only thing used to create sound within the film, but also common sounds you would hear at concert venues, such as screaming girls, instrument checks, and roar of the crowd. Personally the most prominent sound used throughout the movie was exaggerated diegetic sound of Williams type writer and scraps of crumpled papers that he keeps his notes on. This specific exaggerated sound made us as the audience feel the effort put in by William as a writer. Crowe purposefully used this to imitate the effort that the musicians use in playing their instruments. Although sound was very prominent within the film, it was not the only cinematic element that stuck out to me while I was watching the film.

Another cinematic element that was used predominately throughout the film was lighting. Crowe used many types of lighting all throughout the film such as low key, high key lighting. Crowe used front/rear lighting the most in the film. This type of lighting set a mood of freedom for the film. The lights set mostly behind the characters creating a halo like presence around them. The halo was mostly used in scenes containing the main band members, which influenced the audience in perceiving the main band member in a god like kind of manner. The rear/ halo like lighting contradicted the struggles of the mid-level band in their rise to stardom. Crowe purposefully used this technique in order to shift the audience perception of what life is truly like for someone caught in the cusp of fame.

Overall I love this movie because every time I watch the film it moves me and makes me want to go and travel the world. Cameron does a phenomenal job of portraying the characters within the film in a relatable way. I feel as if the audience can see themselves in every one of the character’s shoes. If you have a love for classic Rock and Roll that started it all, you will definitely appreciate the films soundtrack. I highly recommend this classic hippie music film to any individual looking for a well written and overall fantastic movie.