Nowhere Boy

**ChrisGeorge** · 10-22-2010

Hello Folks

I saw this film about the teenage John Lennon here in Baltimore on Wednesday evening -- it has just been released in the United States although I know it is already on DVD in the UK. I thought it was pretty good, faithful to what I know of Liverpool in the late fifties and early sixties. It is though trashed in the latest issue of The New Yorker by a reviewer, Anthony Lane, who declares that "Even unobsessive Beatles fans will find much to gripe and rail at." I wonder what Yo! forum members felt about the film? As a Beatles fan myself who grew up in the south end of the city in a neighborhood similar to John and who attended to some of the same schools as did Lennon (Dovedale and Quarry) I thought the film did an excellent job of portraying the musician's early years.

All the best

Chris

**dazza** · 10-22-2010

Hi Chris,

Nowhere Boy premiered in the UK last December. I thought it was good. And especially since a lot of the filming was actually done in the city of his birth. Some nice shots of St George's Hall, the Pier Head, and the Anglican cathedral. Lennon's portrayal , I thought, was very aggressive. I don't know what you guys made of it?

Daz

**ChrisGeorge** · 10-22-2010

Originally Posted by dazza

Hi Chris,

Nowhere Boy premiered in the UK last December. I thought it was good. And especially since a lot of the filming was actually done in the city of his birth. Some nice shots of St George's Hall, the Pier Head, and the Anglican cathedral. Lennon's portrayal , I thought, was very aggressive. I don't know what you guys made of it?

Daz

Thanks, Daz. As I say, I was pretty pleased with the film. It matched what I know about John's earlier life, and seemed true to the Liverpool of the time. I also enjoyed the location shots around Liverpool. And although the house portrayed as John's obviously was not "Mendips" on Menlove Avenue, despite the sign on the gate, I thought that otherwise the flick was worthwhile and fairly faithful to what actually happened.

**az_gila** · 10-22-2010

Interestingly, I heard from several guys I went to Liverpool University with who thought it was a good representation of life in Liverpool in the 60's.

They were not Liverpool residents, but were just there from 1965-68, so they might have had a slightly different view than those of us born in Liverpool...

**ChrisGeorge** · 10-22-2010

Thanks, AZ. There's a scene in which John and his mate encounter a group of teddy boys at a bus stop next to a half-timbered building. I didn't recognize the location as Liverpool so I assume it might have been shot in some village with old architecture, maybe on the Wirral. Maybe someone knows where it was shot.

**steveb** · 10-22-2010

I have the dvd and found i t to be a good film, very funny in parts
like the way the travel on top of buses. It is due tobe shown on
Sky soon

Steve

**az_gila** · 10-22-2010

Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge

Thanks, AZ. There's a scene in which John and his mate encounter a group of teddy boys at a bus stop next to a half-timbered building. I didn't recognize the location as Liverpool so I assume it might have been shot in some village with old architecture, maybe on the Wirral. Maybe someone knows where it was shot.

I haven't seen it yet, but it's on my list...

IMDB is good for finding filming locations -

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266029/locations

Sounds like the bus stop was in Pinner, Middlesex....

**John Doh** · 10-22-2010

Originally Posted by dazza

Hi Chris,

Nowhere Boy premiered in the UK last December. I thought it was good. And especially since a lot of the filming was actually done in the city of his birth. Some nice shots of St George's Hall, the Pier Head, and the Anglican cathedral. Lennon's portrayal , I thought, was very aggressive. I don't know what you guys made of it?

Daz

I personally thought Lennon was portrayed here as too cheerful by half... and totally unaware of his Oedipal relationship with Julia or the triangle that he was involved in with Mimi and her - I would have expected something rather darker even at this young age... But then, for me, Ian Hart's version of Lennon in Backbeat will always be the definitive performance, though I accept the life that was being portrayed there was several years later. Christin Scott-Thomas, as Aunt Mimi, I thought was miscast badly here, coming across as too middle class, rather than as aspiring genteel working class; Anne-Marie Duff, however, who is scarcely mentioned by most of the critics, I thought was quite brilliant as Julia!

**dazza** · 10-23-2010

Thanks Chris, and yes I agree. I thought "Mendips", Menlove Avenue would have been an easy target for the location scouts? They failed [although I'd be surprised if they didn't actually enquire about it?]. English Heritage had even recreated his school-boy home [sorry but the blue plaque will have to stay on for the shoot!]. Of all the Liverpool icons in the young Lennon's life, "Mendips" would have made a difference here. Aaron Johnson could have been filmed peering out of John's actual bedroom window.

---------- Post added at 09:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:25 AM ----------

Thanks John, I share your comment about Backbeat, not just for Lennon's portrayal - I also think the whole movie was of a different class. And maybe that's because it's documenting the first few forays of an emerging Beatles life, before they were mass produced on tea-towels, and anything else which had a printable surface on it [no wonder Andy Warhol was impre$$ed].

N.B. by contrast - in just charting the frustrations of a soon to be famous lad from Liverpool, this movie would have to be a little bit special to impress the critics. On the whole, I think stage set Liverpool, was the best act in Nowhere Boy.

**John Doh** · 10-23-2010

I think it was the National Trust that was responsible for taking over and furnishing Mendips, not English Heritage. There was a series on TV about the project some time ago and I can imagine some of the anoraks involved in this objecting; but in actual fact I seem to remember Taylor- Woods saying that London was more 'convenient', or something similar.