The failed movie that was disowned by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is no stranger to the big screen. As well as littering his music with references to classic movies like Federico Fellini’s La Dulce Vita and Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise, the folk icon had a cameo in 1973’s Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid and starred opposite Joan Baez in 1978’s Ranaldo and Clara. More often than not, films starring Dylan in a lead role are not recieved well. That was certainly the case for 1987’s Hearts of Fire.
Starring Bob Dylan, Fiona Flanagan, Rupert Everett and Ian Dury in a minor role, Hearts of Fire tells the story of a reclusive, distinctly Dylan-esque rocker called Billy Parker. On taking ambitious young musician Molly under his wing, the pair travel to England, where she meets a younger, far more popular rock star played by Everett and promptly ditches Billy.
Scott Richardson’s original script was rewritten by Basic Instinct writer Joe Eszterhas after Lorimar Productions decided that the young writer wasn’t experienced enough to take the lead on a project that was essentially a vehicle for one of rock’s most revered stars. The rewrite saw Eszterhas recycle a formula laid out by Elvis Presley movies like Jailhouse Rock and Viva Las Vegas, in which the star plays a thinly-veiled version of himself.
The film was shot in Canada and England, with the majority of concert scenes being filmed at Camden and Bristol’s Colston Hall, which has since changed its name to The Bristol Beacon. Leading the charge was Return of The Jedi Director Richard Marquand, who would die of a stroke the same year, leaving many to assume Hearts of Fire must have been the culprit. Marquand effectively used the film as a 90-minute advertisement for Dylan. Take, for example, the scene in which Billy drives away from a club, at which point the camera pans up to reveal a movie theatre currently showing Pat Garrett & Bill The Kid. Later on, when Billy is reviewing the playback of a live performance, a video monitor shows footage of Dylan’s appearance at the Concert For Bangladesh.
Dylan would later distance himself from the release, effectively disowning it. Sure, the script is pretty vacuous, but odd moments will interest music obsessives. ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ singer Ian Dury stars as Bones, while Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones can be spotted playing bass throughout. You’ll also find a scene in which Richie Havens shreds on an eclectic guitar and another in which Dylan appears to be talking about The Clash bassist Paul Simonon. There are also a couple of prescient lines, including the moment Billy says: “I always knew I was one of those rock ‘n’ roll singers that was never gonna win any Nobel Prize.”
In the end, Bob Dylan did win a Nobel prize. What he’s unlikely to win is an Oscar.
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