# Great Balls of Fire! (1989)

### reviewed by
Mark R. Leeper

                                 GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!
                           A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                            Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper

Capsule review: A much fictionalized and glossed-over account of the first year of Jerry lee Lewis's musical popularity and his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin. The film will be most remembered for Winona Ryder's performance. Rating: 0.

Rock and roll biographies are popular, of course, since THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY. GREAT BALLS OF FIRE! promised to be a little different. First of all, this was going to be one rock biography that did not end in a snowy plane crash. In fact, it turned out to be quite different, but being different did not make it better. This is a film of uneven style, ranging from occasional drama to musical comedy in the style of BYE, BYE, BIRDIE-- complete with production numbers. The characters are flat and thin, and the relationship to truth or even credibility is tangential at best. Dennis Quaid's wild high-energy mannerisms break new ground in his acting, but surprisingly, newcomer Winona Ryder as his 13-year-old cousin and eventual bride is more than a match for him in attracting audience attention. It may well be that Ryder is remembered for this film more than Quaid.

The film is a *very* light treatment of Lewis's first year of popularity. A bigamist and a troublemaker, Lewis comes to live and make music with his uncle. His vision is to take the wild Black music he heard as a child and infuse it into rock and roll. He is attracted to his young teenage cousin who idolizes him and one thing leads to another. At the same time, his first recorded song is a stupendous success. We have all the standard cliched scenes, of course. We have the suffering rock and roll star playing someone else's idea of good music and failing, then playing his own style and being really popular. We have the unruly audience that is tamed by hearing the hero's music. One touch that is unusual is Lewis's conflict with his famous evangelist cousin, Jimmy Swaggart. But there is no substance to the conflict besides Lewis first paying lip service to Swaggart's pontifications, then finally openly defying them.

But really jarring are the segues into musical production numbers, such as a whole high school suddenly dancing to his music and doing cartwheels (what is a 13-year-old doing in high school?). Quaid supposedly wanted to sing all the songs but apparently while he can flip his hair like Lewis, he cannot do a passable imitation of Lewis's voice. Lewis re-recorded his songs for the soundtrack.

Far more than LA BAMBA or THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY, this is a quickly forgettable summer film. I give it a flat 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.

                                            Mark R. Leeper
                                            att!mtgzx!leeper
                                            leeper@mtgzx.att.com

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