{"id":9637,"date":"2009-09-20T11:35:57","date_gmt":"2009-09-20T18:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9637"},"modified":"2023-09-18T23:37:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T06:37:28","slug":"songwriter-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9637","title":{"rendered":"Songwriter (1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I got cheated, and I wanna get even.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Songwriter-Poster-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Songwriter-Poster-1-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Songwriter-Poster-1-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Songwriter-Poster-1-86x128.jpg 86w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Songwriter-Poster-1-181x270.jpg 181w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Songwriter-Poster-1.jpg 505w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA country-western songwriter (Willie Nelson) tries to get out of a corrupt contract with his agent (Richard C. Sarafian) by having an aspiring singer (Lesley Ann Warren) put her name on his songs.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alan Rudolph Films<\/li>\n<li>Composers<\/li>\n<li>Kris Kristofferson Films<\/li>\n<li>Musicians<\/li>\n<li>Revenge<\/li>\n<li>Rip Torn Films<\/li>\n<li>Willie Nelson Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nAfter directing <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9504\"><em>Choose Me<\/em> (1984)<\/a>, Alan Rudolph was called in at the last minute to helm this amiable, rambling tale about politics and survival in the country music industry, and his influence shows. More concerned with character than narrative, <em>Songwriter<\/em> introduces us to a host of quirky individuals &#8212; Willie Nelson&#8217;s &#8220;Doc&#8221; (essentially a variation on himself), Kris Kristofferson&#8217;s Blackie Buck, Rip Torn&#8217;s Dino McLeish, and Lesley Ann Warren&#8217;s Gilda &#8212; and then explores their interactions with one another as Doc attempts to get around the constraints of his binding contract with buffoonish bad-guy Rodeo Rocky (Richard Sarafian). Meanwhile, Doc rekindles a romance with his first wife (Melinda Dillon) and two young daughters, while Warren struggles to calm her stage fright by tippling hard liquor on the sly. <em>Songwriter<\/em> is the kind of movie that slowly grows on you, thanks in large part to Nelson&#8217;s sympathetic performance as Doc (he&#8217;s a genuinely nice guy) and Warren&#8217;s bold depiction of Gilda as a lost and nervous soul. (Strangely, Kristofferson&#8217;s character isn&#8217;t written very strongly, and he fails to make much of an impact.) The film is least effective when it&#8217;s explicitly aiming for broad laughs &#8212; whenever Sarafian and his henchmen are on-screen, for instance &#8212; but these moments are mercifully few. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lesley Ann Warren as Gilda<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/songwriter-warren.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/songwriter-warren.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9639\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Willie Nelson as Doc Jenkins<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/songwriter-nelson.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/songwriter-nelson.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9640\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but it&#8217;s worth a look, particularly for fans of country-western music. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0088153\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/songwriter-1985\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1985\/06\/28\/movies\/screen-songwriter.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/reviews\/75008\/songwriter.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I got cheated, and I wanna get even.&#8221; Synopsis: A country-western songwriter (Willie Nelson) tries to get out of a corrupt contract with his agent (Richard C. Sarafian) by having an aspiring singer (Lesley Ann Warren) put her name on his songs. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Alan Rudolph Films Composers Kris Kristofferson Films Musicians Revenge Rip Torn Films Willie Nelson Films Review: After directing Choose Me (1984), Alan Rudolph was called in at the last minute to helm this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9637\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9637"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91719,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions\/91719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}