MEAT LOAF TO HELL AND BACK

[greg]

How many of you , out there seen the film meat LOAF. HELL AND BACK . Did you enjoy the film and ,whats your thoughts ,about the film . I liked the film and thought William l brown . Played a fair part as being meat LOAF. , whats your. Thoughts ?????

[Wario]

Ill give my honest opinion:

Its utter garbage.

The main actor mimes all of Meats songs, and its really obvious.

The fact they ignore the 80's stuff, sans a little clip of Peel out is ridiculous. And Ignoring Stoney and Meatloaf is inexcusable.

And the fact they say Peel Out was on Bad For Good always drove me insane.

The only good part are the flashbacks.

The ending seems good, but its ruined by the maine actor singing, then obviously cutting to Meat Loaf's voice.

Really, REALLY.

Its really bad, only good for the flashback scenes nothing more.

Thinking about doing my own Meat Loaf biopic, and raising funds for it. Would be epic, and do a lot of fan service.

[CarylB]

I wouldn't dismiss the whole thing as utter garbage, nor the fact that they use Meat's voice singing (the likelihood of finding an actor who resembled Meat well enough and could even approximate his singing is pretty remote). I think the actors did a fair job, but it is very flawed in terms of accuracy.

Meat has packed such a lot into his career, no film lasting an hour and a quarter could cover it well. It would need the made for TV two parter to even attempt to do it justice. A large chunk of the film is devoted to the attempts to get Bat out of Hell released and the immediate aftermath, to the exclusion of so much more .. but what is inexcusable are the inaccuracies which imo were simply not required to bring the film in within the time constraints, eg how and when he met his first wife, the birth of his daughter Amanda, how he came to get the signature red scarf. Given they based it on his autobiography, there seems no excuse to get so many significant things wrong.

At the time of its first screening we were told that Meat, who had been very happy when he first met W Earl Brown (I didn't realise he came from Maine btw ) hated the final version .. and I can understand why.

I watched it when I was first able to, have watched it since .. but always with the knowledge that it falls very short of doing Meat justice.

[rockfenris2005]

Also, I didn't like the mother smoking in bed. Meat said she didn't smoke.

And when his father came at him with the knife, it was a fight for survival. The movie has this nonsense like: "I'm going to make it. I'm going to be big" or whatever he was saying.

[greg]

Enjoy reading your messages , I must admit meat film deadringer . I thought was very poor on views on deadringer ???

[Dave]

I know it caused Meat Loaf to boycott working with VH1 for quite awhile, even though at the time he had the highest rated program on the show with one of his live concerts.

[CarylB]

Originally Posted by rockfenris2005

Also, I didn't like the mother smoking in bed. Meat said she didn't smoke.

Yes, I've heard him say he was particularly offended at that invention.

Originally Posted by greg

Enjoy reading your messages , I must admit meat film deadringer . I thought was very poor on views on deadringer ???

Never watched it. It was never given a general release, apart from being shown at the Toronto film festival, and only an illegal copy has been put on one of those Torrents sites that ignore copyright. Meat said he was so embarrassed by the final edit by Dellentash and Sonenberg that he walked out of the CBS screening .. so I've never had a great desire to see it (although I suspect the illegal copy that is on the net is probably the original Nichols version which Meat said was quite good).

[JennaG]

I've watched the film once and didn't particularly enjoy it all that much. It wouldn't say that it was poor film but there were a few little things that just didn't seem right somehow and although I wouldn't say that W Earl Brown was a bad actor, I just didn't take to his portrayal of Meat at all.

[loaferman61]

It was what it was. I'd have never thought we'd ever get a movie about Meat Loaf at all. I think I remember him stating somewhere that he had issues with the movie. It was supposedly based on his auto biography which itself could have been a bit more detailed especially about the 80's albums and that period in general - it is mentioned but I supposed they lacked space for in-depth stuff that we fans are interested in beyond just a general casual reader..

I would love to get Meat's own thoughts on his albums and songs. I know he has always been honest about his feelings on MATLAF and Bat 3 but not so many comments about the others, except I think he did mention what Farian did with BBIS was not what he expected. I think an interview or another book (if he ever had time) would be fascinating to hear it in Meat's own style or voice.

I'm sure VH-1 did not have a huge production budget or tons of time to do much more than a gloss over and too bad the writers had inaccuracies when they did have the book for reference. I only liked the scene where he ran into the street after "Bat" went badly when the film shown on TV was faulty.

As for the other film I think there is a reason they did not release it.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by CarylB

I wouldn't dismiss the whole thing as utter garbage.

I agree with most of your post, except this.

I would, and I have no qualms with doing so.

Look what they did with the Johnny Cash movie.

They need at least someone who can sing the songs like meat, a guy like Caleb Johnson comes to mind. Surely back then someone could've fit that role better.

It was just a mess, both from a casting POV and a scripting POV. The narrative's rhythm is really really off.

Originally Posted by loaferman61

I would love to get Meat's own thoughts on his albums and songs. I know he has always been honest about his feelings on MATLAF and Bat 3 but not so many comments about the others, except I think he did mention what Farian did with BBIS was not what he expected. I think an interview or another book (if he ever had time) would be fascinating to hear it in Meat's own style or voice.p

Ive emailed just a few days ago about the possibility of an interview to put on my youtube, delving into his discography and thoughts on stuff he's not really asked that much about.

Il llet you guys know if he responds.

[GenoJLaw]

Originally Posted by Wario

Thinking about doing my own Meat Loaf biopic, and raising funds for it. Would be epic, and do a lot of fan service.

If you Kickstarted that I would empty my bank account for it. Meat deserves a great movie biography about his life.

[The Flying Mouse]

Originally Posted by Wario

Look what they did with the Johnny Cash movie.

Different kettle of fish mate.
The JC movie aimed big. It was a full length movie, with an established movie actor with some pretty impressive roles under his belt in the title role.
They would have had a much more impressive budget which means they had more time and resources to do the job right.

W. Earl Brown (no offence to him) just wasn't in the same league.
To Hell And Back was made for TV (meaning keep it short, do it fast, and keep it cheap).

I'm not a fan of artistic licence, especially when the true story is dramatic enough, but film makers will often chuck stuff in to streamline a story or make it more dramatic.

While I can at least understand the motivation of doing that (while disagreeing with it) it's the small stuff that baffles me.
For instance, the interview that is on a couple of Bat documentaries where Meat says to Jimmy "describe our style of music" and Jimmy comes out with that great quote.
It happened in what looked like a diner, with the band sitting back and watching, and the interviewer was a man. They changed it to just being Meat & Jim, in a park, and the interviewer was a woman.
What in the world do they get from changing such a minor detail so dramatically (except maybe saving a few dollars on a couple of extras )

As for the big things, Meat's mum smoking, the fight with his dad, and going back to see his dad, I think Meat has not regretted being involved more in a project since leaving FF to finish Blind Before I Stop.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by The Flying Mouse

As for the big things, Meat's mum smoking, the fight with his dad, and going back to see his dad, I think Meat has not regretted being involved more in a project since leaving FF to finish Blind Before I Stop.

Didnt he go back to see his dad, didn't they go to disneyland or something before he passed?

I could've sworn i heard him say that in an interview or something.

Please forgive me if I'm wrong

[greg]

What you think about the deadringer . Film I thought was very poor

[Evil One]

Originally Posted by greg

What you think about the deadringer . Film I thought was very poor

I'll go further. I thought it was absolutely dreadful and I can fully understand why it was never released. Meat must be thoroughly embarrassed that it even exists. I'd rather watch Police Academy 7!

[greg]

I agree with you evil one . Thing meat would agree ,the deadringer meat was in was very. Poor

[loaferman61]

Originally Posted by Evil One

I'll go further. I thought it was absolutely dreadful and I can fully understand why it was never released. Meat must be thoroughly embarrassed that it even exists. I'd rather watch Police Academy 7!

I know Meat mentioned that he was OK with one version but then they started screwing around with it and when he saw the new version he pretty much hated it. I think he walked out of the screening.

I have no idea which version is floating about, but I honestly could not watch the whole thing. So I kind of think that could be the second version. If so, I can see why he thought they ruined it.

[CarylB]

Originally Posted by Wario

Didnt he go back to see his dad ..

Meat has said he did see his father and make peace before he died .. but that wasn't in the autobiography on which they based the film, so I think the timing and presentation of it in the film was probably another inaccuracy

Originally Posted by loaferman61

I know Meat mentioned that he was OK with one version but then they started screwing around with it and when he saw the new version he pretty much hated it. I think he walked out of the screening.

I have no idea which version is floating about, but I honestly could not watch the whole thing. So I kind of think that could be the second version. If so, I can see why he thought they ruined it.

Given the one floating around went to Torrents just after Nicholls sent a copy to a couple of radio(?) guys who put clips on the internet, and then sent the whole thing to someone, I'd have thought this was probably not the version which Dellentash and Sonenberg hacked around (which was confiscated by the IRS wasn't it?), but an original one Nicholls had kept.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by CarylB

Meat has said he did see his father and make peace before he died .. but that wasn't in the autobiography on which they based the film, so I think the timing and presentation of it in the film was probably another inaccuracy



Given the one floating around went to Torrents just after Nicholls sent a copy to a couple of radio(?) guys who put clips on the internet, and then sent the whole thing to someone, I'd have thought this was probably not the version which Dellentash and Sonenberg hacked around (which was confiscated by the IRS wasn't it?), but an original one Nicholls had kept.

I figured as such as well.

Watching it, It didnt seem like it was truncated (you can tell if something is truncated).

No amount of scenes couldve made that turd shiny, so my guess is it was the full edit.

I did love the Peel Out bit tho.

[rockfenris2005]

In the movie, they show that his father had built a shrine for Meat with copies of his albums, posters and things, but in real life, Meat's father died in the early 1970s.

Edit: Wario, if you did manage to do an interview with Meat about all of his albums besides "Bat" (and even "Bat 2" I'd be interested to hear more about), that would be seriously cool.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by rockfenris2005

Wario, if you did manage to do an interview with Meat about all of his albums besides "Bat" (and even "Bat 2" I'd be interested to hear more about), that would be seriously cool.

It would focus on his live performances, tours, and select songs. Not just each albums actually.

Obviously I can't ask him about all 200 odd songs he's recorded, but the list of songs I have here will be this, but condensed. these are songs I think may have some good stories:

Dance In My Pants
Stark Raving Love
Midnight at the Lost & Found
Razor's Edge
The Promised Land
Readem and Weep
Modern Girl
Piece of the Action
Nowhere Fast
Surfs Up
Masculine
Blind Before I Stop
Execution Day
Rock n Roll Mercenaries
ALL OF THE SONGS OFF BAT 2. probably will be an album Id focus on the most.
Original Sin
Left in the Dark
Martha
Running for the Redlight
Amnesty is Granted
Did I Say That
Testify
Mercury Blues
Bad For Good
Blind as a Bat
Break It
Alive (that would be interesting)
California Isn't Big Enough
The Giving Tree
All of Me
Live or Die
Stand in the Storm
The rocknroll Medley

Honest and truthful, and it wouldn't be all positive things. Discuss good songs and bad songs, I did make a mix.

Will it ever happen, who knows.