Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Eddie and the Cruisers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 14, 2015

Note: This film is available in the double feature Eddie and the Cruisers / Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!.

It’s a sad fact of life—and/or death—that many artists in a variety of different media experience their greatest successes after they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil. Witness now legendary artists like Vincent van Gogh, whose works now regularly go for untold millions, that is if they even come to market at all, while during his lifetime he was barely able to scrape together enough money to buy paint. One Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré) would hardly be called a van Gogh level creative artist, but his energetic music seems to be a harbinger of greater things ahead. At least, that is, until Eddie’s car is found crashed off of a bridge and Eddie’s body is nowhere to be found. That’s the basic premise of both Eddie and the Cruisers, an agreeable if problematic drama exploring the vagaries of fame and the music industry, and a pretty boneheaded sequel, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! The first film laid a rather large egg with both critics and audiences at the time of its release, but then gained a certain cult status through repeated airings on then nascent cable television, to the point that it was actually re-released theatrically for a brief time (again to deafening apathy from paying audiences). While not a commercial success, something about the Eddie saga caught some kind of cultural zeitgeist, and the film’s score became improbably popular, two elements which probably led to the lackluster and rather late to the gate sequel. Shout! Factory has now combined these two cult items in a double feature so that the entire tale of Eddie Wilson can be relived again, like an old hit emanating from an ancient jukebox.

A journalist named Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin) in “contemporary” time (meaning circa 1983) is investigating two twenty year old linked mysteries, the evident death of Eddie Wilson after a horrifying car accident (Eddie didn’t just drive his Chevy to the levy—he kept on driving right into the water), and the subsequent disappearance of the master tapes for what would have been his second album. Foley’s investigative efforts lead her to any number of Wilson’s former cohorts, which in turn affords the film a generous heaping of flashbacks which slowly builds the backstory of an early sixties’ band on the verge of stardom.

The “mystery” element of whether or not Eddie made it through the accident is never very compelling (as the sequel itself proves), but what works in this film is its depiction of a band that suddenly sees itself on the verge of exploding, only to have everything snatched away for supposedly enigmatic reasons. The politics of the “star making machinery” (to quote one Joni Mitchell) are one of the more interesting elements in the film and something that is quite realistically portrayed in terms of the Cruisers’ members trying to pick up the pieces and carry on with their lives after Eddie’s supposed demise.

The film is in fact best when it completely ignores the linked conundra of whether Eddie survived and what happened to the master tapes and simply concentrates on the interrelationships between the band members. While the song score here is often quite enjoyable, it’s also decidedly “un-sixties” in character, obviously owing a rather large debt of gratitude to someone who was probably just picking up his first guitar in the early sixties, one Bruce Springsteen.

Eddie and the Cruisers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Eddie and the Cruisers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. Elements are in surprisingly good shape, with only a very minimum of minor age related anomalies dotting the premises. The palette is also nicely rendered here, especially some of the deeper blues and reds which pop with appealing vividness. Grain structure is intact and resolves naturally, and detail is at above average to very good levels. There are recurrent issues with crush (something that also afficts Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!, with some of the dark club scenes offering "floating heads" if the characters are clad in black and photographed against black backgrounds. There's some pretty serious telecine wobble during the opening credits sequence, but things calm down after that. Clarity and sharpness are at decent if not overwhelming levels, and overall this is a solid if unspectacular looking transfer.

Eddie and the Cruisers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Eddie and the Cruisers' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track may not offer the sweeping immersion that a film built around a supposed rock 'n' roll legend might have, but it's surprisingly robust, offering good support for the film's enjoyable if temporally anachronistic song score. Dialogue is also very cleanly presented and there are no issues with distortion, dropouts or damage. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range fairly wide on this problem free track.

Eddie and the Cruisers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (480i; 2:22)

Eddie and the Cruisers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Eddie and the Cruisers is more than a bit on the hokey side at times, but it offers a good showcase for the moody looking Paré and nice supporting turns by such stalwarts as Tom Berenger and Joe Pantoliano. The "mystery" elements are a little flat, but the examination of lives wrenched back from the brink of superstardom is rather interesting and well done. Technical merits are very good to excellent, and Eddie and the Cruisers comes Recommended.