Border Radio is a 1987 black-and-white independent film about California musicians. The plot is that one musician Jeff Bailey from San Diego gets into trouble. Jeff goes on the run to Mexico, it’s only 4 miles to the border, he settles in a trailer park, leaving his wife and little daughter at home. His wife, Luanne, writes music reviews and supports Jeff’s music. But her husband is having a creative crisis, and despite the fact that he’s releasing a new record, he’s unhappy with his own material and the way it’s being released. And so he sits on the beach for weeks on end, frowns, reflects on life and does not even bother to call his wife and explain the reason for his absence. Luanna wants her husband back, decides to conduct her own investigation, and calls on Jeff’s friends from his band to help: Chris’s manager and musicians Dean and Dave.
They’re all hitting on her in no uncertain terms. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the only sane person who does anything is Luanne. In fact, she is the main character, so real, not flying in the clouds, coddling everyone and quite tolerant of the antics of her husband and his friends.
Some details of the characters’ lives and characters are revealed in interviews, the journalists are not shown, they remain behind the scenes and just ask questions.
As the play progresses, it turns out that the problem is essentially nonsense, it’s only about $1,000, and it can be solved quite easily and Jeff no longer needs to hide. And they weren’t really looking for him.
Musicians in films look like irresponsible talkers, lustful jerks, helpless children, rude idiots who like to drink. Roadie manager Chris, a liar and manipulator, plays the role of a clown and a prankster, in many ways he is, he wants to take Jeff’s place, simply steal his life, take his wife and band.
Jeff plays something like punk rock or new wave, carries an acoustic guitar with him all the time, burns it on the beach. He sings songs to a porcelain statue of Elvis, then breaks it altogether. He’s not a father at all, he only remembers his daughter once. In an interview, when asked by a journalist if she wants to become a musician, the girl shakes her head.
Clubs close and musicians sometimes don’t even get paid, in fact, the whole story began with such a precedent. The topic of the music crisis is raised by a girl groupie, the founder of Jeff’s fan club. She argues that all music used to seem like magic, and then everything disappeared somewhere. She hopes that a new wave will come and everything will turn around again, cool times will come in 7-8 years and maybe she won’t be too old for all this yet. How old is she now? 20.
A nice addition to Frontier Radio is the music of Dave Alvin himself from The Blasters, in a cameo role he plays himself. The soundtrack also features a good selection of country music and songs performed by the cast of the film. Dean is played by musician John Doe from the band X (“X”), and Jeff is played by Chris D. from Flash Eaters. The participation of these three has largely determined the film’s cult status.
The Tonys – Border Radio
Border Radio Soundtrack
2. Dave Alvin & Steve Berlin – La Frontera I
3. The Lazy Cowgirls – Drugs
4. Dave Alvin & Steve Berlin – Burning Guitar
5. Dave Alvin – Mi Vida Loca
6. John Doe & Dave Alvin – Little Honey
7. Divine Horsemen – Mother’s Worry
8. Green On Red – Sixteen Ways
9. Dave Alvin & Steve Berlin – La Frontera II
10. Chris D. – Lilly White Hands
11. Dave Alvin & Steve Berlin – Driving To Mexico
12. Dave Alvin – Mi Vida Loca (Border Radio Theme)
Download or listen to the soundtrack to the film Frontier Radio (1 mp3 file, 34 Mb, 128 Kbps)
It was shot a little too long in places, a little boring in some places, but overall it was good and watchable. It is recommended for fans of Dave Alvin and the Blasters band, fans of Los Angeles post-punk, as well as those who like films about musicians, it is not necessary for everyone else to watch. In any case, you don’t have to go far.
It should be noted that the Frontier Radio project, started by three UCLA students, is Allison Anders (the sister of the main character), Kurt Voss (Allison’s boyfriend at that time) and Dean Lent. All three participated as assistants to Wim Wenders on the set of Paris, Texas in 1983. Even then, Andres and Voss were fans of punk rock and local music from LA: X, Blasters, Flesh Eaters, Gun Club and Tex & The Horseheads.
At first, the film was conceived as a noir short film (the name Jeff Bailey is borrowed from the 1947 noir film Out of the Past, played by Robert Mitchum), but then over the course of three years he gradually became the way we see him. This is the first film in which Allison Anders was the director, then she will shoot “Gasoline, Food, Shelter”, the Honeymoon Suite novel in Tarantino’s “Four Rooms”, the TV biography of June Carter “Ring Of Fire” and others. And Kurt Voss will later make a documentary about Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Ghost on the Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club.
Materials used:
http://nightflight.com/luanna-anders-gives-night-flight-an-exclusive-inside-look-the-1987-indie-cult-film-border-radio/
