Movie Night: The Sapphires (2012)

Hello Friends,

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're watching a nice little film from 2012 called, The Sapphires, about an Australian girl group who takes their soulful show on the road to 1968 Vietnam to entertain the troops.   Its like an Australian version of The Commitments! 

Directed by Aussie Wayne Blair, the movie is based on a true story of four Aboriginal teenagers who leave behind the bitter racism and hostilities of their Outback homes to a world even more hostile and dangerous.  Billed as the Australian Supremes, the soulful quartet grows up pretty quickly as one is wont to do when bullets are flying past your head!

Irish actor, Chris O'Dowd (pretty amazing as always) who plays the group's scrappy, whiskey-swillin', R&B loving arranger/manager, has a great line about soul music:

Before we go than, girls when I met you you were doing all country and western thing and that's fine we all make mistakes. But here is what we learn from that mistake. Country and western music is about loss. Soul music is also about loss. But the difference is in country and western music, they've lost, they've given up and they are just all wining about it. In soul music they are struggling to get it back, they haven't given up.

Good acting performances all around and some pretty good tunes throughout!

Fun Fact: One of the film's writers and producers, Tony Briggs, is actually the son of one of the original Sapphires!

We give The Sapphires two cocktail glasses up! 

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)