#42
2014
The Silver Screen Channel
“Good evening, I’m Ben Mankiewicz here for the Silver Screen Channel, thank you for joining us. Every Tuesday this month, we’ll be exploring some of the classics of the concert film genre. Last week we brought you The Band’s farewell concert in
The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese. This week we have another Scorsese film: 1985’s
RAP.
“Now, Scorsese never intended to make another concert film after
The Last Waltz. The project he was working on at the end of 1983 was
The Last Temptation of Christ. A surge in both production costs and attacks from right-wing groups led to Paramount Studios abandoning the project in early 1984.
Last Temptation would come to haunt Scorsese over the next 20 years, and he would make five further attempts at the project before finally completing it in 2007, giving Michael Fassbender his breakthrough role as Jesus of Nazareth, with Penelope Cruz as Mary Magdalene, and a career-altering turn as Judas from Adam Sandler.
“But back in 1984 Scorsese found himself in need of work with little notice and little desire to deal with a studio. He flirted with a few projects that led nowhere, until one day he was approached by the musician Sting, who had been tentatively cast to play Pontius Pilate in Last Temptation. Sting had just signed on to a new kind of super-tour, the kind that would come to define the later 1980s. This was RAP: Radical Action for the People.
“There were many stellar performers at the heart of RAP, including Willie Nelson, Marvin Gaye, and Joan Baez. But the unquestioned father of this series of gargantuan, politically-charged concerts was John Lennon. At the time he was just returning to the public eye after a years-long recovery process, having been shot in the back by a deranged fan in early 1981. Now confined to a wheelchair, lacking fine motor skills, and barely able to sing, Lennon emerged with an invigorated commitment to making the world a better place through political action and music.
“RAP merged several left-wing political causes and their supporters in the music industry to capture the energy and mood of a movement that, at the time, didn’t really have any concrete political leaders. Several figures vied in the Democratic presidential primaries that year for the favor of the resurgent left, but the field remained divided by the time the campaign was over.
“And so activists sought to grow the movement without a political figurehead, and to direct its energies to other causes besides the presidency. Early meetings suggested a festival-style benefit concert for victims of urban poverty, or for small family farmers. Soon other suggestions were made- the environment, the labor movement, public health, education. It was Lennon’s idea to perform a series of concerts across the country, each one with a different message to raise awareness for an entire slate of issues. Radical Action for the People was born.
“Each RAP concert would raise money for a different cause- the labor movement, the environment, for minority causes, and even for general public health and education projects. The concerts were put on across the country from July 4th to Election Day, 1984. And Martin Scorsese would be there to film it all.
“The film features many memorable sequences, from the debut of future superstars Run-DMC, to the epic eleven-minute guitar duel between Prince and Jimmy Page, to the much longed-for reunion of The Beatles, performing All You Need Is Love in the finale. This would be the final performance of the Fab Four as it would turn out, with Paul McCartney’s tragic death in a car crash occurring on Christmas Eve of that same year.
“Now without further ado, from 1985, directed by Martin Scorsese, here is
RAP.”
----
Back in 1984
Conservative Party Headquarters. Atwater’s lair.
“You know how sometimes I think something’s a problem and then you tell me it’s actually good news?”
“Sure.”
“We’ve got another one of those.”
“Let’s have it.”
“Our beloved vice presidential nominee was home for the weekend when a dozen or so protesters showed up on his property. He chased them off with a shotgun. He says he fired over their heads, they say he fired at them.”
“No one was hit?”
“No one was hit.”
“Where was the secret service?”
“Don’t you remember, he declined protection, called it a form of welfare.”
“Okay. Nobody was hurt. They were trespassing. Was his family around?”
“No.”
“Damn, that would’ve played better. Still, this is castle doctrine, we can definitely spin this.”
“There’s more.”
“Sure, yeah, I mean why wouldn’t there be?”
“So the protesters went to make a complaint to the local cops and were arrested. No charges given. Ten of them went in, unhurt by all accounts- except the cops. And later-”
“Okay I see where this is going.”
“So. Is this a problem, or is this good news?”
Lee gives a slow smile.
"I think we can work something out.
----
Late Fall, 1984
Economic Policy Debate.
“I happen to agree with Governor Lamm, there is too much immigration in this country. We have to impose stricter controls on the kinds of people who enter. They come here and immediately begin sucking at the teat of big government, it’s a drain on our resources and a corruption to our culture. Where the governor and I disagree, however, is on workers visas. These are the backbone of American agriculture and construction, and if Mr. Lamm had his way you’d be paying five dollars for a head of lettuce, and five hundred thousand dollars for a starter home.”
“Governor Lamm, your response.”
“The senator thinks he’s being funny, trying to tar me with that brush on immigration. Anyone who has listened to a single speech I’ve given over the past six months knows that I am proposing no changes to the level of legal immigration. I am simply proposing that we more strongly favor applicants who can fill current deficiencies in the workplace, so that new arrivals are not competing with citizens for jobs.
“As for the visa program, I have said it before and I’ll say it again: as it stands it is little better than slave labor. We are abetting the exploitation of our vulnerable neighbors to the south and contributing to the hollowing out of the American working class at the same time. It goes hand-in-hand with the entire culture of current labor-management relations, and when elected I promise you we will see a redress of this imbalance.”
“Mr. President, a brief response?”
“Once again my opponents are approaching this issue from the wrong direction. This is an issue of free trade more than it is of labor policy. If we were to enact the continental free trade zone proposed by my administration, that would put us and our neighbors on an entirely level playing field. The value of a dollar would go farther for our guest workers, as well as for American consumers at home. This is a win-win proposal.”
----
7th and Euclid
“EXTRY! Late surge from the left buoys Lamm! Pulls even with the president in latest poll! Buckley four points behind! 10% still undecided! EXTRY! EXTRY!”
“Did you catch the last debate on the news last night?”
“...What did you just ask me?”
“The debate, did you see it?”
“You’re asking me if I got my
news...from
television?”
“...yyyeah?”
“Wait. Just wait a minute. Hashim...are you telling me...you
watch the news?”
“Um. Yes? Who doesn’t?”
“Et tu, Brutus?”
“What’s happening?”
“It’s like an arrow to my heart. My best friend-”
“That’s- we’ll circle back to that.”
“-My best friend! In bed with the enemy!”
“Al, everybody watches the news. It doesn’t mean we don’t read newspapers.”
“Is that what you tell yourself when you’re having a cozy night in with Peter Jennings?”
“They’re complimentary.”
“Complimentary!? They’re nothing alike! The paper is, is...
classy, civilized. The magic of the written word. Your eyes, you know, they find what’s interesting and you make the decision to take it in. It activates the brain, the gears start turning. With television you just have some loudmouth idiot, blabbing out to the world what he thinks is important without anyone’s say-so, and it…um...”
“Oh keep going, please.”
“You know maybe Peter Jennings has his place.”