Review #925: Great Balls of Fire! (1989)

Title: Great Balls of Fire!
Year: 1989
Director: James McBride
Country: US
Language: English

Strangely enough, Great Balls of Fire! (1989) was one of the first live actions movies I had seen in my life. Perhaps it was due to a lack of film knowledge/experience at the time, but when I was ten years old there wasn't any film greater than Jerry Lee Lewis' biography. It had a great tragic story and was full of raw energy. Now I look at reviews online and I find that it has received mixed reviews. Could I have been wrong?

Great Balls of Fire! is about the life and career of wildly controversial rock 'n' roll star Jerry Lee Lewis. 

Jerry Lee Lewis had had, by all accounts, a hard and tragic life shadowed by addictions, death and violence. He is a complicated man whose faith in God steered him towards- and away from- rock n' roll. I feel Dennis Quaid embodies the man perfectly; particularly oozing with the trademark charisma and sexual energy of "the killer". Winona Ryder as Myra seems like a little bit of a miscast, as she looks far older than 13 and thus the more sinister aspect of the picture (Jerry Lee dating a pre-teen in his 20's) is quite toned down. 

Great Balls of Fire! tries very hard to celebrate the life of Jerry Lee Lewis and atone for the man's sins, and yet still uncovers a tremendous amount of skeletons. Lewis is often portrayed as egotistical, selfish and cold. If this is the more fictional and apologetic account of the man's life, I'd hate to actually meet the guy! It's a well written picture, but it's very unfortunate that the events of this film end in 1959. Lewis still had a lot more scandals and life to live; he had not overcome his demons in the way this film is suggesting. 

Is Great Balls of Fire! as great as I remember it? No, but it still has some pretty fun scenes. It's a far more sanitized adaptation of Myra's autobiography than I'd have hoped, but for a Bye Bye Birdie type of musical I suppose one could do worse. It's pretty amazing that "the killer" is still alive, considering all his comtemporaries are dead. Perhaps another biographic film will be made in the near future.