American Rebel

Hollywod Rocks

Marshall Crenshaw Talks Movies

Back in 1993, I was the spokesmodel for and guiding intelligence behind a book called Hollywood Rock, a critical guide to rock'n'roll movies. The book has become a standard reference for critics, historians, and fans (even though it's now five years out of date). The folks at VH1.com have asked me (with a nod to Spinal Tap) to list my Top 11 rock'n'roll movies. We reviewed hundreds of films for the book, covering the years 1947 through 1993 and here are eleven that absolutely floored me:

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3) Dean Reed - American Rebel (1985)

Now it's almost like the Cold War never happened, but in the mid-'80s, when Will Roberts made this documentary, it was amazing to learn that the most beloved pop icon in the Eastern bloc was an American actor/singer nobody in America had ever heard of named Dean Reed. It's all here: Dean mobbed in the streets of Moscow, Dean explaining how he became a socialist, Dean singing (a mixture of mild rock'n'roll and leftist political songs) to packed stadiums. For people who lived through that time period, this can be an intriguing human-interest story. Where is he now? In 1987, as this film was being released and Dean Reed was planning a tour of US colleges, he was found dead in his car, fully clothed, at the bottom of a lake in East Germany. What the f*ck... ?

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October 1999