Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of 'Smile' (2004)

Interviews with Beach Boy Brian Wilson and his contemporaries outline the history of Wilson's album "Smile," a project some 37 years in the making.

Director:

David Leaf

Stars:

David Anderle, Hal Blaine, Jeff Bridges

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
David Anderle
Hal Blaine	...	Himself
Jeff Bridges	...	Himself
Elvis Costello	...	Himself
Roger Daltrey	...	Himself
Natalie Imbruglia	...	Herself
Carol Kaye	...	Herself
George Martin	...	Himself
Paul McCartney	...	Himself
Van Dyke Parks	...	Himself
Michael Vosse
Brian Wilson	...	Himself

Storyline

This film tells (using modern day interviews and archival footage and sound tapes) the story of how in 1967, while his band The Beach Boys triumphantly toured abroad, Brian Wilson was trying to push the boundaries of conventional pop music with a new follow-up to the Beach Boys' cutting-edge mega-hit, Pet Sounds. The new album was to be called "SMiLE". SMiLE pushed the envelope both musically and lyrically, and was supposed to out-do the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper record. But Brian wasn't able to sell the project to his band-mates when they returned. The project was shelved and Wilson's well-documented decline into depression, drug abuse, recluseness, and obesity had begun. Thirty-odd years later, Wilson announced that in 2004, SMiLE would be performed live in its entirety in London. This film tells the story of a damaged but healing artist bringing his greatest work to light.

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Plot Keywords:

pop music | colon in title | songwriter | nine word title | documentary subject's name in title | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 October 2004 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chautauqua Entertainment, LSL Productions, Showtime Networks

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Zomergasten: Episode #18.4 (2005)

User Reviews

Terrific Look at Brian Wilson and Smile

Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of 'Smile' (2004)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely touching documentary about the greatest rock 'n roll album that was never made. This film talks about the making of The Beach Boys album 'Smile' which was set to be the follow-up to their masterpiece 'Pet Sounds' but the band and record label didn't like the fact that Brian Wilson was spending so much time on something that wasn't guaranteed to be a hit. The making of Smile is legendary on so many levels. On one hand you have the actual brilliance of what the album was supposed to be. On another hand you have a powerful band ripping themselves apart. You have way too many drugs being used. You have a record label not wanting an artist to do something artistic. Then you've got Wilson who was doing too many drugs, was trying to do something that had never been done before and eventually he would suffer a nervous breakdown. This is a wonderfully entertaining documentary that takes a look back at these days and the amount of detail given is quite special. One of the most entertaining things is hearing about The Beatles and The Beach Boys kept trying to one up each other and we get to hear from George Martin about the band's constant hearing of this special album that never came to be. We get a pretty honest interview from Wilson who doesn't shy away from the topics including how this album has pretty much haunted him throughout his life. It all ended when Wilson decided to put 'Smile' back together and take it on the road. I think it would be unfair to call this the definitive look at the making of the album simply because so many of the other people involved are not interviewed here. With that being said, what this movie really is is a rather amazing and unique comeback story for Wilson. I must admit that the ending was quite powerful and emotional as we see Wilson pretty much getting this monkey off his back after 37 years. Fans of the band are going to love what's here but hopefully one day we can see the other side of the story.