U2: Rattle and Hum (1988)

A documentary of Irish rock group U2's Fall 1987 tour of North America.

Director:

Phil Joanou

Stars:

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Bono	...	Himself
The Edge	...	Himself
Adam Clayton	...	Himself
Larry Mullen Jr.	...	Himself
B.B. King	...	Himself
Phil Joanou	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dennis Bell	...	Himself
Adam Gussow	...	Himself
Jack Hale	...	Himself
Jim Horn	...	Himself
Wayne Jackson	...	Himself (as The Memphis Horns)
Andrew Love	...	Himself (as The Memphis Horns)
Sterling Magee	...	Himself
Joey Miskulin	...	Himself (as Joseph M. Miskulin)
Gayl Murphy	...	Herself (as Press Conference Interviewer)

Storyline

This film documents the 1987 North American tour of the great rock band, U2. Fresh with their success of their best selling album, The Joshua Tree, the band plays monster gigs. Along the way, the band takes the opportunity in indulge in some special musical activities like playing with BB King and performing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking" with a famous church choir. All the while, concert footage of the band's biggest hits on tour is featured while Bono speaks his mind on the problems of his homeland.

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Plot Keywords:

u2 | black & white to color | star spangled banner | concert film | number in title | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rattle and Hum

Filming Locations:

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Box Office

Gross USA:

$8,600,823

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures,Midnight Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the band's goals with this film was to recognize its musical roots, which is shown by the large number of homages: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Van Morrison, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Jimi Hendrix are all alluded to directly or indirectly (and the studio recording sessions included further homages to Presley, Dylan, and The Righteous Brothers). Unfortunately, this was not communicated well to the press, leading many critics to misinterpret the homages as an attempt on U2's part to have themselves "ranked among the legends".

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Quotes

Mullen, Larry: It's a musical journey.

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Connections

Featured in Cinemadonna: Truth or Dare (2014)

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Soundtracks

Desire
Words Bono
Music U2

User Reviews

a concert film featuring MUSIC, as opposed to interviews

I love this film, and have for years. Some were unhappy with the lack of documentary-like footage concerning who the band "really" are and such...but since it is described as a "concert" film, i got what i expected...footage of and about the formation of key songs and song adaptions. I never saw the film as self-congratulatory, and i think that's just a swipe by bashers of the band.......they (u2) just seemed to be enjoying themselves delving into the new musical forms they were discovering and paying homage to those forms. If you like music, see this dvd.