REVIEW: Rush - Beyond The Lighted Stage

The brand new Rush documentary Beyond The Lighted Stage is released for one day only on UK cinema screens on 7 June but Planet Rock was lucky enough to get an early look at the film. Here’s what we thought:

First up, a confession. This reviewer is a Rush novice. Their music never impacted on my burgeoning passion for rock in the same way that, say, Zeppelin, Sabbath or Pink Floyd did. Their name was occasionally uttered in hushed tones between knowing young men who obviously knew something I didn’t, like the password to a secret club that I just wasn’t invited to join.

So why would someone with an, at best, cursory knowledge of Rush and their musical journey subject themselves to a 107 minute documentary about the band?

Perhaps it was simply to understand exactly why no one likes Rush – they LOVE them. And not just an ordinary love. It’s an obsessive, all consuming love that is unlike anything any other band seems to be able to engender in their fans, and maybe those people that don’t really "get it” will finally be able to understand what all the fuss is about.

Told in a strictly chronological fashion from childhood to present day this is fundamentally a straightforward tale of a couple of geeky kids doing what they love and breaking out from the confines of their smalltown existence without compromise, encountering a few bumps in the road but ultimately coming out the other end as better people and on top of the world. So far, so Hollywood conventional schmaltz.

But Rush have never done convention particularly well. Their music is "challenging” (i.e. they generally don’t do singles, the songs are really long and they contain too many notes), they write songs about sci-fi and their singer has a voice, as someone describes in the film (lovingly, I might add), like a cat being chased out of a room with a blowtorch up it’s a**e.

In fact it is their difference, as this new film suggests, that makes them so special to their fans. They rock hard, but they do it with some brains to match the brawn of the music and they’ve done it for nearly 40 years on the fringes of popular acceptance. They’re undoubtedly a cult band. It’s just that the cult of Rush is millions strong and has endured for nearly 40 years. Like I said, they don’t do convention very well.

BTLS is broken down into chapters, with each chapter covering major moments in the band’s history. The film moves from Alex & Geddy meeting each other at school to changing drummers, to getting signed and then all the way to changes in musical direction from album to album, then Neil Peart’s tragic double loss that prompted a 55,000 mile road trip and a long break in the band, then the comeback and bringing the tale up-to-date with the early planning stages for their next album.

For the casual viewer it’s probably the early days that are most compelling. The reams of very early footage, audio and photos are fantastic, with a particular highlight the family summit at the Živojinoviæ (Lifeson) household in which Alex tells his parents that he’s giving up school to be in a band – a summit that was fortuitously captured on film by a local TV station allowing us to watch a sulking teenage Alex Lifeson surrounded by relatives and friends and being lectured by his folks.

This is by no means a perfect film. It’s let down a little by its run-time – the idea of sitting through just shy of two hours of Rush is a daunting prospect for even a casual fan, let alone a non-fan. The film also sells original drummer John Rutsey a little short. For obvious reasons the filmmakers couldn’t speak to John when making the film, but despite the attention given to the band’s genesis in the film his contribution feels ever so slightly overlooked, and the film also gives mixed reasons why he was fired in 1974 (Geddy suggests it was a musical decision, their former manager suggests it was health related).

However, the real success of the film is based upon the fact that it’s not trying to convince you that Rush are great. It just takes that as read and tells you their story in the most human way possible, reducing the three rock legends to the slightly geeky, but ultimately very normal guys that they are.

The various talking heads in the film offer insights into either why they love the band or first hand stories about the band and although there are a lot of them, they never feel gratuitous. As well as the various parents, friends, producers and record label execs, there are a string of recognisable high profile fans such as Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins, Sebastian Bach (a real hoot), Jack Black (hilarious), Kirk Hammett, Gene Simmons and a number of contributions from the usually media shy Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins whose impassioned defence of Rush would have even their most ardent non-fan rushing to their local record store to pick up 2112 or Moving Pictures.

You do NOT need to be a fan of Rush to enjoy this movie. In fact in many ways it helps if you go into this film as a blank canvass. And even if the music isn’t your thing, it doesn’t matter. The songs simply add to the narrative of the film with each of the stories and events in the band’s history linked directly to the footage and audio on offer. That being said, hardened Rush fans will likely cherish this film. It is the most honest and open that the band members will ever be on film, and the live and unreleased footage will be devoured by fans looking for material they haven’t seen before.

Beyond The Lighted Stage is an absolute joy. It’s a film full of heart and lacking that vile self-promotion or pretence that so often spoils these rock films. Directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn skilfully let the stories unfold naturally without gunning for controversy or that sensational headline, and as a result the film is a genuine, at times funny, occasionally moving and always interesting tale of a nerdy bunch of outsiders who made it big. Really big.

Rush: Beyong The Lighted Stage will be shown across the UK on 7 June.

For more info about where you can see it CLICK HERE