BEFORE the Beatles became the Beatles, they were a bunch of scruffy rock 'n' rollers honing their singing and instrumental skills in some dodgy dives in Hamburg's red-light district, the Reeperbahn. There was John, there was Paul, there was George and there was Pete Best, the original drummer, and Stuart Sutcliffe, the 'fifth Beatle', on bass.
With Backbeat, first-time British director Iain Softley concentrates on this formative period in the band's career, playing out their time in Hamburg between 1960 and 1962.
Instead of making a rockumentary, Softley, who also scripted, uses the relationship between Lennon and Sutcliffe to give the film a dramatic edge and focuses on the two close friends' involvement with bohemian German photographer Astrid Kirchherr.
It's a passable effort to convert rock history into cheeky entertainment, although Softley never really manages to get beyond superficial insights into the characters.
The film begins in a grungey Liverpool bar, where Teddy boys Lennon and Sutcliffe annoy some plebeian sailors and get the stuffing kicked out of them. Softley immediately establishes a close bond between the two boys and this sets the tone. Fast-forward to the band of five heading to Germany for an engagement at the Kaiserkeller in the heart of the seedy Reeperbahn area, relishing the chance to play rock'n'roll, make some money and get laid frequently.
The action quickly falls around a tense menage a trois between Sutcliffe, Lennon and the coolly teutonic Astrid, a member of a group of barmy German existentialist-artists.
