The Kids Are Alright is a 1979 rockumentary about the British rock band The Who, titled after one of their songs from My Generation.
Director Jeff Stein, who'd worked with the band as a teenager, wanted to create a collection of visual history for fans and approached Pete Townsend. The movie comprises live performances, promotional videos, and recorded interviews with the band.
Stein wasted no expense to scrounge around old broadcasting sheds in over eight countries (eight that you could name, though) over the next two years to rescue any film reel with a hint of the band in order to make this masterpiece, which would never hit major popularity and would be completed overshadowed by an indie drama in 2010. After Stein proved not very successful at his scavenger hunt, new material had to be filmed at Shepperton Studios and at Keith Moon's California beach home, with some of their big hits that couldn't be recovered elsewhere captured during live tours.
In some places the group had to re-dub parts of their own musical performances, either because the sources Stein unearthed proved unusable or because they were dissatisfied with the way they had sounded. (Apologies to everyone in the 1969 Woodstock crowd.) After Moon died during the sound editing process, the rest of the band decided to not change anything further.
Not to be confused with the aforementioned 2010 film The Kids Are All Right, about lesbians and The Hulk, or The Kids Are Alright (2018), a Dom Com about an Irish-American family during the 1970s.
Tropes:
- Audience Participation: In an interview featured, Keith Moon tells how he was picked up to be a stand-in drummer from an audience.
- The Cameo:
- Steve Martin makes an appearance during a montage featuring Keith Moon.
- Ken Russell, the director of the Tommy film, makes an appearance (apparently shit-talking UK PM Harold Wilson).
- Clothing Damage: In a Russel Harty Plus segment: Townshend has his shirt torn by Moon, the former gets his revenge.
- Rivals Team Up: Ringo Starr is seen interviewing Keith Moon throughout the film. The Beatles were one of the bands constantly in rivalry with The Who.
- Rockers Smash Guitars: Their infamous Smothers Brothers appearance opens up the film and instrumental destruction is prevalent throughout the rest of the film.
- Rockumentary: A mixture of archival footage (some of it previously unseen) with new interviews and performances recorded for the film.
- Shooting Gallery: John Entwistle shoots up his gold records with a hunting rifle before moving on to a Tommy Gun.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The film opens with a clip of Keith Moon's drum kit exploding during the band's 1967 appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
