The Music of The Apple (1980)

Music and movies go together like peanut butter and jelly.  A good soundtrack or score can elevate a movie beyond the story, acting, or editing.  Music can make a mundane scene exciting.  It can add another layer to the emotional force of an event.  The world has had music forever, with natural melodies and rhythms occurring in everyday life.  It is a part of life.  It is a part of entertainment.  But some entertainment uses the music in an even more obvious way than a soundtrack or score.  Musicals directly tell elements of a story through song.  They aren’t subtle in their musical influence.  These movies are all about the music.

Musicals have been a part of cinema since talkies became a thing.  (If you don’t know what a talkie is, you don’t know movie history.)  With sound being brought into movies, one of the things that people wanted to see most was singing and dancing.  The Jazz Singer, The Broadway Melody, and Gold Diggers of Broadway helped pave the way for musicals.  Over the years, the desire for musicals dissipated as big budget action movies took over.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t musicals being made every year.

I’ve covered a few musicals for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  They have all come from the years since the rise of blockbuster filmmaking.  I watched 2001’s Glitter, as well as 1987’s Miami Connection.  I saw Troma’s 2006 movie Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.  I watched 2012’s The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure twice, and I saw 2002’s Jonah: A Veggietales Movie once.  The oldest movie I watched that could be considered a musical was 1978’s Sextette, which I saw during the third year of the blog.  I haven’t seen a musical for the blog since then.  Until this week.

In 1980, a musical was released that caused director Menahem Golan to almost commit suicide after a badly received festival screening.  It was so bad that an audience who was given free soundtrack copies damaged the screen at the premiere by throwing the albums at it.  The Apple was the story of Bibi (Catherine Mary Stewart) and Alphie (George Gilmour), who were brought into the seedy underworld of music by the evil Mr. Boogalow (Vladek Sheybal).  They dealt with the loss of their musical style and the troubles of their relationship as one found success and the other struggled.

Since The Apple was a filled with music, it seems only fitting to discuss the movie through the songs that were performed.  Each song will be written about through its meaning, its place in the story, and how I felt watching and listening to it.  This is sure to be an interesting post.

BIM

The Apple began with a battle of the bands.  The band created by Mr. Boogalow and his company, BIM, were introduced first.  Dandi (Allan Love) was the male half while Pandi (Grace Kennedy) was the female half.  They sang a poorly written song that ended up being the futuristic subliminal BIM promotion that you would expect of an evil corporation.  The audience ate it up.

BIM was a solid introduction to the evil side of The Apple.  It brought in the underlings, singing terrible lyrics (“There ain’t no good.  There ain’t no bad.  There ain’t no happiness.  There ain’t no tears.”) and wearing insane costumes that look straight out of 1950s science fiction movies.  The song, much like the whole idea of the BIM corporation, was flash with little substance.  It looked and sounded big, but when you take a deeper examination, nothing was there.

What this performance didn’t set up was how entertaining the movie would be.  The visuals and the music were grating.  There wasn’t much to like (a reprise would come later that would improve the song).  The audience ate it up though.  That was a large part of The Apple.  Mr. Boogalow and his music controlled the people of the surrounding areas.  Their bad music was popular with the audience at the show, much like the company was popular with the general population.  Though the song didn’t sound good, it laid the groundwork for what was to come.

Universal Melody

The second song was the introduction to the two main characters, Bibi and Alphie.  They sang a romantic song that won the crowd over until Mr. Boogalow sabotaged it.  He couldn’t let the two lovebirds defeat BIM and ordered that a red disruption tape be played over their song.  This helped to further introduce the bad guys.

This song was an introduction to the overall theme.  Bibi and Alphie were the good guys in The Apple.  They proved with Universal Melody that love could overcome evil.  Though the sabotage by Mr. Boogalow disrupted things, the audience had still been affected by their love.  Good can always triumph over evil, and without the influence of the evil Mr. Boogalow, the world could be a happy loving place.  The song showed that.  The movie showed that.  Placing these two songs one after the other highlighted the conflict of the movie.

One final thing about Universal Melody is that it was a different genre than BIM’s music.  It was a folk style romance song, compared to the rock or disco music that the bad guys performed.  Perhaps it was trying to say that disco influenced rock was bad.  This was the era when disco was popular, and the people that didn’t like it claimed it was the worst thing ever pushed upon the human race.  It makes some sense that they would make disco evil.

Made for Me

The first two songs in The Apple were played as performances.  This third song was the first time that characters would randomly broke into song like any standard musical.  Bibi was seduced to the dark side by Dandi through his claiming that she was made for him.  The feelings of lust were mutual and she couldn’t explain it since she loved Alphie.  Made for Me put the relationship story into motion.

BIM threw a party during which this song took place.  The party established the costumes and set designs.  Though there were two full songs and some scenes before this musical number, it was during this scene that we were introduced to the BIM mark and the futuristic styles of the world.  As the people of the party danced in weirdly choreographed ways (Nigel Lithgoe of So You Think You Can Dance was the choreographer), we saw their clothes and we got to see the design of the building.  They found it amusing that Dandi would be seducing this woman and joined in the merriment.

Made for Me was the musical number that showcased how BIM was able to influence whatever they wanted.  One of the members could turn on their charm and change this woman’s priorities.  What else could they do?  Later musical numbers would further elaborate upon this thought.  This first one was showing how short a time it took to influence someone and how everyone else would go along with it.

One other thing.  This ended up being my favourite song of the movie.  Something about the back and forth between Dandi and Bibi made for a good contrast.  The song wasn’t as choppy in switching vocalists as the first BIM song and it made for a fairly nice listening experience.  The lyrics, as in the rest of the movie, were super direct.  Yet, that was part of the charm.

Showbizness

In 1994, everything about the world is focused upon show business.  That’s what this song let the audience know.  The characters cared about nothing else.  Mr. Boogalow and his assistant Shake (Ray Shell) sang about how they deceived and manipulated everyone because they wanted to stay on top of the show business world.

Bibi and Alphie went to meet Mr. Boogalow to get a record deal.  While they were waiting for the meeting to begin, the people working at Boogalow’s International Music began to perform the song in the lobby.  They were laying out how they would get Bibi and Alphie to sign with their company.  They were going to deceive the loving couple (make them sign without reading the contract) and they were going to manipulate them (have Dandi seduce Bibi, have Alphie get date raped by Pandi).  It was a song about the evil methods of evil people.

The song also worked on another level, because the movie was deceiving and manipulating the viewers.  It deceived by placing a religious story in the guise of a 1980s rock opera.  Mr. Boogalow was a clear show business version of the devil while Mr. Topps (Joss Ackland) was a version of God.  If people were watching the movie wanting simple rock/disco music, they were going to get religious comparisons the whole way through.  Manipulation came in the form of who sang what music.  The good guys sang wholesome and moving songs while the bad guys sang edgier rock and disco.  It was obvious that the people making the movie wanted the rock and disco to be seen as bad and the love songs as good.  They were pitting them against one another to manipulate the audience.

The Apple

The title song is the most important song in The Apple.  This section of the movie makes the already obvious religious undertones become surface level.  Before signing the contract, Alphie has a vision where Mr. Boogalow is the devil and his underlings want to bring Bibi to their side.  They want to turn her evil.  An almost naked Dandi ran around a hell-like underworld with a giant apple, trying to get Bibi to bite it.  This is the Adam and Eve story.  Bibi was being manipulated into eating the forbidden fruit.  The vision caused Alphie to storm out of Mr. Boogalow’s office without signing anything.

This musical number was in Alphie’s head.  He knew how evil BIM and Mr. Boogalow were and manifested the horrendous image in his mind.  It was how he convinced himself not to sign the contract.  He stayed away from the BIM corporation and would work hard to go against them at every turn.  He was one of a select few people in the movie that did not conform to the ideals of the evil company.  Alphie stayed pure, while Bibi succumbed to the temptations of BIM.  In his mind, it was an apple that she bit into.  In reality, she sold out.

How to Be a Master

Montages were an ever present editing method in the 1980s and The Apple featured one with How to Be a Master.  While the song was being performed, Bibi was being prepared for her stardom.  She was styled, exercised, and pampered.  They molded her into the next member of BIM and someone that would be popular throughout the land.  She worked with Mr. Boogalow, Shake, Dandi, and Pandi to go from being a love singer from Moose Jaw to being a BIM superstar.

The lyrics to this song were pretty simple.  Mr. Boogalow was bragging about how well he treated the people who worked for him.  He said how everyone who worked for him got treated well and those who went against him didn’t.  Mr. Boogalow was a good master for people who bowed down to his supremacy.  Those who didn’t felt the consequences.

This song reiterated the evil of BIM.  They were a company and band who cared more about popularity than integrity.  BIM stepped on people to stay at the top, but anyone followers would get proper care and treatment.  It was a song that highlighted how bad the world was and how Bibi, though happy with her choice, was being brought into an evil world.  It wasn’t as visually obvious as the previous song in showing the evil side of BIM, but it did so in the lyrics.  Vladek Sheybal’s voice helped bring the evil out, since he sounded like Dracula when he sang/spoke.  That part probably wasn’t intentional, but it was apparent.

Speed

The meaning of this song seemed to be a hint at Bibi’s rise to fame.  That’s the best I can tell, unless it’s a literal drug reference.  It felt like a metaphor for how she desired to be famous and the people who became her fans.  Speed was her fame.  Fans tried to keep up with her skyrocketing popularity.

Speed was my least favourite song.  The majority of it was noise with no pleasing melody.  Perhaps that was the point because it was Bibi’s first song after joining BIM.  It was a performance in front of an audience with a lot of show.  There were people on motorcycle props.  There were backup dancers.  Bibi was done up like a disco rock star.  Everything was meant to make the performance bigger, yet it lacked pleasantries.  That’s it for this song.

Where Has Love Gone

Alphie went solo in this song about how much he missed Bibi.  The song was filled with heartbreak as he wondered what happened to their love.  Why would she leave him?  Was she happy with BIM?  He wanted to hear it from her and not from Mr. Boogalow, who had been talking on her behalf.

The song was a perfect encapsulation of the story.  It was about the lies and deceit that Bibi was involved in.  The lyrics criticized BIM without saying the name of the company.  Alphie sang about how Mr. Boogalow was controlling everything, coming between their love with his manipulations.  It is territory that was well tread with other songs like Showbizness and The Apple, but a different stylistic take on the material.

There was a good visual counterpart as Alphie travelled through town to a recording studio.  He was the only person who looked like himself.  He still had his individuality.  The other citizens were running around in their BIM inspired clothing and wearing BIM marks.  He was walking around in what he wanted to wear, not influenced by the company.  Where Has Love Gone was visually a story of Where Has Individuality Gone, and it was a great way to give a little more impact.

BIM (Reprise)

There’s not too much to say about this song on a musical level.  It’s very close to the other BIM song.  It is a reprise, after all.  The only major difference was that Bibi was now singing alongside the chorus that had done the first song.  She was now the star of BIM, and the song needed to be done with her vocals.

What makes this an important song is that it truly showed the influence of BIM over the city or country or whatever location was being depicted.  The scene in which BIM (Reprise) played was the BIM exercise hour scene.  All citizens stopped whatever they were doing to work out for an hour.  People stopped driving.  Factory workers stopped working.  Firefighters stopped fighting a fire that was blazing.  Doctors even stopped performing surgery, mid procedure.  Everyone was brainwashed by BIM and would do whatever BIM told them to do when they were told to do it.  That was all shown during this song. 

Cry for Me

Alphie was beaten up by Mr. Boogalow’s thugs because he tried to see Bibi.  This was an important moment in the lives of the characters in The Apple.  It began to change things for the better.  Were it not for this moment, things would have continued on the way they had been happening.  Bibi would have continued being a superstar and Alphie would have continued struggling with his music.  Mr. Boogalow would have continued his reign over the show business world.

Cry for Me was Bibi realizing that if Alphie was defeated, all hope would be lost.  Alphie was one of the few true individuals left, and without him, there was nobody to go against Mr. Boogalow.  Bibi wasn’t strong enough to resist Boogalow’s manipulations, but Alphie was her chance to escape.  She was asking him to cry for her because she couldn’t save herself.

Alphie was singing Cry for Me for similar reasons.  He felt that he had nothing left to hope for.  His love had left for fame.  His body had been beaten and bruised by the people who took her.  There was no good left in the world and he wanted Bibi to cry for him and pity him for even trying to be good.  The bad was overwhelming everything and tainting life on Earth.  The song played an important role in each character’s arc.

Coming

Also known as the date rape song.  This is perhaps the most memorable song because of its lyrical content alone.  Let me share some of it.  “I’m coming, coming for you. Come and take me and shake me and maul me and make me and fill me up with your fire.”  Clearly sexual, but not too direct.  How about this?  “Come to me.  Oh, come do me.  I’ll come for you.  Make it harder and harder and faster and faster.  And when you think you can’t keep it up, I’ll take you deeper and deeper and tighter and tighter and drain every drop of your love.”  It definitely goes there.

I call this the date rape song because that’s what happened while Pandi sang.  She drugged Alphie, who stumbled around the entire scene.  She dragged him into the bedroom and had her way with him while singing about draining every drop of his love.  He was still in love with Bibi, and didn’t want to have sex with Pandi.  She was having non-consensual sex with Alphie and singing about it.  It was a scene where she drugged and raped him.  The date rape song.

I Found Me

At this point in The Apple, Pandi helped Bibi escape Mr. Boogalow.  Shake punished her, but both she and Bibi and found some light in their dark predicament.  Pandi knew it was too late for herself.  She was too deeply entrenched in Mr. Boogalow’s web of lies and deceit.  But she took a moment to get Bibi out of there.  It was not a good place for Bibi.  She deserved better.  She deserved the good that was left in the world.  She deserved Alphie.

It was at this moment that the dire situation began to look up.  Evil ruled the world, but there were small glimmers of good that could be found.  Pandi, though bad, found good inside herself.  Bibi got away from the bad and sought out Alphie, who was the good.  It was all about good prevailing over evil, and would lead into the final moments of the film.

Child of Love

All good in the world was the result of love.  As shown at the beginning of the movie with Universal Melody, love has the ability to cut through anything bad and shine like a bright beacon of everything good.  The penultimate song in the movie reinforced that idea.  Alphie and Bibi were reunited.  Mr. Boogalow was no longer in charge of their lives.  They were free to be whoever they wanted, do whatever they wanted, and sing however they wanted.

The scene was complemented by the people that Alphie and Bibi joined.  After Alphie was beat up and left for dead, he joined a group of hippies.  Bibi soon joined them once she was freed from BIM.  Hippies in general are known for their peace, love, and understanding attitude.  They are the good in the world of The Apple.  They found Alphie and Bibi.  Together, they would be the saviours of the human race.  That became more apparent in the final scene.

Universal Melody (Reprise)

Universal Melody was used at the conclusion of The Apple as the hippies walked into the sky to start a new planet without evil.  It was the movie coming full circle in saying that love could conquer all.  The movie was about God embracing love, and starting a world free of the evils that come from hate, greed, jealousy, and all those other sinful things.  It was a great bookend to what was a crazy movie.

That sums up The Apple.  It was the story of love and good defeating evil and show business, with some entertaining music.  Disco rock was the style of the bad guys, and folksy romance was the style of the good.  The movie might have pushed that agenda on the viewers to try and rid the world of rock and disco but it ended up making listenable music.  And a really rapey song.

Music and movies go together like peanut butter and jelly.  I said that at the beginning of the post.  It’s a true statement.  Silent films had music playing while they ran.  Modern movies have scores to help accentuate important moments.  Musicals, like The Apple, use songs to have the characters share emotions and sing about what is going on in their lives.  The Apple wasn’t a great musical.  The songs tended to be a little too obvious.  The visuals distracted from the story and the music.  The singing wasn’t as strong as it could have been.  And the writing had a lot of problems before the movie was made.  But it ended up being entertaining, and that’s the most important thing.

Now it’s time for some notes:

• The Apple was suggested by @AntiqueiPod.
• The only recurring Sunday “Bad” Movies actor in The Apple was Miriam Margolyes.  She was in Chasing Liberty.
• I brought up a few other musicals I have covered.  They were Glitter, Miami Connection, The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, Jonah: A Veggietales Movie, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, and Sextette.
• Have you seen The Apple?  What were your thoughts?  How do you feel about musicals?  You can discuss any of this stuff in the comments.
• If there are any movies you would like to suggest for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can do so in the comments or in my Twitter feed.  I’m always looking for bad movies I might not already know.
• I have a snapchat account which I tend to use to post stories of the bad movies I watch.  If you want to see clips of bad movies, add me.  Jurassicgriffin.
• Next week’s movie is going to be something called Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  It’s supposed to be a sex comedy about a guy going to a university for burger joint managerial hopefuls.  I’m not expecting much.  Come back next week for more writing.