ABBA: The Movie (1979)

Freelance journalist (Hughes) is on the trail of super group ABBA to capture a scoop after a series of mishaps causes him to miss the arranged press interview leaving him without the crucial audio his boss believes he has secured. The film then revolves around his city hopping antics as he documents the events through interviews with fans, coming ever closer to the elusive interview with the group themselves.Not an especially gripping yarn, Hughes however appears realistic as the intrepid disc jockey who'll stop at nothing to cobble together a documentary about the superstars. Along the way we're treated to actual concert footage and substantial song performances which should please fans. Local viewers might be attracted to the location work and nostalgia of late 70's Australian capital cities and fashion.I caught this movie late one night on the ABC network and though not a fan, decided to watch for a minute or two just to appreciate the history - an hour and a half later I was surprisingly entertained. Despite the somewhat inane title, it's not a docu-drama or concert vignette, but a reasonable plot with an engaging central character and fluent narrative.

I am probably the only heterosexual British male of my generation who likes ABBA, or at least who likes them in a straightforward way and not in an ironic, postmodernist spirit of "I know they're naff, but then naff is the new cool!", although I have to confess that in my teenage years, which coincided with their heyday in the seventies, my interest was aroused as much by the good looks of the group's two female members as by their music. So when a film called "ABBA: The Movie" came on British TV recently (as part of Channel 5's "ABBA Night") I just had to watch it.Films made to cash in on the success of pop groups rarely if ever make for great cinema."Spice World" was probably a horrible embarrassment even to the most ardent fan of the Spice Girls (and even more so to the group themselves). The various Beatles films have been praised for their visual style and occasional wit, although I suspect that they will prove a closed book to anyone who is not interested in the Beatles' music. The same applies to "ABBA: The Movie". It deals with ABBA's tour of Australia (a country in which they always enjoyed great popularity) in 1977. It is not, however, a straight documentary, although it probably should have been. Scenes of the band playing concerts in various Australian cities are combined with a feeble plot line about a radio DJ trying to get an interview with them, about which the less said the better. What any ABBA fan will want to watch it for is the music. Anyone who is not an ABBA fan will probably not want to watch it at all.Even ABBA fans may be surprised by some of the music on offer here. Of course, when the film came out the group still had several years of stardom ahead of them and some of what we now think of as their greatest hits, such as "Chiquitita" and "The Winner Takes It All", were still to be written. Even so, the selection of songs may strike some as being slightly eccentric. We get to hear some more obscure offerings such as "When I Kissed the Teacher", "Tiger", the banal "Rock Me" and the shrill and strident "I'm a Marionette", these last two both qualifying for a place on any compilation album of ABBA's greatest misses, but there is no "Knowing Me, Knowing You", "Take A Chance On Me" or "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do I Do", all of which had been written by 1977.Nevertheless, we do get to hear most of ABBA's other great songs from the first half of their career- "Waterloo", "Fernando", "Mamma Mia", "Thank you for the Music", and a number of others. And, more importantly, we get to hear them performed in the original versions, not (as they were in the film version of "Mamma Mia") murdered by the likes of Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, whose ability to kill a song stone dead proves that he is just as deadly an assassin as his best-known character. And for those whose interest in the group is not purely musical I can report that both Agnetha and Frida were at the height of their beauty in 1977 and both spend much of the film wearing their trademark scanty costumes. 6/10

First, let me say that there's Abba-solutely nothing wrong with an Abba concert performance movie - I am all in favour of same. Unfortunately, Abba - The Movie ain't it.I saw this movie years ago on a grainy VHS tape in 4:3 format. The current cinema presentation, in widescreen opening out to Panavision, in a crisp remastered digital print, is beautiful to look at. The music is as great as it has always been, and Abba work hard to deliver a good, if slightly cheesy, live show, which they clearly all enjoy. And, on that basis, what a wonderful movie this is.But I had completely forgotten the linking "plot" involving the reporter trying to get an interview. Not only is this misconceived, woefully unfunny, profoundly irritating and just plain awful in every conceivable way (and a good number which aren't conceivable), it's like one of those dogs which lies in doorways and halls - every time you turn round, there the damn thing is, getting in the way, and probably breaking wind at the same time. And it wouldn't be so bad if they'd come up with a linking "plot" which actually involved Abba, but no - all you have this this vastly unsympathetic bloke wandering about with a tape recorder, being hassled by his boss and being thrown out by Lou from Neighbours as a comedy relief medallion man minder.This movie is like the most beautiful woman in the world having a humongous wart for a nose.At least I could fast forward the reporter bits on the VHS tape.

Now that it's out in DVD, the ABBA fans who missed the movie when originally released can delight in seeing their favorite group as they were then. Even though, the band has been disbanded for over 20 years, ABBA was unique for groups of the time, in that they left a fairly large legacy of surprisingly good quality videos of their music. This movie, although trite contains a fascinating video record of one of their most impressive tours. With the introduction of the musical Mamma Mia (based on ABBA songs) on Broadway several years back, which started an ABBA resurgence of sorts, the existence of videos like this one has let another whole generation get hooked on ABBA music. ABBA was an extremely attractive and very talented group which will live on through these videos. The video and sound quality of the DVDs ( I watch on an HD set ) is excellent considering the time period they were recorded. I liked ABBA back then, but never really followed their music closely. Now I'm hooked, and grateful for the video record that exists of " one of the greatest pop groups that ever was" ( from U2)