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Great Balls of Fire!



Great Balls of Fire!
(1989)

Director: Jim McBride
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder, John Doe
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music

The meteoric rise and fall of one of rock's greatest performers, The Killer...Jerry Lee Lewis. 1989's Great Balls of Fire is based on a book written by Myra Lewis who was Jerry Lee Lewis' cousin and married him at the tender age of 13.

The movie chronicles the early career of Jerry Lee from his bid to become a rock legend in his own time....to his wildly successful music and stage shows...and his highly controversial marriage to his 13 year old cousin, that would ultimately lead to his downfall.



Director Jim McBride takes us on a visually stunning film that is packed with stunning period piece sets, so rich that one thinks the crew had a time machine back to the 1950s. The movie is really a thing of beauty to look at.

Even more impressive is the free flowing overlapping scene style that is reminiscent of a music video. Normally that might be a bad thing but here it's a huge plus! Instead of the usually style of film making, the scenes are more fluid and impart an emotion, that emotion is pure unbridled joy coupled with a reckless energy all wrapped up with the high energy sounds of Jerry's music as the soundtrack.

Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder as Jerry lee and Myra...burn up the screen with their charisma. Which is odd as we're watching a 22 year old man sweep a 13 year old girl off her feet...and yet it works!



Quaid embodies Jerry Lee, it's an amazingly entertaining and vicious performance. And talk about vicious liveliness, Winona Ryder lights up the screen with her enthusiasm. I don't know if the real
Myra was this fun loving and colorful, but who cares! this isn't trying to be a documentary or even a serious biopic....It's a 98 minute joy ride at break neck speed, all wrapped in authentic songs recorded for the movie by that bad boy himself, Jerry Lee Lewis. Yahoo!