Tom Hanks' Latest Stroke of Genius — 'American Idiot: The Musical'

About a decade ago I heard some tracks by Green Day– they were from the album Dookie, I believe. Somewhat hilariously these shouty pop ditties were being marketed as the spearhead of a punk revival- even though the music was not scary, not raw, not subversive, nor even very rebellious. There was clearly no danger one of these ‘Green Day’ boys was ever going to kill his girlfriend and then O.D. on heroin, for example — rather they were going to sell lots of records to disgruntled middle class kids then buy themselves a big house or two and a bunch of expensive cars. As the band was clearly irrelevant to anyone above the age of 15, I decided never to think about them again.

I kept that up until last week, when the BH editors asked me to do some digging into the band’s 2004 album American Idiot. Apparently Tom Hanks’ production company has bought the rights to make a film based on this record — no doubt in-between those periods when Mr. Hanks is pondering deeply about the causes of World War II, and America’s racial hatred of the Japanese and Arabs + anyone else who is ‘different.’

This is what I uncovered:

American Idiot is a ‘concept’ album that tells a narrative story throughout its 13 songs. Green Day apparently drew inspiration from The Who, a band that in the 1970s released a couple of concept albums, the most famous of which is Tommy, the nonsensical tale of a deaf, dumb and blind ‘pinball wizard.’ Immediately this set off a red flag because although Tommy contains a few good songs, taken as a whole, it is pretentious to an ear-incinerating degree, while the accompanying film is unwatchable unless you are out of your box on magic mushrooms.

So that’s not a good start. And the concept of American Idiot– such as it is- is at least as jumbled and embarrassing as anything The Who ever came up with. According to Wikipedia, there’s this guy called Jesus of Suburbia and he:

…emerged out of (Billy Joe) Armstrong (Green Day’s frontman) asking himself what sort of person the title of “American Idiot” referred to. Armstrong described the character as essentially an anti-hero, a powerless “everyman” desensitized by a “steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin”.’ Jesus of Suburbia hates his town and those close to him, so he leaves for the city.

Hm. Difficult to believe this adolescent stuff could have been written by a man in his 30s but there y’go. Anyway, there are some other characters including St. Jimmy “a punk rock freedom fighter’ and a female character called Whatsername (clever, that) “…who Armstrong describes as “kind of St. Jimmy’s nemesis in a lot of ways.”

Lost yet? Well, apparently ‘Both characters illustrate the “rage vs. love” theme of the album, in that “you can go with the blind rebellion of self-destruction, where Saint Jimmy is. But there’s a more love-driven side to that, which is following your beliefs and ethics. And that’s where Jesus of Suburbia really wants to go.”

So anyway, Jesus of Suburbia falls in love with Whatsername, but she breaks up with him. A bit later St. Jimmy commits suicide. Apparently however Jimmy and Jesus may be the same person and Jimmy is “part of the main character that pretty much dies.” Too deep for me, I’m afraid. Finally Jesus loses contact with Whatsername, and “the album ends with Jesus wondering where she is, and how she’s been.”

OK, so just writing those last three paragraphs I felt embarrassed.

Apparently there’s also some biting social commentary in there, or something. As for the music I listened to the thing the whole way through and it reminded me very much of the pop tunes that bored me ten years ago. Then again, if I understood anything about the popular taste I’d be a much wealthier man, living on a giant ranch populated with peacocks and giraffes instead of an apartment. American Idiot has sold 14 million copies worldwide, and its preposterous story has already been turned into a successful stage musical. I found a review from somebody who caught it during the show’s original run in Berkeley last year:

…not to spoil anything, but by the end of the 90-minute performance, the stage had been witness to half a dozen chugged beers, a couple of joints, several syringes of heroin, one drug-related suicide, one O.D., and one bout of very realistic-looking sex on a futon.

Here’s the plot (such as it is):

Jimmy leaves suburbia for the big city, falls in love, gets hooked on dope, hits rock bottom, and ultimately flees back home. One of his buddies goes to Iraq and loses a leg; the other is a loser who doesn’t go anywhere at all. The whole time a bank of TVs plays clips presumably depicting American idiocy: Slurpees and Twinkies at 7-11, night-vision bombing runs from the Middle East, Family Guy. It’s all supposed to represent the hollowness of the American dream, or how life sucks, or something. Anyway. Fight the power”

Scathing stuff! And yet:

It’s easy to imagine the kids a few blocks away at 924 Gilman Street, the famed Berkeley punk club where Green Day got their start, laughing at Idiot the way East Villagers in the ’90s mocked Rent–as watered down and cheesed up. The dialogue (what little there is) is all, “What the fuck?” this and “Motherfucker!” that–a 13-year-old Wicked fan’s idea of punk rebellion. And with tickets more expensive than seats at an actual Green Day show, there really doesn’t seem much point.

And yet in spite of that pointlessness the show has just transferred to Broadway– – hence, no doubt Tom Hanks’ sudden interest. The news of Mr. Hanks’ involvement meanwhile has sparked off a lot of wild speculation. According to the UK’s NME Hanks will not only produce but also direct — and Julia Roberts may star (doesn’t she always?). MTV however spoke to Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong directly and he sounded a more tentative note when asked if the film would ever become a reality:

“I don’t know. It’s just talk right now, and it’s really exciting talk…So we’ll see what happens.”

Indeed we shall. Until it becomes a reality however I am going to resume my decade-plus habit of never thinking about Green Day. And I encourage the rest of you to do likewise.