John Waite: The Hard Way

2022

Biography / Documentary / Music

1
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 100% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 100% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 142 142

Director

Mike J. Nichols Photo
Mike J. Nichols

Top cast

Diane Warren Photo
Diane Warren as Self
Joni Allen Photo
Joni Allen as Self
Neil Giraldo Photo
Neil Giraldo as Self
Ron Nevison Photo
Ron Nevison as Self
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
840.05 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds ...
1.69 GB
1920*1080
English 5.1
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Lejink 7 / 10

Waite For Me

If you gave me five hundred guesses to name artists in the music business about whom a documentary might be made, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have come up with the name of John Waite. But when I saw this ninety minute film come up on my browser, I was intrigued and decided to watch it.Waite had three relatively brief shots at success in the seventies and eighties, firstly, as the singer and sometimes bassist of the glam-pop band the Babys, who actually made one of my favourite singles of the decade "Isn't it Time", returning in the eighties as a solo artist with the massive hit "Missing You" and finally, later in the same decade as the front man of a kind of poor-man's supergroup Bad English, who also had a no. 1 US hit with Diane Warren's "When I See You Smile".The last of these, however, was almost 40 years ago, with the question arising, well then what can a poor boy do, with the answer, of course, being, except sing in a rock and roll band, which is what he's been doing pretty much ever since. This film was made during the days of Covid and finds the singer at a particularly low ebb, in both his personal and professional life, so that it was interesting to see here how a former hit-maker coped with life when the good times have seemingly gone.Born in England, Waite trained as an artist before heading across the water and making music his career. He joined the pretty-boy pop band the Babys who had fleeting success in the late 70's as Waite regales us with the time-worn tales of life on the road, artistic compromise, musical differences and record company failings, especially the latter which despite a few hit singles and albums in the States saw the band incur a massive debt to their label, Chrysalis Records.Reborn as a photogenic solo artist in time for MTV in the 80's, he had a massive hit with the Police's "Every Breath You Take" soundalike "Missing You" but again lacked the momentum to follow through and establish himself for a longer period. His last taste of success was with Bad English, who again were successful Stateside for a brief time with two top five singles, one of which made number one, but after reverting to being a solo artist, the hits dried up despite him releasing many solo albums from then up until now.Waite was 70 years old at the time this film was made, although he still wears his hair long and sports sunglasses indoors just like any other aging rocker. There's the whiff of Spinal Tap to some of his tales of his life in the business, but by the end of the film, I found myself quite liking this guy who clearly doesn't want to do anything but make music and perform live.Interspersed with lots of vintage clips showing him at different stages of his career and interviews with some of his nearest and not so dearest acquaintances, including his seemingly long-suffering long-term girlfriend, I was most surprised that the band with whom he had the biggest success, Bad English was hardly mentioned at all. I didn't know that he did a tour with Ringo Starr's All Star Band or that he recorded a duet with Alison Krauss, about who he goes all, sorry, babyish, for some reason, but in the end, as the title of the film suggests, this is a guy prepared to do things the hard way and not compromise himself too much.His music may be generic 70's and 80's pop-rock, but as a portrait of a minor artist coping with the pandemics threat to his livelihood and its effects on his wellbeing, it certainly got my interest.I personally felt the film-making itself could have been tightened up with different shots being repeated from time to time and a narrative which seemed to jump back and forward from time to time, but imperfect as it is, it gets over that Waite is a fighter. Me, I'd have liked to have asked him how he felt sporting worse eye make up in the seventies than the girls from ABBA, but seriously, it came across loud and clear that as long as there are people out there who want to punch the air and sing along to "Missing You", he'll be out there, giving it to them.
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