It's late 50's Britain. Jim MacLaine (David Essex) is a smart restless teen. His father came home after the war but left the family when he was a kid. He grew up with his mother (Rosemary Leach) and grandfather who has a small general store. He quits school and runs away to a nearby coastal vacation town. He works odd jobs and befriends fellow worker Mike (Ringo Starr). The aloft teenager becomes a lady's man working at the carnival.

Some considers this a fictional story inspired by pre-Beatles John Lennon. I think the involvement of Ringo Starr had led people to make that connection. I have to say that this is no John Lennon. He's a sad angry character. In fact, I wondered if the film was going to push him over the edge to become a serial killer. More than anything, he doesn't play an instrument until the last scene suggests it. He writes some poetry which could be song lyrics but I envision Lennon to be much more musical than this.

This is simply a dark coming-of-age story. His restlessness fits both the 50's and the 70's. There is something compelling about David Essex's performance and something off-putting. It's compelling. The story meanders but so does Jim. This is a fascinating British film.

Probably the best portrayal of the '50s rebel culture has working-class Brit Jim MacLaine (David Essex) with a chip on his shoulder - due to his father abandoning the family - and doesn't care about school; he's into rock 'n' roll. His friend Mike (Ringo Starr) is no more responsible but gets Jim some jobs. But after everything, Jim sees fit only - and I mean ONLY - to play music.

Aside from the fact that this was a really good movie, I should identify that there was a sequel called "Stardust". I've never seen that one, as it's never been released on DVD. WHY NOT?! Considering how good this one was, why can't the latter get released on DVD?!

Set in a plausibly dreary and defiantly anti-nostalgic late 50's era Britian, this grimly serious kitchen sink drama relates the turbulent up and down tale of one Jim MacLaine (superbly played by David Essex of "Rock On" fame),a discontent working class bloke who wants to be a rock star so he can successfully transcend the dismally unrewarding banality of plain old normal bourgeoisie existence and live a free, spontaneous, not attached to any heavy responsibility life. Jim drops out of school and moves out of his mother's house. He winds up going nowhere slowly, selling beach chairs on the arid shore in order to scrape by, until a shrewd smoothie busboy (Ringo Starr in a surprisingly excellent performance) takes the shy, naive Jim under his wing and teaches the heretofore sweet, guileless lad the fine art of picking up girls and gypping patrons at the local carnival of their spare change. Pretty soon Jim degenerates into a cold, heartless womanizing cad who's incapable of commitment and, as long as he refuses to settle down, just a few steps away from the fame he seeks.

Loosely based on John Lennon's actual early exploits, with an outstanding golden oldies soundtrack and a rough, seedy, marvelously unglamorous and unromanticized depiction of the 50's, "That'll Be the Day" offers an engrossingly seamy and minutely detailed evocation of drab blue collar life, chiefly centering on the pertinent role rock music plays in serving as an outlet for overcoming the horrid ordinariness of said average lifestyle. Claude Whatham's astutely observant direction delivers a striking wealth of piquant incidental touches -- the ghastly shabbiness of Jim's cheap apartment, the faulty, out-of-tune speakers at a rundown dance hall, the grungy sleaziness of the fairground Jim works at, an incredibly cheerless wedding reception -- which in turn brings a splendidly gritty, lived-in conviction to Ray Connelly's meticulous, unsparingly downbeat script. Moreover, the acting is uniformly top-notch (Essex's finely underplayed characterization is especially strong),with commendable work turned in by Rosemary Leach as Jim's doting, concerned mother, James Booth as Jim's restless and unreliable absentee deadbeat dad, and Billy Fury as hotshot lounge singer extraordinaire Stormy Tempest. A sterling cinematic testament to rock music's undying allure and magical ability to create hope in an otherwise bleak and thankless world.