Around The Fire

Around the Fire
USA, 1998; 107 minutes
Director: John Jacobsen
Screenplay: Tommy Rosen, John Comerford
Cast: Devon Sawa, Eric Mabius, Tara Reid

Reviewed by:
The Grateful Dead Almanac

Up until now, the Almanac has made no forays into the field of film criticism. And while we don't expect to become much competition for Roger Ebert, we do want to let you know about a new film scheduled to turn up at one of those proverbial theaters near you beginning in March. It's called Around the Fire, and it's a deeply touching, often funny and honest depiction of people and places that many of you will doubtless find familiar -- indeed, you may feel that you're seeing some of your own life story up on the screen.

Around the Fire tells the story of Simon Harris, a smart, sensitive alienated kid, unable to fit in at high school, or to satisfy the rigid expectations of his businessman father. Exiled to boarding school after a brush with the law, he's befriended by Andrew, a likeminded misfit who turns Simon on to a world of new, exciting and liberating experiences. Most significantly, Andrew introduces Simon to a nomadic group of people that make him feel, for the first time in his life, like part of a true community. These new friends seek freedom, fun, and spiritual nourishment through music, by following a much-beloved rock band as it tours the country. The band in question remains on the periphery of the film, never seen or named, but the world Simon steps into will be immediately recognizable to anyone who spent any time touring with the Grateful Dead, or any of the younger "jam bands" that followed in the Dead's wake. Simon falls in love with his new life -- and with a beautiful and free-spirited young hippie named Jennifer. But he has a hard time dealing with the responsibility that comes with freedom, and falls prey to some of the less healthy temptations and pitfalls of the scene, alienating those who love him most in the process. Simon's struggle to achieve reconciliation with his adopted family, with his real one, and, most crucially, with himself, lies at the center of Around the Fire, a film which both celebrates the joys of the touring life and looks compassionately but unflinchingly at that life's darker side, without ever becoming judgmental or preachy.

The two men most responsible for the creation of Around the Fire -- the writing/producing team of Tommy Rosen and John Comerford -- brought a lot of personal experience to the project. The two longtime friends spent much of the 80s and early 90s attending Grateful Dead shows and hanging out in the surrounding scene. Many of the characters in the film, Tommy Rosen told the Almanac, were patterned closely on people that he and Comerford encountered in their travels: "The character called Trace was based on a guy named Steve Hutchings, known as Mark Steve on tour," Rosen notes, "and Simon's friend Kevin was inspired by our pal Kevin Cunningham. Sadly, both Steve and Kevin have passed away, so the characters are a tribute to them." Rosen notes that Jennifer is "a combination of several of the beautiful sisters that we met, and Simon is a conglomeration of John and myself."

Given the familiarity of the screenwriters with the subject matter, it is not surprising that the film captures life on tour in such loving and accurate detail -- you can practically smell that veggie stir-fry in the parking lot! What is surprising indeed -- startling, really, given the quality of the work -- is the fact that Rosen and Comerford, although they had both worked in film, had neither written nor produced a movie before. While they were still fine-tuning the screenplay (which they began in early 1995 and "rewrote about 20 times" according to Rosen), they set about the everdaunting task of financing the film. This involved everything from bank loans to maxed-out credit cards to soliciting investments from among Deadheads. Once the money was raised, the producers faced the independent filmmaker's eternal dilemma: making a film as cheaply as possible without allowing it to look cheap. Around the Fire succeeds beautifully in that area, thanks to the efforts of a talented and resourceful team: John Jacobson, a seasoned theater director with much experience in film production, making his feature directorial debut; cinematographer Eliot Rocket; editor Brian Berdan; and a devoted crew that worked long, long hours to get the job done right.

B.C. Smith contributed a fine original score, featuring standout performances by the brilliant guitarist Bill Frisell. The soundtrack also features songs by Bob Marley, Phish, The Meters, Blind Faith and many more -- and the Dead are represented, too, in one of the film's funniest scenes.

Finally, Rosen and Comerford were blessed with a superb cast, combining seasoned pros with rising young stars: Devon Sawa (best known for Idle Hands and SLC Punk) as Simon; Tara Reid (The Big Lebowski, American Pie) as Jennifer; Eric Mabius (I Shot Andy Warhol); Bill Smitrovich (Air Force One and TV's Life Goes On) as Simon's dad; Charlayne Woodward (award-winning stage actress) as a tough but compassionate counselor who takes an interest in Simon; plus Colman Domingo as Trace and Henri Lubatti as Kevin. There's also a diggity-dank cameo by the one and only Manny the Hippie and maybe even a fleeting appearance by one of your old tour buddies, as many Deadheads answered the call for extras in the crowd scenes, filmed at various Bay Area locations including the Deadhead-friendly confines of Oakland's Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium.

Now, the hardest part done and several triumphant film festival screenings under their belt, the makers of Around the Fire eagerly await the reaction of audiences everywhere. We suspect they will be quite similar to that of our friend Steve Silberman, an editor of Wired Magazine and one of the producers of the Grateful Dead box set So Many Roads (1965-1995), who recently wrote:

"It's a film for anyone interested in what it takes to become an authentic human being by walking the often difficult road toward love, honesty, and self-acceptance."

To find out more about Around the Fire visit the film's official website: www.aroundthefire.com