Rockabilly at the movies

You know that at Corbeto’s Boots our main passion is the cowboy fashion. But we can’t deny that we feel some attraction by the rockabilly style. For that reason, at our store will find more than a hundredth of references for rockabilly accessories and clothing. From a whole collection of embroidered patches to genuine and elegant rockabilly shirts.

And the thing is that this rebel but nostalgic aura that shroud this style, has converted it in something apparently not much commercial but also very popular. And also, can’t deny its important influence in the culture and society in general. Its music, rebel elegance, what to say about its hairstyle (the quiff and sideburn that come back time after time), all are everlasting examples that will stay forever. As sample of its importance in the popular culture, today we will do a little tour around the rockabilly movies. It will be a nostalgic tour, but will also demonstrate how rockabilly has always been in our lives.

The Wanderers

Based on the book with the same name written by Richard Price and directed by Philip Kaufman in 1979, The Wanderers place us in 1963’s New York to explain the history of the Italian band “The Wanderers”. Focusing around a football match that put together different gangs, Kaufman shows us how the violence use to be easiest way to solve conflicts at the Bronx.

The Outsiders

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1983 and played by unknown at that time Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio and Emilio Estévez, The Outsiders is the film adaptation for the novel with the same name written by S. E. Hinton.

It narrates Ponyboy Curtis history, a 14 years old lower class boy that lives in Tulsa (Oklahoma), and that together with his two brothers Sodapop and Darry and the rest of his friends form the Greasers gang. Between them and the Socs, wealthy family’s youngsters owners of big companies, has always existed rivalry, easily solved with fights. All will change when tension blows.

Grease

Cult movie and one of all times most popular movies, Grease was the love history that catapulted John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John to fame putting the rockabilly style in the highest.

Directed in 1978 by Randal Kleiser and based in the musical with the same name from 1971, is probably the rockabilly movie “par excellence” in the popular thinking.

Mistery Train

Directed by the eclectic Jim Jarmusch in 1989, Mistery Train is an anthological independent film formed by a three-part-history that involve different characters in the course of the same night. The first segment, “Far from Yokohama” presents a Japanese couple on a cultural pilgrimage; the second “A Ghost” focuses on an Italian widow living in the street during the night and the last one “Lost in Space” follows a single and unemployed British misfortune and his mates. The three stories are linked by a flophouse in ruins supervised by a nighttime employee and a scruffy bellboy, use of Elvis Presley’s “Blue Moon” song and a gunshot.

Rebel Witout a Cause

Although strictly speaking is not a rockabilly film, the time, protagonist’s esthetic and attitude approaches us to the style. Only the music is missing. Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean and Natalie Wood was directed by Nicholas Ray in 1955 based on the book Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath from psychiatrist Robert M. Lindner. A cinema’s classic.

Roadracers

Roadracers is a TV movie directed by Robert Rodriguez in 1994, his second full-length film after his debut success in 1992 with The Mariachi. It tells us about a rebel greaser called Dude Delaney that dreams with leaving his small village with no future and become a rockabilly star, but he gets involved in troubles with the local sheriff and his son.

American Grafiti

Co-written and directed by George Lucas in 1973 and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Bo Hopkins, American Graffiti started off with the wrong foot. Lucas had problems to find funding for his movie. But ended becoming the most profitable in cinema’s history.

It tells us the history of a group of teenagers and their adventures in the passing of a single night to conduct a cruising and rocker culture study.

And there are still many movies like The Loveless with William Dafoe, dancing movies like The Swing Kids, romance movies like Deuce of Spades, biographies like Walk the Line (Johnny Cash biography), Ray (Ray Charles life), Great balls of fire! (Jerry Lee Lewis) or Cadillac Records; fantastic like the iconic Streets of Fire; curiosities like the Argentinian Rockabilly; and all movies from the great Elvis Presley.

And remember that at Corbeto’s Boots will find a great selection of rockabilly accessories and clothing: rockabilly shirts, patches, shoes, collar tips, rings, colonel ties, etc. You can visit our store at Las ramblas or our online shop.