1) Who was "John Murray" based on? Was there a real magazine editor/DJ like him, or was he a compendium of several figures? 2) If he appreciated Denise's talent so much, why did he mess her over like that? It looked like he saw her as more than just a good time, but he couldn't even be straight with her about his leaving. Thanks!
shareI saw him as based on Burt Bacharach, who had as his mistress in the early 1980's Carole Bayer Sager. Sager also contributed songs to the movie. This movie is a thinly-veiled account of the NYC "Brill Building" gang with the main character based mostly on Carole King. I've always wondered how Carole King felt about all her friends, and HER EX-HUSBAND, agreeing to work on an unauthorized bio-pic of her life.
shareAdendum: Murray the DJ is also based on the 1960's local NYC deejay Murray the K. So Bruce Davidson's Murray is a combo of Murray the K and Burt Bacharach.
shareThis movie isn't an unauthorized biography of Carole King.
NONE of the characters in this film can be taken literally, they are simply composites of the Brill Building songwriters and others in the New York City and California music scene from the early through mid 1960s.
Surely anyone who's a fan of Carole King and Brian Wilson knows Carole never dated Brian, let alone married him.
All the characters are simply amalgamations of Phil Spector, Carole King & Gerry Goffin, Brian Wilson and Lesley Gore.
I can't figure out who the blond British woman played by Patsy Kensit is supposed to be, Jackie DeShannon? Though Jackie isn't British, she did live in England for awhile, in fact she lived with Jimmy Page! (Trivia: Page wrote "Tangerine" about and for Jackie)
This film shouldn't be taken as a literal biography about Carole King, it's simply a depiction of that era in American pop music.
Elvis Costello and Burt Bachrach should have won an Oscar for "God Give Me Strength", I don't know if the song was even nominated!
Most film soundtracks don't even reach the artistic and musical level of this song nor do they complement a film like this song did. If "God Give Me Strength" wasn't nominated, it's simply because this film was pretty much ignored.
The Academy doesn't seem to nominate songs unless they're from nominated films.