Who is this based on?
Says based on a true story. Whose?
shareSteve tiltson.
sharewho?
share
MovieChat Forums > Danny Collins (2015) Discussion > Who is this based on?
Just to add and clarify, it's not "based" on a true story, but merely "inspired". It doesn't at all try to show Steve Tilston's life; rather, it uses the letter from Lennon as inspiration for a significantly different story.
shareI wondered about that too. I thought Danny Collins was a real person, but it was about Steve Tilson, you are right.
shareThey showed the real guy as the credits were rolling, talking about getting the letter.
Look at us. You pretending to be me, signing a book I didn't even write. -Selina Meyer
"Who is this based on?"
Hmmm... That's a bit of a toughie...
The part about the letter from Lennon was DEFINATELY about little-known early 70's folk singer Steve Tilston.
But Steve Tilston never went on to become a commercial success.
Instead the filmmaker's have chosen to have Danny's character go on to be a bit of a Neil Diamond-type character.
FOR EXAMPLE:
1.He's known for adult contemporary/easy listening-type standards.
2.Flamboyant dresser (...maybe not so much now with Neil - but remember all those spangly shirts from The Jazz Singer era?)
3.His current audience consists of mostly older women.
4.Did you hear how much his biggest hit "Hey Baby Doll" sounded exactly like "Sweet Caroline"? (You could sing one on top of the other.)
5.It's implied that Danny's many hits were never really all that critically acclaimed and that he was generally regarded by critics as "a lightweight".
Having said that I feel almost obligated to apologize to Neil Diamond for that comparison. While the points made above were definite similarities between the two, there are also big differences:
1.Danny's character hasn't written a new song in 30+ years whereas 3 of the last 4 Neil Diamond albums have contained all new original material and have been probably the most critically acclaimed of his entire career. (His 2008 "Home Before Dark" album even got to #1.)
2.The drug & alcohol problems that Danny has have NOTHING to do with Neil Diamond.
P.S. Just for the record, I personally have NEVER considered Neil Diamond "a lightweight" but I know there are a good many critics out there who have.
Neil diamond yes but also I think also Barry manilow or rod Stewart.
shareHey, when Rod was with Jeff Beck and later with The Faces he was the genuine article. He sold out and started singing Standards and Ballads to keep the ole cash flow going---it worked--his net worth is $235 million.
Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection. Send my credentials to the house of detention.
There was a good 25 years worth of really great solo stuff between the Faces ('75) and the first "Standards" album (early 2000's). Sure - there were ballads among the solo stuff. But ballads like "The First Cut is the Deepest", "I Was Only Joking", "You're in My Heart", "Tonight's The Night", "The Killing of Georgie", "I Don't Wanna Talk About It", "Broken Arrow" and a number of others were great stuff.
Sure there were some losers in the mix (i.e. "Love Touch", "Have I Told You Lately...", etc.) But on balance there was far more "great" than "bad".
neil was a success already in 1971 and was the same age as lennon.
shareThe film was "inspired" by Steve Tilston who did get a letter from Lennon, the rest is fiction.
I feel like Steve Tilston is a fake cover. He wasn't as continually successful as it's implied Danny Collins is, and most of all, he hasn't shown major signs of having an imbalanced personality. On top of that he's British, not American, which does matter.
Obviously the letter he got was the original idea for the movie, but the personality of Danny Collins has been inspired by others than Steve Tilston.
There are good answers in this thread who might fit that description, but I'd just like to add another similarity:
Take Brad Delp (of Boston) and reverse his personality and you basically have this character.
He actually did commit suicide in 2007 stating "I am a lonely soul".
He was widely regarded as a friendly and welcoming personality.
He had a genuine passion for the Beatles that he kept going through the years.
It's really sad for us as a civilisation that we keep losing all these creative engimas. I'll just end with a quote by Alan Watts (an-ironic self-fulfilling prophecy perhaps that he didn't manage to live up to it himself) that I think is true for all humans and has always been:
"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance"