Johnny Suede (1991) on Netflix
Johnny Suede aims to be a rock 'n' roll idol like Ricky Nelson. He lacks black suede shoes. They land on a phone booth, and he meets Darlette, whose boyfriend is armed.
- Netflix2.3/5
- IMDb5.7/104,765 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes33%
Trailer
Plot summary
Johnny Suede wears an immense pompadour, owns a guitar, and has friends who will play backup for him, and he means to be a rock 'n' roll idol like Ricky Nelson. What he thinks he still needs is a pair of black suede shoes. Footwear of that kind appears on the phone booth he has just used. He also meets Darlette, a bohemian woman he sleeps with, though her boyfriend is jealous, abusive and armed. Money is short, and Johnny pawns his guitar to cover his rent; Deke lends him enough to reclaim it, and the two put a band together.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Johnny Suede (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was entered into competition at the Locarno International Film Festival, where Miramax's Mark Tusk saw it and, convinced Pitt would become a film star, urged Harvey Weinstein to take the unprecedented step of purchasing the rights to a film he had not yet seen.
- Casting in Los Angeles in August 1989, DiCillo saw Brad Pitt as the second to last guy seen; Pitt's resume held only a small Canadian TV series and "something called Thelma and Louise that no one had heard about because it hadn't even been edited yet".
- Original music for the film was performed by rockabilly guitar legend Link Wray. A version later released on Netflix removed 8 minutes of Wray's music; DiCillo objected and was allowed to re-edit the film himself, removing scenes and voiceover that the distributor had added.
