Hang on Sloopy: The Movie has a mysterious femme and a world-class band. This is a documentary? Well, it's more like a thriller.
Hang on Sloopy: The Movie
Directors: Dave Whinham and Brian Grady
Screenplay: Whinham, Grady
Cast: Rick Derringer, The McCoys, Dr. Paul Droste, The Ohio State Marching Band, et al.
Runtime: 68 min.
by John DeSando
I usually avoid sports events possibly out of fear of liking them so much I’ll forsake my beloved movies and theater. Include in that avoidance any documentaries about a song and sports. Yet, who better than I to review the song-sport doc, Hang on Sloopy: The Movie. You know I’ll be unhappy and give you the straight up estimate with a sure dose of sarcasm.
Sorry to disappoint you—this is a top-tier documentary, one of the best of the year, ranking with two of my favs, Undefeated and Gimme Shelter. OK, although there’s none of the Shelter gratuitous drama, there’s a good measure of sharp thriller as the principals, not the least being rocker Rick Derringer and OSU Marching Band legend, Dr. Paul Droste, try unsuccessfully to determine once and for all who Sloopy is.
Directors/writers Dave Whinham and Brian Grady make the interesting history of Ohio’s official rock song even more intriguing by identifying Sloopy as a loose woman, a wimpy dog, or maybe Donald Trump? (I’m kidding about the last one--he’s everywhere.) It would have been good enough just to tell how this catchy tune went from rock song 50 years ago into the DNA of every OSU fan in the land forever. No one in Ohio and Michigan, or the world, for that matter, is exempt from its influence.
Besides the very cool mystery of Sloopy’s identity, the film offers some crisp archival footage of its rock origin and the eventual marriage of Sloopy to OSU. Although the story drags some in its latter half with a bit of repetition, it remains an entertaining and informative documentary throughout.
Praise to director of photography Ryan Nord, Joshua Kun and his cinematography gang, and Kun, Dan Hildebrand, and their crew for editing about as smooth as anyone could hope for when working with talking heads and old footage.
Hang on Sloopy: The Movie is a melodic reminiscence, a spicy thriller, and a harbinger of more entertaining films from two writer-directors who know their subjects and their passions well.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
