Research Paper On Almost Famous

“Don’t take drugs!” is the urging sentence we hear as William Miller is dropped off by his mother at the concert that will ultimately change his life. Almost Famous is the story of 15-year-old William Miller, portrayed by Patrick Fugit, a boy who has been bought up by his mother’s fiercely conservative values. William, through talent and ultimately luck, gets assigned by Rolling Stone to write a profile on the rising rock band ‘Stillwater’. No one knows he is 15. The story is semi-autobiographical and is based on the life of the film’s writer-director, Cameron Crowe, who deepened his voice over the phone when he was 15 and managed to score an assignment from Rolling Stone. Almost Famous is set in 1973, during Stillwater’s concert tour, and is established around the years that Crowe spent

William gets along well with both Elaine and Anita, but the two women are continuously at odds with each other. Elaine disapproves greatly of Anita’s lifestyle and her rock albums, going as far to confiscate her Simon and Garfunkel album because it is “poetry of drugs and promiscuous sex” and because they are “on pot”. During the summer, Anita leaves home to become a stewardess. Before she drives away, she says to William “One day, you’ll be cool” and tells him to look under his bed, adding that it’ll set him free. William follows his sisters’ advice and discovers that she has left him her record collection. William flips through various albums, such as Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones, before settling on the Who’s Tommy. A note Anita left falls out and reads, “Listen to Tommy with a candle burning and you’ll see your entire future”. William concedes and the instrumental Sparks begins to play. The next scene consists of a montage of the next few years of William’s life as he becomes obsessed with all things