BEFORE: David Bowie carries over from "David Bowie: Out of This World", and so you see my reasoning for including the shitty doc, to compare and contrast with the better (?) one. Because I did the doc block early last year, "Moonage Daydream" has been taking up space on my DVR since last June, so it's way past time to clear it. So this just HAD to be in the Block this year, the question just became, where does it fit in? A solution presented itself when tomorrow's doc subject appeared in the archive footage in today's film, and so ending the rock section with this one was the only way to link to THAT one. Got it?
THE PLOT: A cinematic odyssey exploring David Bowie's creative and musical journey.
AFTER: Let's face it, a straight documentary just isn't going to get it done when it comes to David Bowie - how do you cram everything important in a 50-year career into 90 minutes of facts, without leaving out half of the important stuff? Which is the important stuff, anyway? No matter what you do, clips of his best songs are going to take up half the time, and then which interviews do you use sound bites from? The ones where he said he was gay or the ones where he said he was straight? And then how do you even know if he was telling the truth, or just putting everyone on? Then do you even get into his painting career, when most people don't even know that he painted? Do you include the Tin Machine songs, when most people don't even listen to them? Where do you start drawing the lines around someone who just refused to be contained by them?
The perhaps unique approach here is to just ignore all facts, labels and lines and present the man's career as a journey, rather than a series of dates and things done. Evolution is a constant process, we're all growing, aging, changing from the day we're born right up until we die, so maybe let's focus on the journey, not the stops along the way. You can't look directly at the sun, especially during an eclipse, you need a filter or you need to look at an image of the thing, not the thing itself. If we walk away with an impression of Bowie, or a number of interpretations of Bowie, we may learn more than by looking at the man himself.
What tells us more about David Bowie's time spent living in West Berlin, for example - a timeline with dates of when he moved there and when he moved away, or hearing Bowie talk about living in a small apartment over a car repair shop, and then footage of German fans singing along with a performance of the song "Heroes"? I'd go for the latter.
Things are roughly arranged chronologically here, like the first few songs are from a concert where he was Ziggy Stardust, but then later in the film things got a bit more fractured, and they cut between the Bowie eras more liberally, I think sometimes within the same song. So it ends up looking a bit like he's accessing the other Bowies from the multiverse, or some kind of "EveryBowie Everywhere All at Once".
I always knew that "Ashes to Ashes" was a follow-up to "Space Oddity", because it gives us an update on what happened to Major Tom, but that came out in 1980, 11 years after "Space Oddity", and there were at least five Bowies in-between - eyepatch Bowie, Thin White Duke Bowie, Fascist Bowie, Berlin "Heroes" Bowie, and Lodger Bowie. Then came "Under Pressure" Bowie and by that time most people either couldn't wait to see which Bowie they'd get next, or they'd given up trying to predict it.
My entry point was probably "Labyrinth Bowie" but of course I was first aware of "Let's Dance" Bowie, (aka Serious Moonlight Bowie) but I didn't get to see him live until the Glass Spider Tour, and so I missed out on Blue Jean Bowie and Absolute Beginners Bowie, Glass Spider was after the 1987 album "Never Let Me Down", with the hits "Day-In-Day-Out" and "Time Will Crawl", which pretty much everyone seems to have forgotten about. Those songs are conspicuously absent from the "Sound + Vision" greatest hits package.
But I remember avoiding the Tin Machine music and then catching up with him again during the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, where Annie Lennox subbed in for Freddie in the duet with Bowie. Powerful stuff - and I can make an argument for saying that maybe Bowie should have packed it in then, because I sure can't tell you any music he released after 1992, but there was apparently a lot of it. I had everything I needed, from "Space Oddity" to "Blue Jean" on my iTunes, and that included "Across the Universe", "Golden Years" and "Somebody Up There Likes Me", so I was set.
But no, he kept at it for another two decades, more power to him, even though he was past the peak, I guess as a senior citizen you've got to keep active physically and keep your mind occupied, otherwise what's the point? If there was a high point in his career for me after 2000, it would be his portrayal of Nikolai Tesla in the movie "The Prestige", the best acting he'd done since "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me".
Anyway, "Moonage Daydream" is the first Bowie documentary/concert film to be authorized by his estate, which means this is how his family wants him to be remembered, in montage form. You can't understand Bowie linearly, in other words, his ever-changing nature and constant cheekiness mixed with reclusiveness won't allow it. You have to cycle through his "chapters" which may or may not be in chronological order, and you have to accept him as a painter, sculptor, actor, performer in addition to musician. All art is art and you don't get to pick and choose and just listen to your favorite Bowie songs, you have to hear "Hallo Spaceboy" in addition to "Starman", "Rock N' Roll with Me" in addition to "All the Young Dudes" and "Moonage Daydream" in addition to "Jean Genie".
Any only by admitting that you didn't really know David Bowie at all can you then come close to understanding him. Umm, I think.
With archive footage of Reeves Gabrels, Mick Ronson (both also carrying over from "David Bowie: Out of This World"), Zack Alford, Carlos Alomar, Gui Andrisano, Jeff Beck (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Brian Eno (ditto), Luther Vandross (ditto), Adrian Belew (last seen in "Zappa"), Trevor Bolder, Ava Cherry, Robin Clark, Dennis Davis, Gail Ann Dorsey, Steve Elson, Greg Errico, Herbie Flowers, Ken Fordham, Mike Garson, Richard Grando, Stan Harrison, Russell Harty, Anthony Hinton, Simon House, John "Hutch" Hutchinson, Michael Kamen (last seen in "Concert for George"), Emir Ksasan, David Lebolt, Geoff MacCormack, Sean Mayes, George Murray, Tony Newman, Lenny Pickett, Roger Powell, Doug Rauch, Carmine Rojas, Pablo Rosario, David Sanborn, Peter Schwartz, Christopher Simms, Frank Simms, Earl Slick, Diane Sumler, Tony Thompson, Brian Wishaw, Mick Woodmansey
Fred Astaire (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Dick Cavett (last seen in "LennoNYC"), Charlie Chaplin (last seen in "Remembering Gene Wilder), Bing Crosby (last seen in "Frank Sinatra: One More for the Road"), Bengt Ekerot (last seen in "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain"), Max von Sydow (ditto), Iman (also last seen in "David Bowie: Out of This World"), Tina Turner (ditto), Tor Johnson, Buster Keaton (last seen in "Lucy and Desi"), Ginger Rogers (ditto), Little Richard (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Lou Reed (also last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Carl Sagan, Elizabeth Taylor (last seen in "Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed")
RATING: 5 out of 10 clips from classic sci-fi and horror films
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