The Who: The Kids Are Alright

While "The Last Waltz" is usually the critics' favorite rock movie, "The Kids Are Alright" has always done it for me. Basically, we have a career overview of one of the greatest rock bands ever, with numerous characteristics that make it truly exceptional.

Here's what makes this movie really unique: First, it was made by a fan, which gives it a fan's perspective (often more perceptive than a band's own self-image or, needless to say, the perception of a record company employee). But more importantly, the Who, always one of the most "down-to-earth" (and self-critical) rock bands, were willing to co-operate with the filmmaker (Jeff Stein), even going so far as to perform two exclusive concerts for the purpose of filming.

The movie thus comes together as a fan's dream: a comprehensive selection of live clips that span the band's career up to that point (including brilliant early footage and such career-defining performances as Woodstock and the band's appearance on the Smothers Brothers' TV show), along with truly insightful interview footage.

One comes away from this movie with a genuine appreciation for the combination of creativity and humility that really made the Who unique among "superstar" rock bands. Can you imagine Led Zeppelin referring to their own work as crap in the middle of "The Song Remains The Same"? The Beatles created their own career-spanning retrospective 15 years later with "The Beatles Anthology", but that film, made 25 years after the band broke up, seems much more concerned with defining and cementing the band's place in history (especially the McCartney interview segments) than with presenting the band "warts and all".

Even in "The Last Waltz", while much of The Band is somewhat disparaging about their early careers, there is still a real sense that Scorcese and Robertson are attempting to define a historically significant moment in time rather than just capturing The Band as it was (I've read that the rest of the Band members didn't even know Robertson was planning to break up the Band until after the concert!).

By contrast, "The Kids Are Alright" provides us with a refreshingly honest portrait of a band who have always tried to be honest with their fans. By combining the perceptive eye of a true fan with a cooperative band who weren't concerned with protecting (or defining) their "image", we are left with a true rarity: a documentary on a "superstar" that is neither concerned with deifying nor tearing down its subject, but instead gives us a truly satisfying (and entertaining) portrait. Plus, some of the best "70s Arena Rock" ever recorded! All in all, it adds up to a minor masterpiece.

The object of any great concert film is to convince you, at least for the span of the movie, that the subject is The Greatest Rock Band in the World. If The Kids Are Alright doesn't succeed in that goal as completely as Jonathan Demme's sensational Stop Making Sense, that's hardly the fault of The Who-- few performers have labored harder in the name of fan service.

Though engaging and highly watchable, The Kids Are Alright stays a minor affair, documentary-wise. Here and there it flirts with insight. We catch a bit of Keith Moon palling around with fellow alcoholic Ringo Starr ("We're just taking our medicine, children!") in a bit that foreshadows tragedy without actually catching the weight of it. We get a laugh from Pete Townshend's startled "Eh?" at being confronted with his own lyrics ("...hope I die before I get old..."). But the between-music bits of the film offer little substance; they're just filler.

But there's an early clip of the band performing in a club, in which we cut to Moon, drumming his heart out, already in hyperdrive-- and then, impossibly, he starts going faster. His face is upturned in spiritual abandon, his hands simply disappear. And, in a phenomenal rendering of Baba O'Reilly, you see Townshend dancing in genuine and infectious ecstasy over John Entwhistle's thunderous bass line. And in an epic performance of Won't Get Fooled Again, we finally understand the sheer force of The Who-- the lights go out around six minutes in for the synth solo. Then the drums kick in, gathering our heartbeats with it. The lights come on: Roger Daltrey is screaming, and Townshend is in midair, and we are with him, transported, levitating.

These were men who enjoyed their work. And for these five-to-ten minute stretches, we are watching The Greatest Rock Band in the World. Worth the price of admission.

This 2-disc DVD is an absolute essential for any Who fan and perhaps the only documentary film ever made that captures the essence of rock'n'roll's importance to youth culture. Its brilliance largely belongs to the irresistibly appealing personalities and unparalleled live performances of the Who, but can also be partially attributed to director Jeff Stein, who was a nineteen year-old fledgling photographer and Who freak in 1978 when he persuaded the group to front him the cash to make a movie. What results is a warts 'n' all portrait of the most honest, inspired, and inspiring of rock's superheroes.

The film begins with the now-infamous performance of 'My Generation' on the Smothers Brothers show and never slows down. Included are hilarious outtakes of staged antics originally intended for a Monkees-style TV show that never aired, a wonderfully irreverent segment featuring John Entwistle using gold records for target practice on the lawn of his estate, priceless video and still photography of Keith Moon at his hotel room-smashing best, and vintage interview material with Townshend, charting his development from insolent young mod (at one point, when asked to comment on the relative quality of the Beatles' music by a smug British TV host, he refers to the Fab Four as "flippin' lousy") to a soul-searching artist trying to find meaningful space for himself in a form he fears he has outgrown. There are liberal doses from 'Tommy' and 'Who's Next,' but equal attention is paid to the group's early mod years and their more radio-friendly late-seventies era releases. Included in its entirety is the group's performance of 'A Quick One' from "The Rolling Stones' Rock 'n' Roll Circus," a TV show produced by the Stones which was never aired due to the Stones' opinion that they had been badly upstaged by the Who (only a fragment of the same clip was featured in the theatrical release of the film due to copyright restrictions). Surprisingly absent is any material from 'Quadrophenia,' an unexplained omission but one that doesn't really glare given that the footage is not arranged chronologically.

None of the Who's studio releases ever equaled their brilliance onstage, and Stein loads the film with impossibly hot concert footage, including mind-blowing performances (some borrowed from the Woodstock film) of live staples 'Young Man Blues,' 'Pinball Wizard,' 'See Me Feel Me/Listening to You,' and 'Sparks.'

Indirectly, 'The Kids are Alright' is also a cautionary tale: we see Moon transformed in a mere ten years from a lean young prankster into a bloated caricature of himself (Moon died shortly before the film was released; his last performance with the group was the concert at Shepperton Studios staged for the film at Jeff Stein's request). We see Townshend joking about his hearing loss and struggling with his fear of growing old and irrelevant. Entwistle dryly remarks, 'I'm too old to enjoy my money;' Roger Daltrey dismisses the cultural importance of rock music, stating flatly that 'it doesn't stand up.' Townshend confesses his frustration at the pressure he feels to satisfy the expectations of the group's army of frenzied fans. By the end, the group seems weary of itself and its overblown reputation.

Nevertheless, the film ends on a note of triumph, with a manic encore at Shepperton of "Won't Get Fooled Again," climaxing with a slo-mo shot of Townshend leaping and then sliding across the stage on his knees, followed by an end-credit coda of "Rock is Dead (Long Live Rock)". The DVD set includes director commentary, a recent interview with Daltrey, Who trivia quizzes, and isolated tracks of John Entwistle's extraordinary bass work on several classic tunes.

Definitive evidence of the Who's stature as one of the most influential and inimitable of the titans of rock. Anyone who loves the power and energy of a live rock performance will come away from this film slack-jawed and looking around for a guitar to smash.

In some ways this is best the movie ever. Errrm... make that one way. Let me put it this way. If you're as big a fan of The Who as I am, The Kids Are Alright is as alright as movies get. Director Jeff Stein was probably an even bigger Who-fan than yours truly, and you get that vibe from every aspect of the movie: the chosen footage, the editing and the chosen narrative (or lack thereof) chosen. TKAA is a documentary, but unlike documentary-makers fashionable today Stein didn't set out to make his points in a Michael Moore-ish style, with himself as the narrating voice-over and on-screen interviewer. Stein lets the footage speak for itself, only slightly suggesting conclusions that can be made through editing, and only once serving as an off-screen interviewer.

If there is one point Stein tries to make, it is that the Who were the most interesting/wild/intelligent/contradictory/refined/loony/crude Rock 'n' Roll band in the world. And therefore the most fascinating. He didn't have to turn to the viewer and say that in person: the Who themselves are their own best spokespeople. The Kids Are Alright isn't ABOUT the Who, it IS the Who. The a-chronological editing, live as well as mimed performances and contradictory quotes spanning two decades make a rich collage of fifteen years of Rock 'n' Roll mayhem.

Editing was Stein's weapon of choice to make TKAA a double-edged sword. People can try to find a deeper meaning in the director's decisions and/or draw their own conclusions. Or you can just kick back and relax and let it be the ultimate party-DVD. Watching this movie, you really get the sensation of hanging with the Who, addiction, hearing problems, impromptu strip sessions and all. And with Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Pete Townshend around, there's never a dull moment.

Maybe being such a fanatic of the Who I'm downright dogmatic in my beliefs that this is a great 70's rock film. The performances are exciting. Pete Townshend dishes out philosophy of rock music that only he can. The editing is quick so the movie never drags(i.e.The song remains the same) Many of the scenes are downright funny. Not only is it a movie that shows how talented the Who were as a band. It shows they could put on a great performance off stage as well( such as being interviewed) It's probably one of the very few rock movies from the 70's that has charm. Even though I do think it helps to be a big fan when watching it. But I think that's true of any rock movie or concert video.