From the Sky Down

I always thought that U2 was the greatest band to come out of the 1980's. Ever since I heard Bono giving it his heart and soul in songs like "New Year's Day" or "Sunday Bloody Sunday" I was hooked. Then along they came with The Joshua Tree. Suddenly they became iconic, almost invincible, it would seem as if they had it all together, that nothing would be able to stop them. Well, it turns out that I was wrong.

After watching U2's latest doc titled "From the Sky Down", I realized that this band and its members almost hit rock bottom after Rattle and Hum was released. They were criticized, scrutinized and they were shaken up to the point where they almost believed what rumors were being said about them. It's incredible how the written word by the press can really destroy a band, a group, a marriage, an actor, a career with just a pen and paper (nowadays, all we need is a popular website like Perez Hilton and blog your heart away and let it immediately go viral for the whole world to see). It never ceases to amaze me the power they have when they write about someone and publish it as the ultimate truth, many a times without actually checking the facts. From The Sky Down explores the many bands that had dissolved over the years: The Clash, Sex Pistols, Van Halen... apparently U2 as well.

After their Lovetown Tour was over in 1989, Bono and Edge were dissatisfied with their sound. They had explored American music, went mainstream and were criticized by the media so they had to reinvent themselves. Their formula had worked up until now but their material was limited and their presence in their concerts was somewhat lacking as Bono admittedly say: they were musically not prepared to go on such a big scale. Just like it happened with Beatlemania, U2 saw themselves bigger than life, too mainstream and popular for their own good and every single thing they were doing was being scrutinized, filmed, recorded until there was too much U2 to go around. They began to run out of steam and so naturally they needed to get away from it all, flew over and headed over to Hansa Studios, Berlin shortly after the Berlin Wall had been knocked down, still Germany was divided in spirit, as well as the band members themselves. It was a difficult time, a confusing time, an end to an era.

READ MY FULL REVIEW IN MY BLOG: ITALO'SCORNER

Why was this documentary made?

In a concert on the Zoo TV tour (i think), Bono gets asked why he dresses up as the devil. He answers by referring to a notion in a book by Christian writer C.S Lewis.

This is what Bono spends his energy thinking about. Different ways to convey his Christian belief.

In the documentary, they state that "Rattle and Hum" was a way for them to show their naivety. I think this is the goal also for this documentary. I think they wan't to diminish their own part in the creative process and show that the ideas came from the sky down.

Maybe it was my reward from my surprise attendance to our mother's birthday party (400km to come), but the great U2 fan i'm only discovered this documentary by zapping channels on TV once the party was over.

Two years ago, when I watched all my U2 DVD and read the books, I remember to have been fed up with their pompous, grandiloquent speeches about themselves. Here, with their new documentary, it's the same thing: OK, they write the best songs, they are nice and respectable individual but hearing them (and especially, Bono) talking about their band is a excruciating moment. So they are exactly what they were told to be at the release of "Rattle & Hum" and this documentary shows that they haven't changed a bit in the following 20 years.

Past "Rattle & Hum", free for always from mundane needs, the band has reached the point when the only effort asked was to get together to produce songs. Strangely, their inspiration almost get drown as well as their Berlin experience was almost a disaster: they left it with barely a handful of songs.

Technically, the documentary reveals two gems: how a song ("one" in this case) found its melody in another one. For those who have listened to "Axtung Baby", they are already accustomed by those experimentations but here, the visual adds emotion. Next, Bono's free composition is funny, from babble to word to lyrics.

In a way, the documentary is interesting because it's an eye opener of how composition can be a painful process. But, regarding to U2, the process is almost a block as they indulge too much time, too much reflexion, too much expectations (= too much money?). When they released "Zooropa", they left all this behind and manage to produce an outstanding album in less than 1 year!

So instead of making books, movies, speeches about themselves and music, they just have to lock themselves in a studio for a month, like a papal conclave! This way, the fans would listen the so famous new album they keep talking the for he past 4 years now!

Like the critics, I too think "Achtung Baby!" is U2's best album, in fact I'd go further and say it's their last good album, though it's not perfect. Obviously the band think so too which is no doubt why they commissioned Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim to create this glossy documentary on the album's genesis, creation and they believe, legacy.

What this film is really about is the band trying to put into context their vainglorious 1988 documentary feature "Rattle And Hum", which one must presume has haunted them for over 20 years and almost justifying its excess by showing how it led to a counter-reaction that took them to Germany's Hansa Studios where Bowie, Eno and Iggy had worked in the late 70's, opportunistically, just as the Berlin Wall was coming down.

Unfortunately, here, as before, they stray far too deeply into the realms of pretentiousness as they analyse every aspect of the chemistry that apparently makes them tick making the mistake of thinking the more they talk about the creative process the more they reveal when in fact all they do is, to paraphrase Pink Floyd, obscure with clouds. Restricting the "cast", as it were, to the band and their clique only increases the insularity with nary a critical word spoken in anger you know when they praise up the drummer way beyond his station that nothing revelatory is going to appear. Indeed it's very obvious that the creative forces in the band are Bono and The Edge, with the other two apparently having an easy ride of it, in fact the ghost of Andrew Ridgeley came to mind.

Call me simple, but I'd have much preferred a "Classic Albums" approach to this material. Here they talk about motivations, frustrations and the general band dynamics of the time, all of which gets in the way of the music and only adds to the aura of self-importance in which this band seems to bathe. Also, sitting through interminable rehearsal tapes, waiting for a revelatory word or chord which turns into a song does not make for gripping viewing - I guess you had to be there at the time.

Honestly after watching this expensive exercise in navel-gazing, the last thing I'd want to do is listen to the album itself, surely defeating the object of the exercise. In fact they're so dull, I wouldn't even want to be in this band, period,

From the Sky Down (2011)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

I'll start off right here stating that I really haven't followed U2 and that I know very little about their music outside the "greatest hits" that are constantly on the radio. I always wanted to dig a little deeper into their music and after seeing this documentary it made me want to do so more than ever. The film's main focus is on the making of the band's 1991 album Acthung Baby, which was a big breaking point for the group. The documentary covers their early career and everything leading up to this album including the various highs. However, as the band states, they put all their money into U2: RATTLE AND HUM, which turned out to be a disaster and the band discusses how this album was really going to either make them or break them. If you're a fan of the band then there's no question that you're going to want to watch this simply due to all the archival information including stock footage of concerts, interviews and of course some behind the scenes stuff. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. are all interviewed about their work on the album, the various troubles the bank faced and of course the end result. There are several memorable moments here but one of the highlights is when we get to hear an early version of a certain song, a reworked version and over a period of time we come to see how it finally got to its finished stages. The band commenting the entire time talking about what it took to get to that point and the various changes along the way. Another strong point is a sequence where the band was on shaky ground and director Dennis Guggenheim has a funny bit where we see other bands who ended up breaking up over much smaller things. The documentary really does do a good job at making the viewer a fly on the wall in terms of everything that went on with the production of the album. There's some excellent moments scattered throughout and only a few moments of blandness.