For the Love of Spock

For The Love of Spock is one of the best if not the best documentary I have had the pleasure of seeing. I grew up with Mr. Spock and I thought with Leanord Nimoy as well. I am not going to spoil this for but I really had no idea of, let me say, mutliple facets of this wonderful actor and a good man. Adam Nimoy, Leanords son, has done an outstanding job of letting us see inside his fathers life. On a personal level I found out some things about Leanord that I can commiserate with. I don't believe this will qualify as a surprise in describing a discussion Leanord was having about where the Vulcan gretting and statement came from. What took me by surprise is that after a few weeks he started seeing a significant number of people just on the street who had taken up the greeting and would sign to him. Let me end by saying this is a documentary you should not miss and we will miss you Leonard.

This documentary about the life of Leonard Nimoy was entertaining and informative. I thought I knew a lot about the man and his career, but had many "I didn't know that" moments, as I imagine will most Trekkies and other fans. The film focuses on the man and his many diverse achievements, but avoided the false light of perfection, showing Leonard's ability to experience setbacks and grow throughout his life, both professionally and personally. Putting celebrities on pedestals isn't good for us or them and this film avoids doing that. The film is honest in ways that will undoubtedly surprise many. Leonard Nimoy is not synonymous with Spock, but even hardcore Trekkies should enjoy depth of the film and learning more about the man, rather than just the character. A big "bravo!" to Director Adam Nimoy, aka Son of Spock, and his team.

In 2015, Leonard Nimoy passed away at the age of 83 in Los Angeles after a successful career especially in the role of Mr. Spock, the science officer and first office of the star-ship Enterprise from the original Star Trek series. His son, the unknown director Adam Nimoy, sees the chance to show to the fans a little of the history of his father through interviews of various fellow actors, actresses, directors, personalities and fans of Star Trek and Spock and footage of home videos. The documentary is mandatory for any fan and gives nostalgia from the period when the series was broadcast for the first time. It could be shorter since the participation of the cast of "The Big Bang Theory" is excessive and uninteresting. In the end, "For the Love of Spock" is a great homage to the beloved character and cult-actor. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not available

A wonderful refection on Leonard Nimoy's career as told by the person who knew him the best, his son. We get material that we've seen before, stories we've heard before but by hearing it from Adam Nimoy's perspective, a telling closure is afforded to all involved.

The problem with making this kind of documentary is that it is discussing the entire lifetime of a very popular and well-known person. On top of that we have the character he played. Even at nearly two hours it seems to only scratch the surface of anything.

Although titled "For the Love of Spock" this documentary is more about Leonard Nimoy than it is Spock. A great deal is discussed about Nimoy himself and his relationships, but what really stands out here is what is largely missing: the evolution of the Spock character (touched on but lots untouched), Nimoy's period of disillusionment with the character ("I Am Not Spock"... given only "cameo portrait" here), why he returned to loving and embracing the character, his major achievements outside the Star Trek role, etc etc.

No matter how hard this documentary may try, it simply could not cover it all. This could be a miniseries, each part discussing a certain aspect of Nimoy and/or the Spock character.

But as it stands, this documentary helps us gain some insight into Nimoy (which I'm sure was the primary interest of viewers), was strikingly honest in its portrayal (the director himself, Nimoy's son, admitting major flaws in his relationship with Leonard... a fairly gutsy thing to do), and brief but earnest interviews with those closest to Leonard. I'm sure there is a TON of information they had to discard in this... enough to make several more documentaries.

I personally find it sad that this couldn't have been kept to a family-friendly format. A couple of F-bombs and some nude photos aren't all that unusual these days and most kids have probably seen far worse on the Net... but still one wishes directors would show just a bit more wisdom in creating something that is appropriate for ALL ages... especially something like this, which may be of some historical interest.

So while not perfect (how could it be?) it is still a well-done documentary. What it does cover it covers well, and it attempts to be as diverse as possible within a less-than-2-hour time slot. There's only so much that one can do when documenting such a complex person and such a diverse and outstanding career.

The one point it made that honed in best with my take on this: if we were to point at one single character that has shaped our modern world and propelled millions of people to accept science fiction as mainstream rather than the "nerd genre" it was once considered... it would be Spock. Yes, Star Trek itself and Nimoy was only part of that history-making concept. But the role of Spock was pivotal; that role was created by Roddenberry and then re-created by Nimoy. It wasn't until the advent of Star Wars some 9 years later that science fiction gained respect and went mainstream. During that time Star Trek was serialized and prepared an international audience for mainstream acceptance of science fiction. I saw that happen, over night, and it was very impressive.

But this review isn't about the Spock character, or Nimoy himself. It's about this documentary and whether or not it was well-done and successful. I think within the limited scope of what it could present in the time slot allotted, yes it was very well done. Had it been 6 hours long, totally family-friendly and covered more of the Spock phenomena, I may have easily given it 10 stars.