Viva Amiga

Reviewing a movie or in this case a documentary is always trying to find a balance between personal preference and analyzing facts and trying to come up with a balanced feedback which is useful for others to read.

First things first though; this film project is the result of a Kickstarter that was successfully funded about five years ago (Round about $30,000 or so if I am not mistaken). It took rather long for the movie to be released. The reasons seems to have been mostly due to limited time (the do not quit your day job just yet rational) and the need to find additional funding. No wonder if I look at the nice animations and the content shot not just in the US but also in Europe!

Was it short with just over an hour? Maybe to some it was. I think one hour is about my attention span anyhow so for me (personal opinion) I think it was long enough. I did understand that there is more to come as there is a truckload of footage being shot that never made it to the video as otherwise it would have been 2+ hour movie.. so.. I kind of like this approach of getting us up to speed first before coming with a follow up.

This may not be the documentary for the hardcore geek who likes to see which flavors were available, listing all Commodores sold. No line up of endless machines which were in essence just another Amiga with some incremental changes.. This is about when the Amiga conquered the computer market.

So for who is this movie then?

The intent has always been to make a movie that you as the true geek and Amigan can show your best friends, what this crazy hobby of yours is about, why this Amiga is still in your heart and why the heck you still use it today. It is also the move for the so called Joe Regular who heard of the Amiga and tell the story on how it became this great machine but due to bad marketing and poor management became this cult machine we know today. I thought the interviews were great and hilarious at some point and I appreciated the humor the founders brought with them after all these years to talk about it. Surely it is sad (to me too) to see it never made it to the top as in all honesty, I understand them for being sad as this was the best machine out there at the time. I think the sadness and the joyfulness were pretty nicely balanced throughout the movie and the clips from back when I think were nicely added in. I also liked the focus of it being told from the perspective of the creators and what they envisioned.

If I had to give one point of criticism, it would be the end. Some say maybe it was rushed to an end whereas I feel it was not easy to find a good end. How do you end something like this? Maybe like the Amiga itself.. you leave it open.. it never stopped.. so maybe that was the filmmakers idea.. who knows :)

On a personal note;

For me, the Amiga will always be about the people and I enjoyed this movie in its own right!

This docu was missed over years, i find it very important. One men do the right and took so many time for research and invited great peoples from the Amiga developer team for a lot interviews. I find the Viva Amiga Docu very good and cool. Zachary do a great job with this docu. Thank you for 👍

Viva Amiga is highly accessible - both as a human interest story and as a story about technology. It is highly visual, informative and entertaining. This is a must for anyone interested in documentaries. Or, in a good story being told.

The Amiga computer played a major role in the gaming industry, as well as in video production. Viva Amiga tells the story of this early multi media machine beautifully. It also does this within the backdrop of an emerging computer based market.

This is more than a nostalgia or retro driven film.

Viva Amiga. Viva Creative Computing. Viva Great Storytelling!

Really good documentary focusing on the Amiga computer and the team that made their digital dream a reality. The film takes you on a journey of the story which is also further amplified by captivating 3d effects and music. Certainly a deeply emotional watch and recommended to anyone who has an interest in vintage computing. The film is a true testament that the director Zach Weddington that has worked so hard to put this masterpiece together.

This is of course coming from someone who grew up with 16 bit computers and although being an Atari ST man at heart, I always appreciated the Amiga for what a great machine it was.

I was a proud Commodore user between 1985 and 1996, having owned an Amiga 500 since 1987 that was replaced by an Amiga 1200. I still own both, and they both still work! Furthermore, I was also part of the "Demoscene" and also part of a team that developed a commercial game.

I'm just telling you this so that you might understand that the Amiga was a very valued part of my youth, including visits to quite some Amiga fairs.

Unfortunately, this documentation only stays on the surface. There is nothing new, nothing surprising, and on top of that it even doesn't have a clear structure.

People that didn't know the Amiga and the hype accompanying this computer back then will not understand it and will be none the wiser after having watched this.

It was mentioned in other reviews that this documentation is very USA-centric, which is unfortunately true. Unfortunately, because it is agreed on that the Amiga had its biggest impact in Europe (in the UK and Germany, to be specific).

What is this documentation trying to achieve? To share some memories of people involved from the beginning like RJ Mical? To boast about its gfx/ video capabilities (by using the old but still impressive example with Deborah "Would you like to paint me?" Harry and Andy Warhol)? To prove that it's still being used by a few enthusiasts like the very valued 4Mat?

And where are the games and the demos? If I remember correctly, there's maybe 20 seconds of game footage or even less, and I didn't see any demos at all. (For me, demos is something that not only made the Amiga so special, but is one of the main reasons why the Amiga is still remembered by many and being used by some enthusiasts.)

The problem is, it never goes deeper. For example, especially for people that do not know the computer capabilities back then in the mid-80s - it's not enough to (wrongfully!) state that Apple was black & white, PC was green on black, and the Amiga had color and multitasking. There was nothing to help me as a viewer understand why the Amiga was such a breakthrough at that time. Sure, nearly all the interviewees mention it quite often, but if I didn't know the Amiga, I would ask myself: "OK, but - why was this such a sensation???"

The old advertisement footage was mostly nice, but in the end doesn't help the documentation.

And some things, like the "Revision" sequences filmed in Saarbrucken/ Germany, feel like completely out of place, just because the documentary never mentions the demo-scene, but all of a sudden we see a bunch of people sitting in a big, dark hall - "but what the hell are they doing there?" you might ask yourself...

I gave it a 5/10, because I recognize the effort that the director took to make this film, not being a professional filmmaker and such. But I certainly will not watch it a 2nd time. (And please don't quit your day-to-day job!)

And I really do not understand where the 30k funding money went into. Even in 2010, good and affordable equipment was available, and the travels couldn't haven been costly. (Maybe he had to pay fees for interviewing some of the people!?)