Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who

For die-hard Who fans, this is definitely worth seeing. Lots of good, rarely-seen footage of concerts and interviews.

Of particular interest is the dynamic between the two surviving original members, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. Townshend often comes across as an utterly conceited asshole, especially in his assessment of Daltrey's role in the band. Nevertheless, he makes it clear that the band and his own songwriting would not have been what they were without Daltrey. Daltrey comes across as the uncompromised survivor of the Who's "amazing journey," the spirit that held them together.

One of the band's most powerful eras -- the late 70s and early 80s -- is given short shrift, as is Townshend's near-fatal tangles with heroin during this period. Kenney Jones, who replaced Keith Moon and solidified the Who's live performances during these years, is practically ignored.

Even for those who aren't true Who-heads, "Amazing Journey" is a decent introduction to one of the most important groups in the history of rock music.

Let's be honest, like always (yeah right): I love the Who but I have yet to visit a lot of their stuff. Right now I'm listening to the Who a lot, the list of recent reproductions in my iTunes is basically of the Who, Tom Waits (can't wait to find a copy of the film Big Time), Kings of Leon (probably my favourite "modern" band, I'm listening a lot to their first two albums, also I love the third one and some songs of the latest one, and ready for their show in Mexico City in October!), Creedence Clearwater Revival (last week I got the new edition of Woodstock on Blu-Ray and I'm loving the 3 songs of CCR. Wish we had more CCR but still are awesome the bonus performances of them, of the Who, Canned Heat, Johnny Winter, Santana, etc.) and Isaac Hayes' (from the soundtrack of Shaft mostly) songs.

So I came across with the R4 DVD of this documentary, Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who, and I'm so glad I decided to get it. Frankly, I know much more about the Who after seeing it, one of the other two prolific authors here in the IMDb page of Amazing Journey remarks that he didn't learn anything new, I saw part of the documentary with my uncle and he pretty much knew everything but he agreed with me that this is extremely well-done.

Pretty much when the runtime marks 30 minutes is when "I Can't Explain" appears. At one point, just before we can hear "I Can't Explain" Roger Daltrey says this: "I got to admit that I felt that we were special…I remember one thing that we were very much aware of was that we were still copying another people's songs". And it's just great when the Who's first release starts, but what was going on before? Well, the first ones that began playing together were Pete Townshend and John Entwistle and later on John met the bully Roger…you know. Certainly it's awesome the chapter "Who the f*** are you?" that begins with Roger recalling when a ginger Beach Boys fan came and said to him with all the arrogance in the world something like "I heard you are looking for a drummer, well I'm much better than the one you got". A Who fan and original mod recalls how the Who came out as the High Numbers and how the drummer was absolutely mental! (just awesome that footage of the High Numbers at the Railway Hotel from 1964, there are bits in the film but the full 7 or so minutes of the only left footage of the uncompleted film by Stamp and Lambert are on the second disc).

Apart of having interviews with Roger, Pete, Who managers, familiars, etc. we have musicians, fans better said: Eddie Vedder, Sting, Noel Gallagher, the Edge. I love when the Edge picks up his acoustic guitar and plays "My Generation" ("when you're a kid and you pick up the guitar for the first time you just want to make that sound"). And well the different periods in the story of the Who, the tension between 1966 and 1967 (Monterey, going before Hendrix), LSD with Pete into Maher Baba (legendary American TV appearance, explosives!), 1968 with a change in the industry, Tommy (glorious years, balance, good marriage, I am you and what I see is me), that intro of the most successful Who album, Quadrophenia (fight between Roger and Pete), Keith ("can anybody play the drums?"), no more concerts and the awesome "Who Are You" after the return of Keith to England (Keith died weeks after Who Are You was released). Is just fantastic the "Won't Get Fooled Again" part from the Concert for the New York City, "just celebrating the old music". And sadly John passed away in 2002, he died like many musicians would like to and I just love what happened with Roger and Pete after their friend passed away. The Who is for sure one of the great bands of all-time and I simply loved this documentary… 10 out of 10

PS: I haven't seen yet the Tommy film. In the documentary is totally bashed by Noel Gallagher and Steve Jones yet Pete loves it.

Just saw Amazing Journey at the Toronto International Film Festival. I must admit that this was not a first pick as I was looking for something different for my closing day film.

Amazing Journey will be an orgasmic experience for Who devotees. The band went through several tragedies, including the deaths of Keith Moon and John Entwhistle. There were many violent fights between Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend. Daltrey might have been the pretty boy frontman but Townsend was the artist, one who was deeply insecure about never being able to surpass the artistic merits of either Tommy or Quadrophenia.

In the end, what emerges is a portrait of young men who let music permeate their lives. It's really about one's passion towards one's craft. Yes, there are lots of indulgences along the way: expensive toys, women, sycophants, and drugs. But as we see with the maturing of the Daltrey and Townsend friendship, the journey is a tough but essential part of aging gracefully into the elder statesmen of rock.

The loss of Entwhistle was devastating for both men who already carried much guilt over the death of Keith Moon. They just didn't see the signs of Entwhistle's flirtations with drugs. He dies on the eve of a reunion tour and they go on because it's important to keep the memory alive.

It is great to know that such a testimony to this band is available. What a shame it would be for younger generations to only know them as the band that made theme songs for the CSI franchise.

After the flood of Who-DVDs we've seen lately and the fact that "The Kids Are Alright" is a pretty definite document not only on the story of The Who but on Rock 'N' Roll as a whole, I was more than skeptical whether this new documentary on Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon was really necessary. Well, I'm a fan so I picked the DVD up anyway and having just watched it I'm more than glad that I did.

I didn't learn anything completely new, but the "Amazing Journey" of The Who is so entertaining and peppered with such a great number of fantastic songs that it's just a real joy to watch it all being told once again. Besides, previous Who-films like "The Kids Are Alright" or "30 Years Of Maximum R&B" didn't really contain that many facts, but concentrated more on live performances. "Amazing Journey" takes a different approach and features lots of statements by the band, their producers, managers and folks who accompanied them along the way, as well as a few fans (Eddie Vedder, Noel Gallagher, Sting, The Edge, Steve Jones). The movie also features lots of amazing and previously unseen footage of live appearances, recording sessions and historic interviews. At 120 minutes running time the makers did a fine job touching most of the cornerstones in the band's career - just why didn't "Live At Leeds" get a mention? - while still keeping the pacing tight.

Yep, this is definitely recommendable for any The Who fan, even those who already have like 20 DVDs by that band on the shelf. "Amazing Journey" definitely inspires to dig them all up again and remember why Pete Townshend and the other three loons were one of the greatest bands that ever existed.

I'm a huge fan of the who for only being 15. i stayed up until 3 o clock in the morning yesterday just to watch this film because i wanted to see it so bad. by the end of the film i was very pleased and i loved it! it was definitely worth staying up for and was not, i repeat, was not a movie just for the die hard fans as some would say. you don't have to like the who, know anything about music, or even have been born in that era to know that this movie was an absolute work of art. amazing journey was exciting, happy, and it was sad. but i guess thats the who's journey and it was true. i loved the way their story was told by the surviving members (pete and roger) along with some others. they told their story how it happened to them and how they remembered it. there were good times and there were bad times, but either way, the directors did an excellent job in helping to tell this amazing tale of the who's journey.....hats off.