Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie

Here is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Lucie Arnaz has taken hours of good-looking color home movie footage and boiled it down to a manageable level, framing it with anecdotes and interviews of friends and family of Lucy and Desi. More than the half-hearted attempts at a biopic, the true essence of TV's most famous married couple is put on display here. Lucie displays their strengths and weaknesses equally well, and the result is that one comes away with a true picture of the Arnaz marriage. Looking at the footage, one can see the genuine love between the two and with the personal reminiscence, see how they fit into the Hollywood community in the classic era. The home movie footage spans from about 1940, when the Arnazes tied the knot, until the mid-eighties, when we see a touching picture of the mature Arnazes with their grandson in the pool. The mostly color footage has been remarkably well preserved and we also get to see a few film clip highlights of Lucy and Desi's film carrers, both together and separate. The music Lucie has chosen to underscore a lot of this footage really adds to the overall effect, which gives one a true understanding of what made these people tick. This show richly deserved the Emmy award and it was truly a labor of love for Lucie to make this. Lucie and her brother Desi Jr. appear on screen, and we get a true portrait of one of TV's first families. A must for all Lucy (and Desi) fans.

"Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie" is a very inexpensively made documentary with a pretty amazing pedigree. Lucy and Desi's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, apparently did not like the TV movie which came out about her parents. In this film, Lucie says that the film only focused on the negative about her parents' relationship...and this film of hers and her husband (Laurence Luckinbill) was a chance to set the record straight and show a more balanced portrait of them. So, using a LOT of color home movies and interviews with friends and family tell the story of the pair and their marriage...the good AND the bad.

I think this is a really good film to watch after you've seen Amazon's "Being the Ricardos". Overall, a most unusual film because there is so much great footage here as well as nice interviews. If you want a fluff piece with only the good, this isn't it...nor is it a chance to air a lot of dirty laundry. This is why I enjoyed the film...even though I am not a huge fan of the old TV series, "I Love Lucy".

This documentary is brought to us by Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. This was a pet project of hers that was so obviously dear to her heart. After her mother's death, Lucie had found reels of film that she had never seen before. When she had viewed them she realized that they were old home movies of her parents from early in their marriage to about near the end of it. The problem was that there was no sound to any of the footage. Lucie knew that fans would have loved to have seen it so she put this documentary together.

Lucie manages to get as many family members, co-workers, friends and celebrities that knew her parents to speak in this documentary. Interviews, spliced with the home movie footage along with hundreds of photographs--Lucie manages to tell a turbulent story. A story that is not filtered through tabloids and exaggeration--but a natural and raw view of these two people who were so much in love. The admiration and adoration between the two lovers is explained through stories and anecdotes. It proves that "I Love Lucy" was "more than just a title." It starts to where each parent was born to how they got famous to their deaths.

Also, we learn of the deterioration of the marriage and how ugly it actually got between the two. Desi's constant unfaithfulness poisoned the relationship. That, along with his drinking that only escaladed as he was in charge of Desilu, their major TV company, grew in popularity. We understand how painful the marriage has become and how terrible it must have been for everyone involved---especially their children. Lucie and Desi Jr. are on camera speaking about how hard it was to go through times when their parents fought in front of them.

Lucy and Desi eventually moved on with their lives--Lucy trying to come back to television with more sitcoms--while Desi eventually retired. Although they had separate roads, they were so intertwined that they would never really ever part.

The last 10 minutes of this documentary is wonderful. It's a home movie shot by Lucie herself of her parents in a pool with their grandson. Although divorced for many years already, watching these two people in the pool--you realized--this wasn't Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz who played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, but rather: real people.

This is the most real we'll ever see Lucy and Desi. It is a true to form and real telling of the two lovers. This is the best documentary of Lucy and Desi--you have to watch. A masterpiece brought to you by their daughter, with love.

My wife and I have watched the show for years. This presentation brings tears to one's eyes and frustration at what could have been versus what ended up happening. God bless Lucille & Desi Arnaz, jr. !

Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie (1993 TV Movie) starred Lucie Arnaz as "host." From context, Lucie had come across home movies of her mother and father, which gave her the foundation on which to produce this movie. Actually, the home movies aren't that fascinating, but some of the recollections about Lucy and Desi are interesting if you're a Lucy fan.

The film contains interviews with people like Desi Arnaz Jr, Jackie Cooper, Gale Gordon, Bob Hope, Van Johnson and Ann Miller.

Producer Arnaz rounds out the movie with clips from the many talk shows on which Lucy and Desi appeared. (Not together, but separately.)

If you are a true Lucille Ball fan, you should see this movie. If not a true fan, I would pass it up. I'm in the minority about the film, because it has an extremely high 8.4 IMDb rating. I thought it was just OK, and rated it 7.