27: Gone Too Soon

I was hoping for some insight into the reasons for the untimely deaths of some of my favourite artists, but all you get is cheesy back ground music and some random people who say heroin lots of times and that they had a difficult upbringing. The fact is that the 27 club is nonsense, all these genuine talented musicians resorted to drinking excessively and using hard drugs for many different reasons and to try and badge this as a club is pointless and disrespectful. Total waste of time, go and search out the real stories of each of these special talents for your self, read, listen and YouTube.

In rock music circles the '27 Club' is an infamous community, and not one you want to be a member of. Several famous musicians have died at the age of 27, giving rise to be it being considered a cursed number for musicians. This documentary examines the lives and deaths of the six most famous members of the club: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.

One of the worst documentaries I've ever seen. Incredibly superficial in its coverage and filled with unimportant non-experts making ridiculous, uninformed statements about the causes of the six stars' deaths.

The main aim seems to be to find someone to blame, as long as it isn't the stars themselves. Initially there's a segment on drugs, filled with patronising, hyperbole-filled comments from nobody who has anything factual to say. The interviewees are a mish-mash of unknowns, only one of which is actually a medical professional (and even he seems more about making outlandish statements than giving a professional opinion). The only person of any fame, and the only rock star, interviewed is Gary Numan, and his "insights" often seem tangential to the discussion. All the rest are C-grade media personalities and music critics, giving their two cents.

Once we move into cataloguing each of the six stars' stories, there is very little about their histories. Even when the stars' careers are discussed, the interviewees show how clueless they are (the Kurt Cobain segment was rather laughable in how they tried to belittle his accomplishments). The main aim seems to be to demonise the parents, making them somehow responsible for their child's death. There are a few stabs at other stars (eg Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the Brian Jones segment) and at record companies and the music industry in general but, once again, it is all done in non-factual, hyperbole-filled fashion.

I guess it wouldn't be the 21st century if there wasn't someone else to blame for anything bad that befell us...

Random people repeating stuff that we have already heard much more comprehensive and interesting in nice films such as 'Amy', 'Cobain: Montage of heck', 'Crossfire Hurricane', etc. Its all pretty superficial and unfocused and nothing new comes to the table.

It could have still be sort of entertaining if the artists would have played a role in the film, but there is almost no music from them, just a lot of cheap-sounding background music. Also almost no visual material, but lots of random close ups of tape machines, record players, random 60's shots and a lot of talking heads in a dull studio setting.

So not really worth your time if you ask me. Watch one of the films mentioned above instead, or read a good biography of these people.

No research was done and half of what is said is either made up or just completely false!

I'm a huge fan of music and the history of music, so the idea of this documentary appealed to me so greatly. I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and I saw this and decided I wanted to watch it.

Gone Too Soon talks about the infamous curse of musicians dying at the age of 27. Though they're were many over the years the documentary focus on six specifically. Not just any Six, these are possibly the most famous six (Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jimmi Hendrix, Janis Joplin ,Jim Morrison (the "big three" of the myth cause they all died the same year) Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse (last but not least).

Note that the documentary is also focusing on the ones who's death can be explain heavenly by drug abuse. Even though, everything being said is vaguely true about all these stars, each one of them having childhood issues that lead to their outburst in music and wanting attention that becomes too overwhelming and they try to drown it with substance abuse, that goes too far.

In a lot of ways I just feel that the documentary is a little unfair to the musicians that died simply because the stories being told are being told second hand from people who feel like they did not actually know any of these people personally.

It really feels like just a group of people like you and me just gossiping about musicians they like. Despite the fact that these people are shrinks, music authors and professionals as well as substance abuse experts, they don't seem more informed than anyone on the street who just happen to be a fan of the artist.

I especially felt this way about the first musician, Brian Jones. This could just be because, I was not as familiar with the terms of his death as I am with everyone else on the list, but they just made Jones look so depressing and how he seemed to matter so little. It set a tone for the whole thing that never goes away.

Not fully the docs fault, cause I'm sure in perspective what they said is genuine. Yet still, it felt so geriatric that it's a little insulting to the memory of these people.

I'm being harsh but with the exception of Jones, I know they have better docs that explain the death of these six with a little more heart and interest. I think VH1 did a doc called the 27 club that really goes into depth of the whole curse more interestingly (but Amy Winehouse was not part of this club at the time)