George Michael: Freedom

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

George Michael was born in the 1960s to Greek immigrants, in London, and in the early 1980s, formed one pop pairing that wasn't terribly successful, before forming Wham!, which enjoyed phenomenal success that resonates until this day, whilst also enjoying a solo career of his own. But while becoming a worldwide superstar, in his private life, he was battling his own personal demons, including his repressed homosexuality, his unease with the limelight, through to the death of his partner and battle with his record company. Made in the few months leading up to his death, this documentary lifts the lid on his life in a way nothing else probably has before.

In a year where a superstar a minute seemed to pop off this mortal coil, the news of George Michael's death on none other than Christmas Day last year was like the final cherry on top of a particularly poisonous cake. So many cultural icons just snuffed out like candles, but no others seem to have left us with anything quite as revealing and intimate as this. As we learn, George was a guy who had to do everything on his terms, who had to be controlling the direction his life was taking, and so in this documentary, we learn in his own time, about the impact his personal and professional life took on him personally.

What emerges is a portrait of a young guy, thrust into the pit of fame, but he was no manufactured teen heart throb, a mature young adult, wise beyond his years, who allegedly wrote Careless Whisper, one of the most stirring and beautiful ballads of all time, on the back of a bus when he was just 17. It's interesting to wonder how a man of such tender years could have the emotional understanding and intelligence to write such material, but as we learn, he always felt more comfortable as a writer than a performer or celebrity.

The numerous musical talents who provide commentary never at all feel like unsavoury arse kissers, but give off a vibe of genuine admirers, whose musical style was genuinely influenced by George, possibly more than anyone else. You don't know what you've got till it's gone, I guess, and this revealing documentary certainly doesn't let you get away without knowing what exactly a one and only George was. ****

The Voice of my generation, in my opinion. He made so much music that will play on for many years to come. Still, I feel sad that he won't be here to create any more. His evolution into becoming himself took his whole life and was documented perfectly in his songs.

Damn, he really knew how to craft some perfect pop songs though!

What I really liked about this documentary was the insight we got, from George himself, into the beautiful lyrics that he wrote and performed, especially after the death of his first real love, Anselmo. George told us what inspired his song writing before and after his meeting with Anselmo and he showed us, with the help of musical clips, how his various emotions manifested themselves through song. His happiness when he met Anselmo, his sadness when Anselmo died and when his mother died of cancer, his anger when Sony refused to let him go and his humour after his unfortunate encounter in a Beverly Hills loo, Ricky Gervais made us laugh with his take on the affair. Elton John seemed to understand George well and perhaps surprisingly, Liam Gallagher too.They, along with a few other celebrities, helped us get to know George better and by the time Chris Martin started to sing "A Different Corner", his tribute to George at the Brit Awards, there were tears in my eyes. I met George Michael many years ago and we all knew he was gay, but most of all it was obvious that he was a very kind person and very vulnerable, which comes across during this fine documentary. You will laugh and probably cry when you watch Freedom, I dare you not too!

George Michael is honored in a fine documentary released in October 2017, a film he wrote and directed and supervised about his life in show business before his death on Christmas Day 2016. The film was completed under David Austin's direction. As he states in the film, 'Stars are almost always people that want to make up for their own weaknesses by being loved by the public and I'm no exception to that.'

The movie is a frank and honest account of George Michael's professional life and career. Though the film was made by the man himself, various artists add to the narrative – Tony Bennett, Mary J. Blige, Emmanuelle Alt, Naomi Campbell, Ricky Gervais, Elton John, Liam Gallagher, Cindy Crawford, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Kate Moss Nile Rodgers, James Corden, Stevie Wonder, and many others.

The film highlights conversations with Michael, his crisis with Sony, his 'coming out' as a gay man and finding love with a Brazilian man who subsequently died of AIDS, his driving force to be the best performer and songwriter ever known, his many successful videos and clips from live performances and much, much more.

This is a very beautifully made film, steaming with love from Michael and from his many fans, and filled with information about the positive impact he made on the world. Completely entertaining and a fine tribute to an enormously gifted artist.

2016 will be remembered by pop music fans as the year of so many untimely deaths. Amongst others, I suppose the two which stood out, if that's the right phrase, were those of David Bowie and Prince before George Michael succumbed on Christmas Day to blight his many fans seasonal joy and cap a miserable year for celebrity demises. Although his fame had diminished somewhat in America, he unquestionably remained hugely popular here in his native UK and it was certainly a shock to learn that he too had died so young.

With voiceovers by Michael himself, although he's coy about making an actual appearance on camera as we see a back view of him, at least I think it's him, sitting at an obviously favourite writing desk in his London home battering away at an old typewriter, by using the tried and trusted device of contemporary footage and celebrity endorsements, this is a loving, indeed at times adoring portrait of the artist as a young man.

Michael more than once equates himself with the three other acknowledged mega-stars of the 80's, Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson and on the musical evidence here, he certainly deserved that accolade. Good looking, with a fantastic voice and a prodigious writing and production talent, he left his previous group Wham! at the height of their success before spring-boarding to even greater initial solo success with the release of his "Careless Whisper" single and "Faith" album.

This documentary focuses on his three-album run from "Faith" to "Listen Without Prejudice" and "Older" especially the middle album which became a cause-celebre at the time of its original release with Michael famously failing to promote it to protest at his US record label's failure to recognise his artistic pretensions at the time. Thus we see celebrity pals like Elton John, Ricky Gervais, Stevie Wonder, Jean-Paul Gaultier and a very unlikely Liam Gallagher lining up to fight George's corner, although of course he lost his infamous "professional slavery" court case against Sony Records at the time.

Michael also opens up about coming out as a gay man, although not until after the death of the great love of his life, Brazilian Anselmo Feleppa and how this, plus the death of his mother plunged him into both personal and artistic depression. There's relatively little coverage of the various, usually drug-related incidents in his personal life which fuelled the tabloids which tends to make what we see probably a little too adulatory and uncritical.

After he died, I remember stories coming out in the press about his generosity and philanthropy, usually done with anonymity, bolstering the strong central message that this on-the-face-of-it most photogenic of pop stars was actually shy, troubled and insecure. Poor little rich boy, some may sneer but seeing him ensconced in his London home hardly seeming to live the remote, luxurious rock-star life, you're left with the sad thought that like Michael Jackson, Prince and Whitney Houston, his celebrity status failed to bring him true happiness.

Better then to focus on the often wonderful music he provided and regret that he was denied the opportunity to return to the musical scene he once dominated. More human and approachable it seems than many in the music industry, his was a sad loss and another of those gone-too-soon exits which makes you wonder what he might yet have achieved had he lived.