Moog

I feel a little bad giving this a 6, only because the film quality was very good for 16mm and I did like the cinematography, but I guess I was expecting a more traditional approach to the Moog story; not only the views and lifestyle of Bob Moog. I then realized that this was entirely the idea behind this documentary, and the director did not want to compile a history of the Moog synth, but had he added in some extra footage and talked about the many different synthesizers that Moog produced through the years, this would have been a much fuller documentary. All in all though, it was nice to have a real up close interview with the creator.

I didn't care for the experimental music, even though experimental music was largely influenced by the Moog. I find that type of music to be scattered and annoying. I also refuse to listen to the classical approach to the Moog. What Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson do on the moog are what impresses me. All the other stuff just didn't seem in place. Still, this DVD is a nice addition to the collection and as a Moog lover, an enjoyable reference overall.

I'd say overall the movie is OK. It is interesting seeing Bob Moog just walking around and speaking (kind of one of those mythologically huge names that you don't suspect ever actually lived).

With that said, I feel this movie could have been greatly improved. They only briefly touched on things such as Switched On Bach, and spent little time on anything outside of live performance. Furthermore, the guest appearances are all pretty small. Not so much as appearances as they are brief sightings (with the exception of Berrnie Worrel and Rick Wakeman who actually are "interviewed").

Basically this movie is Bob Moog waxing philosophical for an hour over a weak new age soundtrack. I wish there would have been more about the synths and less about Moog himself. I would also liked to have seen exclusives such as people playing rare synths etc. Also, there was no narrator, which I feel was greatly needed. With a narrator they would have been able to take some pressure off of Bob's dialog.

Final verdict: If you want raunchy godlike riffs and exclusive footage, don't watch. If you want to know a little more about the man behind the raunchy godlike riffs, watch it. I just wish better filmmakers had been given this project.

Although I'm not a massive fan of electronic music but I have sufficient interest in the genre to check out this documentary on the inventor of the electronic synthesizer, Robert Moog. Watching this film was probably not the best way to try and find out more about the man, the instrument and its impact. As many others on this internet site have already pointed out, director Hans Fjellestad does a really average job of doing anything in this film.

The one thing he does appear to be good at selling himself to potential subjects because the film does have a reasonably good array of people on hand to discuss what they do with it and particularly Fjellestad has Moog pretty much on tap throughout the film. It looks like the plan has been to point the camera at whoever is talking, film it and work out the detail in the edit. Sometimes that works and of course with reality shows and the like that is pretty much all you can do but in the vast majority of cases it is a recipe for disaster. So it is here in a film that lacks structure to the point that if Moog wants to ramble endlessly while pottering round his garden then that makes the cut but hardly anytime can be found for many artists that one would associate with the synthesizer. OK, maybe rights to the music or access to the artists was an issue due to the low budget but this is not much of an excuse.

Astonishingly the film is barely over an hour long and it is testament to how poor it is that it feels like it never ends. God help us if we ever see an extended cut of this because imagine the footage that they didn't feel worthy of making it into this version! Anyway, I stuck with it but ultimately there is almost nothing of value here; my mind was open to learning more about the impact this instrument had had but it falls down in this regard with a lack of structure and aim that must be laid right at the doors of the director and producers. A totally missed opportunity.

I was captivated by Moog synthesizers at age 12, when "Switched On Bach" was released. I've read many things by and about Bob Moog over the years, and was looking forward to seeing this documentary. But sadly, it's a missed opportunity. First of all, the video quality looks like an 8mm home movie from the 1970s, rather than a 2004 production. Secondly, it's very amateurishly done. For instance, when you have Bernie Worrell, Rick Wakeman, and Moog together to talk about synths, do you think you could possibly pull them into a quiet room, instead of holding a 10-minute interview in a busy hallway with so much background noise that the voices are hardly audible? There are interesting bits here, including archive footage of the Moog assembly line and Gershon "Popcorn" Kingsley with his Moog Quartet. But there's a lot of BAD synth music too, and poor visuals. If you're a die-hard Moog fan like myself, you'll put up with it. If you're not, skip it.

I enjoyed watching this homage to the synthesizer inventor and all round nice guy Bob Moog but spent hours afterward discussing ways this documentary could have been better. That's not to say there's all that much wrong with it except that it suffers from a genuine lack of archive footage. Bob was building his Synths from the early 60s, before that he was making Theremins. There's no footage of any of this. 'Why not use stills and rostrum?' was my immediate thought.

It was great to hear Moog Synths being played well. Rick Wakemen (who provides the film's one big laugh) made them sound good. In fact, just to hear people messing about on them was interesting. I wanted more of this and perhaps some insights into how they were used in the studio (the film concentrates mainly on live performance).

Perhaps just a bit too much time was spent allowing Bob to share his rather vague (and, sorry to say this, slightly boring) view of the universe. Not that the Doc as a whole is boring, it is not. It is very watchable and only 70 minutes long. Though I wanted something more from it, it did do what it set out to do without sagging.