Bowie: The Man Who Changed the World

I had just finished reading "On Bowie" by Rob Sheffield, which was a touching a passionate tribute to the late singer. I thought that this documentary would be the perfect follow-up, providing a clear portrait of the man's life, art, and personality set against the social climate of the decades that saw his rise in popularity.

It absolutely wasn't. It was a directionless mess, with the sort of obnoxious narration and editing one might expect from a celebrity news program - phony, superficial, and without a clear vision or narrative driving it. You see the same pictures over and over again, the same interviews are sampled. It's an exercise in monotony.

You could easily complain about who wasn't interviewed for this documentary, but more egregious is the fact that the film couldn't even secure the rights to Bowie's music. Can you imagine a Jimi Hendrix movie that didn't feature his rendition of The Star Spangled Banner? Or a Prince movie where we don't hear "Kiss"?

And yet this movie references "Space Oddity" and "Fame" without a single note of these iconic songs. No clips of "The Man Who Fell To Earth", "Labyrinth", or any of his music videos. There is footage of his live performances with the audio removed because who wants to watch a movie about a singer and actually hear them sing?

This is a crass and tasteless movie that was clearly cobbled together after Bowie's death in an attempt to exploit his grieving fans. He deserved better. His fans deserve better.

Not enough real info about his music, writing process, inspiration, and how he created his music. Too much info about inconsequential things. The entire production was marred by a horrible sound mix that was constantly loud then soft with no consistency. The music that they put in made it sound like a cheap expose from TMZ, and it had no relationship to the wonderful music that he wrote.

If it hadn't been for a few good interviews with David, seemingly made by others in different times (plus an odd phone video that is nevertheless quite interesting) this almost tabloid style tale of David Bowie's life wouldn't have been worth watching and certainly isn't worthy for such a great and unique artist like David Bowie.

Some people from Bowie's life tell a few stories, but the life story that this film attempts to illuminate is sketchy and jumpy, which is only underlined by the interspersed still photos typically from the wrong era and usually the wrong video material for the events being presented and multiple times also being repeated for seemingly no good reason. It's like a film school project and I'm not sure Andersson is passing the exam either.

I hadn't seen much of this before, so found it somewhat interesting nevertheless, but the absence of any Bowie music made the experience very odd and the editing, well, it's not very good, is it?

I am late to the party on this one, but this is the David Bowie story I didn't know. It's the young David Jones from Bromley, who was a singer looking for a personality, and spent his life trying to win his mother's approval. It follows his early career, a long apprenticeship in which he picks up the tricks that would make him famous. The dire mime days, the way he mimicked the style of Anthony Newley, and then got banned by the BBC. It took 11 years for him to achieve fame with Ziggy Stardust.

There a lot of voices fitted in here. The tender but candid recollections from Mary Finnegan and Dana Gillespie of their years with Bowie, and Russell Harty asking bizarre questions. Overall, it was pretty damn good.

This documentary is an awesome tribute to an icon and musical genius. I was fascinated to watch this. I wanted to know more about David Bowie as a person not just an enigma and if you're a fan of Bowie, you're sure to find it enjoyable like I did.

When David Bowie's death was publicized, it sent shock waves through the world. What a loss. There is no doubt he left Planet Earth a richer place than when he entered it, but I found the focus and insight into Bowie's early life the most intriguing part of this documentary.

I admit I found some aspects of Bowie's early years surprising. Mary Finnigan who supported him during his early career, (she was his landlady and then his lover) gives a very engaging interview. She talks about her horror when Bowie shamelessly moved his future wife Angie into her apartment. But she also talks about his epic talent and their financial struggles during those early years. To make ends meet, they formed a folk club and went on to hold a music festival in the park.

Bowie's childhood friend Dana Gillespie delivers fascinating stories about their teenage years spent together and his detached relationship with his family. Dana dated Bowie and later worked with him, singing the backing vocals on Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album

There's a heartfelt story with David Bowie's childhood friend George Underwood, who punched him in the eye, and gave him his unique appearance. I was happy to find out they remained close friends until Bowie's death.

This feature length documentary has a wide collection of interviews with Bowie himself and I sure was surprised to learn he was a genius with finance on the business side too. If you're into David Bowie, watch this, you won't be disappointed.