Eric Clapton : La vie en blues

An unflinching near self-portrait of the artist Eric Clapton as a young and indeed mature alcoholic, who took years to come to terms with his addictions to both heroin and alcohol, in the end spurred onto beat them by a tragic domestic accident and at last finding love, happiness and a new family in his later years.

Clapton has provided director Lili Fini Zanuck with a good deal of sometimes unflattering private video footage, none more so than we see him snorting cocaine on-camera in the 70s as well as film of his obviously unhappy childhood and saddest of all, intimate father-son scenes of him with his young boy Conor who tragically fell to his death accidentally in New York aged only four. In addition, much screen-time is given over to his awkward, to say the least, courtship of best friend George Harrison's then wife Pattie Boyd, which extended, painful process inspired arguably his greatest work, the searing "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" double album, although even after he won her, sadly the relationship didn't survive, mainly due to his alcoholism.

There's much fine music here in clips featuring his days with the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Derek and the Dominos and his long solo career plus rare video and audio footage no doubt from Clapton's own personal collection, including a taped conversation between him and friendly guitar rival Jimi Hendrix and commentary, some of it naturally archival, from key collaborators down the years such as Duane Allman, Steve Winwood and Bobby Whitlock amongst many others, although the highest credit is given to the late, great B.B. King film of whom both introduces and closes the film.

Clapton comes across as an often shy, troubled and difficult man as he would no doubt be the first to admit but he's also candid, modest and above all honest about himself. There's none of the usual for this type of film, adulatory talking-heads over-the-top praise for either his music or musicianship which I certainly appreciated.

The film depicts his troubled childhood emanating from his early abandonment by his young-at-the-time mother as the main reason for his future insecurity and eventual self-hating. Later, it too quickly skips over the years from the mid 70's to the 90's (ironically, a time of great commercial success for him) in a matter of seconds, omitting in the process references to the career-boosting importance of events like his 1973 comeback concert at the Rainbow organised by Pete Townshend as well as his time with Delaney and Bonnie's band, or even his 80s hook-up with Phil Collins, although perhaps in so doing the director was demonstrating just how much of an empty void this time represented in his life as he struggled with the bottle.

It takes a long, long time for him to come out the other end of his own dark tunnel, but come out he did, as demonstrated both inside his career by the multiple Grammy success of his "Unplugged" album, and outside it, with the refuge for addicts he funded in Antigua from the sale of his vast guitar collection and lastly with the cosy domestic images of the at-last happy family man at play with his wife and young daughters.

Yes, this filmed life of one as long and full as Clapton's makes omissions, with no mention of his work with say J.J. Cale or his belated return collaborations with his Cream band-mates (of whom he's now the last survivor), or Winwood. Nevertheless, with much fine music, although it was surprising not to hear on the soundtrack such key songs from his career as "Sunshine Of Your Love", "Let It Rain" or "I Shot The Sheriff", fascinating private film and soberingly honest commentary from the man himself, this was a revealing and compelling insight into a great musician's often uphill struggle throughout most of his life with his own lack of self-confidence and inadequacy even after achieving great fame and success.

Told with refreshing and revealing candour, this is one of the better rock-docs you'll see.

Excellent. Incredible insight into Eric as a man. And as a musician. Intertwining the man and his music. His passion playing through his guitar. It's that passion that drives the emotional response so many people have to his guitar and his music. Welll beyond just virtuosity. That's why he's Eric Clapton. That's why you need to see this. Whether you're a fan or not, an extremely well done, sensitive, interesting documentary on Eric. Thank you for making this movie.

It's a very remarkable movie if you don't know Clapton well, or are even a big fan of his. Great documentary on his early work and how he somehow became the king of the guitar while growing up in the UK. It focuses on his early career mostly as that's where the story gets really interesting. Though uneven and moody at times, this gives the viewer the story on how Clapton became so respected that people would graffiti buildings with "Clapton is God".

So sad that trolls now control the ratings for such a good documentary like this. It seems they are out to get this movie by pretending to be female voters. But as has been noted on the internet many times, any movie praising black or feminine culture will be attacked on this site sadly. Hopefully this will not stop people from going to see this well done documentary as it deserves the praise it's been getting.

Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars (2017)

**** (out of 4)

This documentary, clocking in over two hours, features Eric Clapton discussing his life and career as we get clips from various concerts and television specials. Throughout the running time we learn about how his career took shape, his friendship with George Harrison and the love affair that shaped some of his greatest songs.

If you're a fan of Clapton then I'm sure you're going to already know a lot of the stories told here but the documentary is extremely well-made and there's no question that you can get some added joy out of hearing Clapton discuss these events. This includes the various high points of his life but also the low ones including the death of Jimi Hendrix as well as his son, which also led to one of his most loved songs.

There's no doubt that getting the interview footage with Clapton was a major plus but the greatest aspect of this documentary is that it has a lot of really great video footage. This includes a lot of early concert footage from Clapton's time with Cream as well as some earlier projects that Clapton worked on. There's no doubt that the brilliance of Clapton as a guitarist gets to shine here and if you're not a fan then you will be after watching this.

ERIC CLAPTON: LIFE IN 12 BARS takes a look at a brilliant but troubled man and I thought it was extremely fair handled and entertaining.

I don't know how it got such a low rated score here (I assume it was trolls). But 'Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars' was spectacular, it delved into the personal life of Clapton: his struggles through drug and alcohol abuse, his girlfriends, his family life and career. It was very revealing. It showed another side of him, a more vulnerable and real side. It shows his early music influences in Blues and also includes other musicians that Eric was associated with in that era. Many people close to him are featured in the documentary. It was very well done. Brilliant.