Janis Joplin

This documentary lacks any narration, comment or a historic timeline nor shows any development of Janis's career, but consists of lots of rare concert, on-the-road and interview material; it may be a feast for die-hard fans, but for a broader audience it's simply not that informative.

Amazing live performances captured on film are the reason to see to see this.

The interviews with Janis don't reveal much, and there's no real sense of her history.

Even the stage stuff is shot pretty straightforwardly, but, man-o-man could she sing!

One wonderful thing is that a lot of the numbers are uncut, allowed to go their full length, which, with Janis in concert, could easily be 8 minutes or more. The power, the emotion, the energy, the sexiness, the sweet sense of fun she brought to the stage could only be hinted at on her albums. For those reasons it's more than worth sitting through the slightly homogenized off-stage material.

Well, this isn't the best of Janis ever captured on film, but it is the lone document of the best female singer ever! I just wish they had more Big Brother clips. There are many other TV shows, concerts, etc. that were filmed, so this is incomplete, but it does highlight some of the best: Monterey Pop Festival, the best performance I think Janis ever gave; Woodstock, but she isn't in it very much (there was so much more filmed!); Cheap Thrills recording sessions, and The Dick Cavett Show. But seriously, Laura Joplin needs to release a complete documentary, with all performances uncut and unedited! A lot of the concert footage is severely edited, either cut in half or the last fraction of a song is heard, which is disappointing from such a talent as Janis. Most of the Frankfurt concert (with "Maybe", "Summertime", "Ball and Chain", "Piece of My Heart") is horrible and only an interview from the excellent Swedish special is present. For more live Janis, try COMIN' HOME, BALL AND CHAIN, and a few compilation videos have stuff from the Swedish special. Try this movie out if you're a budding Janis fan, but I think you'll be sorely disappointed when you discover how much more perfect performances could have gone into this one.

this is "must have" for all the people out-there that are loving Janis.It's a really touching film,Janis is just playing herself.Beautiful,magnificent and above.Unfortunately,Janis's story hasn't yet really been said properly and it is my feeling that she deserve much more than she got by now,at least for the passion that she put in her music.Watch her in this film,see with what intensity she can perform and you'll understand.Janis is among the few that live for whatever she is doing and that thing is shown in every aspect of this film.Watch her especially in live performances,you never saw anything like that before! A film on which i could die watching it.

Very good, narration-free documentary that intercuts performance footage with interviews. This is a straight compilation film, using then-existing material. I don't think there was anything shot specifically for this film.

For such an electric talent, it is especially good that the directors just stay out of the way, and not try to staple significance, meaning or whatever to their subject. They just let Janis Joplin sing and speak for herself.

And, that's the best thing you could possibly do for a Janis Joplin doc!

******* (7 Out of 10 Stars)