In Bed with Madonna

It's 1990 on Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour. She, her circle of dancers, and performers travel from Japan to North America and all around the world. It has behind-the-scenes as well as her concert performances. There are her friends and family. Her brother is hanging around and she goes to her mother's grave. In Toronto, the cops threaten to charge her for indecency. It's mostly filmed in black and white. The thing about Madonna is one is never sure about when the performance starts and ends. I doubt she's completely faking anything but she can be overly dramatic. When cops show up in Toronto, they do imply a threat but one can see a glint in her eyes where she sees an opportunity to rally around the first amendment. There is the dancer faux boyfriend and a girl claiming rape. One can never be sure about anything with Madonna.

As a simple concert video, this one is above average. But the title is very misleading. First let's deal with the 'truth' aspect. Madonna's friends pop in on her - Warren Beatty, Sandra Bernhart - but you get little in the way of glimpses into her relationships with others. You see Madonna playing Mother Hen to her backup performers, but you get the sense that she isn't very close to any of them. Thus, even though this is supposed to be an expose of Madonna's true private life, there is so little of this on screen that the audience is denied a genuine insider's view. And when Madonna deals with the business aspects of her tour, the boardroom door closes on the camera and the audience. This aspect of the life of a performer so well known for her product-image management might potentially be the most fascinating part of the tour, but the audience is kept outside. And compared to some of what Madonna has done on the screen, this is so far below her usual standards of shock as to hardly qualify as 'daring'. It is worth a watch, but beware of a stretching of the 'truth' when it comes to packaging.

This is a wonderful documentary. It shows the ups and downs of being a rock star. Essential to fans.

I do remember this one was released as In Bed with Madonna here in the UK back in the day and it made a few ripples. In fact, it became the highest grossing documentary of all time until Bowling for Columbine came along over ten years later. Having finally just seen it, I can't believe I waited until now to check it out, as this is a superb back-stage look at La Ciccone at arguably the apex of her powers. The film adopts a black and white cinéma vérité style, with colour concert footage interspersed throughout. Events take place during her 1990 'Blond Ambition Tour' which was in support of her iconic 'Like a Prayer' album.

Given that she is regarded as one who is known for controlling her career and image with an iron fist, its more than likely that she is putting up a front here and really performing as herself. Yet, this is part of who she is and you still learn a lot about Madonna here regardless. The backstage stuff is pretty priceless, with all manner of shenanigans going on, from her refusing to bow to police demands in Toronto where she is threatened with the cancellation of her show if she simulates masturbation on stage to the comical moment where a hapless (and impressively mulleted) Kevin Costner makes the epic mistake of describing her show as 'neat' (Madonna's supremely negative reaction to this is worth the price of admission alone). There is back-stage dramas with her and her crew, some diva like behaviour and several celebrity encounters. In amongst all that there is a selection of top tunes from the tour - it really does make me wish I had attended this myself (even if the nearest gig was admittedly Wembley Stadium several hundred miles away!). Anyway, this doc is a pretty good snap-shot of the 'Blond Ambition' tour/era and a genuine superstar at the height of her powers - it does go some way to illustrate how vivacious, hard-working and unique she was.

As a documentary, this movie is excellent. It takes us behind the scenes of one of the most successful and most elaborate music tours produced in recent times. We take a peek at Madonna's private life including her likes and dislikes, her friends, her hectic schedule, and her incredible ambition of staying at the top. But most importantly, we take a close look at how she influences everyone around her. Madonna fans, especially those that attended the Blond Ambition Tour, will really enjoy Truth or Dare.