Jimi: All Is By My Side biopic

Anyone get to see this film over the weekend? Enjoyed it - it plays pretty well, isn't completely gushy, and it did a fair job of telling the story of the year 1966-67. Andre Benjamin did a great impression, he definitely had Jimi's sing-song voice down pat.

Am not an expert on Jimi by any means, but the film caught some key points and people in his year pretty well. Curious as to your thoughts.

 

Kathy Etchingham hates it, and since she's portrayed in the movie, I'll take her word on it not being worth my time.

Check her out on FB, and you'll get her thoughts and reviews on the movie.

 

Did it get a wide release?

Doesn't help when the "Jimi" actor is refusing to do any press whatsoever.

 

Andre Benjamin was on NPR's Fresh Air last week talking about it.

 

for the I don't do FB crowd, it's also here: http://www.kathyetchingham.com/

 

He did an NYT print interview as well, but most of that was Outkast related.

Andres just had 2 weeks off before the Atlanta shows and didn't do press. He did a bunch of press when he promoted Idlewind in 2006.

 

For anyonne interested, here's the Fresh Air episode with director John Ridley & Andre Benjamin.
http://www.npr.org/2014/09/23/35088...-new-film-captures-jimi-hendrixs-pivotal-year

 

This is interesting.

 

I have mixed emotions about it.

Andre 3000 did VERY well in the role.

No trouble believing he was Mr. Hendrix... he clearly listened to a lot of interviews and had his speaking voice down pat.

I'm not enough of a guitar person to quarrel with how well he handled the guitar. I did think the music sounded good - when it was just supposed to be Jimi jamming...

Kudos to Mr. Waddy Watchel (who played the parts for Andre 3000).

As for the movie... it's a bit odd compared to other music biopics... it ends just as Jimi's fame is starting.

Basically it's more about how he got a record contract - and then it ends..

The missing music didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the film.

But I do have a big problem with the fact that his real life girlfriend (Kathy Etchningham) says there are things in the film that aren't reality... even worse, she tried to help the film's producers and they threatened legal action against HER.

I think she could easily win a law suit against the producers... some of the things she's objecting to - have come up earlier - and she's sued - and then forced retractions... in this case, it's like the film makers said "No, we saw the first reports - and are choosing to ignore the follow-up retractions - because we need the movie to have some drama".

There was one scene that specifically showed a very violent event that Ms Etchingham said clearly did NOT happen. I hated watching that moment in the film, even less so today when I read that it never happened. Reminded me of the murder Muddy Waters committed in "Cadillac Records"... I was like "huh????"

I tend to think Etchingham's objections are more bonafide than some of the friends of Dave Van Ronk griping about the Cohen brothers movie about a fictional character that had a similar background to Van Ronk (but was never portrayed AS Van Ronk).

 

I haven't seen this yet, but it sounds to me like the producers wants to make Hendrix more like James Brown was in real life. That's too bad, because the real Jimi Hendrix seems to have been a lot more complicated and interesting than the reviews of this film are suggesting is portrayed here.

 

i just saw this film....its awesome...that actor is like jimi reincarnated.

i also like the whole tone and style of the film. i like it better than oliver stones the doors.
its coming to blu-ray jan 2015.

 

Does the movie show when Jimi jammed with Jackie Jormp-Jomp at Woodstocks?

 

No, it ends on his way to play Monterey.

 

Won't go so far as to say I hated it, but I was definitely disappointed.

Not in the acting, or the music, both of which were fine to maybe excellent -- but what the script chose to focus on was a complete puzzlement (and deeply disappointing). I didn't feel like I knew Jimi even the slightest bit better after it was over, than I did before it had begun, and any sort of focus on Jimi the musician was painfully absent.

Huge lost opportunity, IMHO.

 

That's a pretty low bar IMHO

 

whats the best biopic you have seen?

 

As far as musical folks go, the recent James Brown one, 'Get On Up' was good, but didn't deal enough with the music so it suffered from that. Stone's Doors movie I thought was quite disposable. Outside of straight documentaries I don't think I've seen a good one yet. 'Straight No Chaser' was, IMHO, excellent in telling the story of Thelonius Monk. Any you could recommend as very good?

 

there is a syd vicious one with gary oldman but ive never seen it....
there is coen brothers movie that could be the fictional how bob dylan got his start called inside llewyn davis
i saw a kurt cobain one called last days which was pretty horrible
also there is a charlie parker one called "bird" that one is actually really good.
however i love hendrix more than parker so i like the new jimi movie better.

this jimi one is the best i think. iwish it spanned his whole career but they would have to allow the real music license.

thank you for the james brown and monk.....

 

I liked the 'Bird' biopic(Dex was a good actor as well as tenor player), but I'm a serious jazzer and it's hard for me to look at these with the right eyes sometimes- my problem.

 

I'm guessing this movie ends with Monterey in 1967 because they didn't get the rights to include any of Jimi's original music in the film?

 

has to be...but the movie is 2 hours as it is....so it might be director choice to keep the movie shorter.

would have been nice to see a monterey song before the fade to black...instead of just going straight to black before even playing a song.

 

This has just been released over here. I went to see it yesterday. Yes, the music issue is a pity -- and the story cuts off when they went off to play Monterey, which of course was a beginning for them. But is spite of that I thought the film did well to convey the excitement of Jimi as someone totally new and so gifted.

I liked the way it was filmed and the acting I thought was very good. A couple of gaffes in the dialogue - -no one said 'cheers' for 'thanks' in 1966, for instance, not in the uK at any rate. Chas Chandler came over convincingly -- a fair imitation of North Eastern accent, and the actor Playing Kathy E. was great. I found the scene where the police racially abuse Hendrix in the street heartbreaking. Of course, it was 1966, and such incidents were much more common.

 

Forrest Whittaker played Bird
Dexter Gordon was in 'Round Midnight

 

It seems that the film is trying to convey 1966 as the scene swirled around Jimi rather than being a straight bio about his life