Seems like the soundbites were picked mainly to be Serious and Meaningful and Philosophical. No real sense of Bowie's actual personality.
Yes, if you look at his interviews in total, especially in later years, he really hams it up most of the time. The guy had a sense of humor that wasn't always used for deflection. But to include those interview clips wouldn't have fit the filmmaker's "thesis."
Lol....that sounds like the perfect excuse. Ok. I'lll bite. Illuminate me. Who was talking to me for those two insufferable hours? Was it David Bowie or some ill conceived Nietzschian Godhead? Either way. They both come off as dicks.
You do understand that a filmmaker makes choices, right? On what to include and not include? Bowie lived for 69 years, and the film is a little over 2 hours long. Who hasn't occasionally uttered pseudo-intellectual claptrap while in their 20's? Fortunately for most of us, those comments aren't recorded for posterity. Maybe, while away from the microphones, David has conversations with Iggy about farts. Or made up stories for the amusement of his young son, or enjoyed trading dirty jokes with a bloke he met at the pub. The filmmaker is projecting his image of an artist and man to you... if you choose to accept that as "the whole truth and nothing but the truth," well... have fun, but we all contain multitudes, don't we? Not just an artist who made a career out of ch-ch-ch changes.
David Brent (as a character) is a total steal from Bowie's character in Into The Night, in my opinion.
Because, contextually, it made an artist I love seem like an entitled fame whore who had just speed read a 21st century Philosophy primer and missed all the finer points. And it gives me pause, because if this film touches on anything real about the man then I've learned he's an insufferable idiot and/or if this is just a fictionalized rebuilding of Bowie as some kind of Jungian archetype, then I've learned he's an insufferable idiot. Lose/lose. Thankfully I'm mature enough to parse my love of Hunky Dory and Scary Monsters from this film school ejaculate?
So you're accepting that this could be a "fictionalized rebuilding of Bowie," but your conclusion is that you have learned that he's an idiot? Who is "he?" I assume you mean the fiction... then wouldn't the correct pronoun be "it"? As to your charge that he was a fame whore, well... I always assumed that most rock stars were. How else would they have summoned the drive to become rock stars?
Thanks for your answer and I understand your point. Unfortunately no, I do not agree that we all contain multitudes. And I found more than enough evidence ( quotes were taken from throughout his whole life) represented in the film to arrive at my opinion.
If BM wanted to contrast 1973 and 1983 so badly, he should have used the ecstatic crowd shots from the "Ricochet" tour.
Pardon me for chiming in, but this mini discussion reminds me of this scene from Life of Brian. Carry on, you were saying something about not containing multitudes?
It strikes me that the film truly could have used the entire Ricky Gervais sketch where Bowie sings "Little Fat Man".
Sorry. I don't buy it. Morgen is not that good of a film maker. Personally I do expect some affirmation as to why I love a real artists work when I walk into a film about a real artist? My bad? Maybe the bi-line should have been "Bowie. You Thought You Liked Him!" Anyway..My foot hurts from kicking this poor dead horse!
The funny this is I reckon this will will the Oscar for Best Documentary and we'll all be doing this in February again.
Ah, awards shows. You would think they'd be obsolete by now. But a little impromptu violence kicked 'em back into play. I look forward to the ghost of Bowie garroting Morgen with a microphone cord.
Exactly. If you went into the movie with no knowledge of Bowie, you'd think he was a somber stuffed shirt most of the time.
Okay - I do understand why the movie's view of Bowie would be a potential turnoff. I just figured you'd know enough to realize that it doesn't paint a good picture and ignore it as an influence on your view of the man!
