Bowie doc on HBO; "The Last Five Years"

Didn't see a thread for this, so I decided to make one!
It airs this Mon.

 

I have a feeling of deja vu.

 

cannot view your video...when does this start?

 

Some great footage I've never seen. Glad to see guitarist David Torn in this.

 

I see talk about the "debut" of this documentary, articles about "what we learned from", and so on. But isn't this the BBC documentary from last year?

 

I watched this On a Virgin America flight last fall. Short but enjoyable.

 

This is the first time playing in North America?

 

Aha, so that's why it's getting a major push at the moment. Surprising, there was internet at the time the documentary aired initially...

 

I'm not sure I can just freely watch any BBC content on the web(?). I know I've had trouble in the past trying. I also can't watch all CBC (Canada) content on the net either.

But maybe it's been posted on youtube somewhere in the interim - I didn't even know this doc existed at all.

 

Very enjoyable, and sad.

 

Too morbid to watch( in a few years)
Holding back on the video hits Blu Ray I see.

 

Here's a very interesting interview with the filmmaker on this Bowie documentary, and how difficult it was to make... considering they started working on it after Bowie died...

How the Director of ‘David Bowie: The Last Five Years’ Created a Documentary From Virtually Nothing

 

Pretty enjoyable documentary. I lost touch with Bowie's more recent work and this doc convinced me to investigate Darkstar.

 

Wasn't there a sister doc called "The First Five Years?"

Edit: This? "Five Years"

David Bowie: Five Years (2013) - IMDb

 

Just watched it on tv, great doc and quite sad at the end. Of course we know what happens but it was heartbreaking hearing the accounts of some of his associates and the last time they saw him.

I'm a Bowie fan and I'm ashamed that I haven't listened to Blackstar yet.

 

The John Carpenter film?

 

too sad for me to watch, maybe in a few years (five?)

 

I watched it tonight. Very good. Wish it was longer with a couple of complete live performances

 

This is fantastic, especially considering the subject matter. Not an easy watch; I had a pit in my stomach most of the time. It was restrained, in the best way. Uplifting.

 

Very good!

 

While it's sad to think David Bowie didn't have another ten or even five more years left The Last Five Years is a decent look at Bowie's long stretch out of the public eye and his final, thrilling blast of creativity. Key collaborators from Bowie's past and present are interviewed - Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick, Tony Visconti - and there's a trove of archival TV clips, concert footage, and interviews. That's more retrospection than I'd expected and might seem like filler to the casual viewer, but Bowie during this same period was looking at and even finding inspiration in his past...so it works.

The Last Five Years builds towards Bowie pulling off something truly remarkable - a well orchestrated exit. He's looking back on his past, while bravely facing an increasingly bleak future...and everything Bowie felt and experienced in that moment was put into Blackstar. To hear Bowie sing "Look at me...I'm in heaven" gives me chills...and seeing him sing it in the doc, knowing he was losing his battle with cancer...is a gut punch.

Hopefully some gifted filmmaker will one day have the time and the resources to tell Bowie's entire story in a single, lengthy documentary. Until then, The Last Five Years is proof that we really were lucky to be alive at the same time as David Bowie.