I enjoyed it to some extent for what it was. It's only when I think what it could have been that I feel disappointed. Seeing Bowie at the height of his vocal power and physical beauty, and supreme command of the stage, in that Earl's Court footage. I mean, Brett Morgen had full access, and that's all we got?? It was nice to see some of the Ziggy footage with the sound mixed well for once. I liked the fleeing footage of early Ziggy that was spliced in and I am sure it worked better like that than shown in full. I imagine it is a rough source. I think I would always go back to Cracked Actor, the Five Years docs, and then things like Musikladen and the Japanese 78 broadcast. I might bookmark half a dozen points in that two and a half hour film, but wouldn't want to endure the whole thing again.
in retrospect some footage from the Jackson family stays would have been interesting They showed a small piece in her doc but in the aftershow interview Janet stated there is a lot of footage of DB at the house as he was a regular for a 5+ yr period
To whom ? Watching DB hide under the table with Roger Moore making another house call in Switzerland would be way more interesting
Generally, I thought it was fantastic. Where else can you hear Warszawa, Subterraneans, V2 Schneider, and Moss Garden in 5.1 Surround at a cinema near you? And an amazing live version of “Heroes” from Earls Court when he was at the peak of his creative powers. Yes, there are flaws. I couldn’t help thinking that is Brett Morgen aware the Ricochet film is not newly found footage, but rather an extra on the Serious Moonlight dvd which could be picked up a few years ago for around a tenner in HMV? He really overdosed on that one. I guess it fitted with the general philosophical theme of Bowie‘s narration, but I would have preferred more of the concert footage, and less of the cod philosophy, which I feel weighs the film down. Personally I would just have preferred the music to tell the story, rather than the endless philosophising. It seemed to go on forever, and Bowie tends to refute the whole thing when he marries Iman. Isn’t life great if you can bag a supermodel! Nietzsche and his ilk will only lead you down a dead end if you’re not careful. Therefore there’s another cut of the film; strip away all the Bowie voiceover, and replace it with the music, which tells the story far better. This can be an extra on blu ray disc one, with disc two including the complete Stage film. It’s a hit!
Or it could be simply that it’s the name of a Bowie song… and makes a good film title. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the accurate one.
Just back from seeing it. Well, it's a fast-cut, explosive toke of Bowie for sure (which is numbing after about half an hour). Too much of a mushy collage for my taste. It's like a 2 hour 20 minute trailer for what we'd actually like to see. What Bowie says all the way through is interesting but I know it already. I'll watch it again when it come to streaming or BBC probably but I won't need the DVD (unless it has a juicy bonus disc of new (uncut) live footage.
Private chuckle of the year: So the theater showing MD in Philly only has a box office and small lobby at street level. All the seats and screens are at basement level. Guess what amenity was busted and broke? Spoiler The escalator.
This baby is closed-captioned to within an inch of its life. Every lyric - original or live ad-lib or new "Sound and Vision" - and every spoken comment, no matter how mumbled, is yours for the reading if your chosen theater offers one of these: It mounts in your cup-holder, and the arm is almost infinitely bendy. I kept mine directly in front of my face all night but lowered as to stay below the bottom border of the normal-sized cinema screen.From previous experience, I've found that "off to the side" doesn't really work for me. It easily stayed below the bottom border of the normal-sized cinema screen. I couldn't imagine how I'd make use of it in an IMAX house. I counted precisely three things which were not captioned by the device: the two bits captioned in white right on screen (2 heavily accented fans from the 70s singing his praises, and the bit where he says "we" rockstars (him, Jagger) are not real and do not exist). I forget the third. But point is, there were reports here early on of difficulty hearing some of the wordy bits. Forget that!!
Play Brett Morgen Jeopardy: In "Moonage Daydream", The Escalator make its first appearance during this song. Spoiler: [Jeopardy music] " What is 'Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud', the first song in the film?, Alex."
Cough and you'll miss it, but Danny Kaye's version of "Inchworm" makes an audible (if distorted) appearance in the opening of "MD". Inchworm (song) - Wikipedia
I have seen MD twice in IMAX It looks like they are moving it to a standard screen How is the experience with a less immersive screen? It might be welcome My db meter app read 97 db avg and 102 db peak in a lot of the musical numbers I asked them to turn it down but they said they can not for an IMAX showing Also other than a few big songs they really stayed away from David’s hits and did deeper cuts Would havve liked to have seen more 70s Especially thin white duke era
Spoiler: The year of the diamond dogs The elavators broke so he slides down the rope Onto the street below, oh Tarzan go man go
Mostly better - it's like bringing David Bowie to your neighborhood screen, rather than going to the place where they show all the Jurassic Park movies. But you do lose some detail, like the pilling on his shirt at Earl's Court. Just because something is NotMAX, doesn't mean it can't be played too loud. I took my earplugs out for a while this afternoon at a standard cinema, but the noise level (and not even during a musical number; while I can't remember precisely what was going on, it was adjacent to him introducing Brian Eno and playing with this keyboard toy) got to me and back in they went, before all those casual pix of Fripp, Eno, and DB in the studio were screened. I think it's in part to overwhelm the Talkers.Suits me fine, as long as I don't forget to bring plugs. It strikes me that a complete "Fame" would have been right up Morgen's alley.
Missed my chance to see it in IMAX due to a weekend trip out of town and subsequent COVID isolation :/ Maybe I’ll be able to catch a regular screening before it leaves the theater.
Also, too: "Rock and Roll with Me" from Buffalo '74 looked WORSE in IMAX: obvious macroblocking. So much so, that I thought Brett was Making a Point about Time and Mortality. Better in 4K on a regular screen.
Oh God, how could I forget. Remember that bit in "Cracked Actor" when DB is getting a mask made, and when it comes off his face he starts calling out into the air for tissues? Yeah. No "tissues" in the closed captioning.
Funny comment on the younger generations reaction to Bowie. My youngest daughter, who's 34, saw Moonage Daydream with her friends last weekend. I asked her about her reaction to Bowie over the years. Surprisingly, she was not put out by any of the classic out-there Bowie outfits, like the Ziggy gear, the Rebel Rebel pirates costume, etc. No, the one thing she couldn't get behind was the sailor suit from the Stages tour. I didn't see that one coming.
90% of the film looked blurred, grainy and JPEGy on a regular screen! One thing that disappointed me from the outset was the shaky, hand-held camera on the crucial first shot of David singing the intro to Wild Eyed Boy. If it had been stabilised, it would have been far more powerful.
Coming back to wat I said earlier, perhaps the live footage in this news report is from Earls Court 73 (seeing as it doesn't mention the split of the band):
One thing I noticed was the extra footage from the Russell Harty 1973 interview. I wonder if the archive has the complete show, because it would also mean a full version of the My Death performance, which has been presumed to be wiped. Also, I thought I noticed a brief clip from the Lift Off With Ayesha Starman performance, which is also considered to be wiped. It was difficult to tell, because it was so brief, but it looked to be of professional quality, in comparison to the rather rough quality of early Ziggy shows. I’m certain it wasn’t the TOTP version. I wonder if there is a complete version in the archive?
It would be really nice if something like a bibliography or appropriate equivalent were made available for the sources used in this movie.
I saw Moonage Daydream yesterday, not at an IMAX but at an art house theater here in NH. I loved it. I get why many might be turned off by it as it really is an assault on the senses and it is kind of messy. But I've been thinking about the film ever since I saw it. I found it really uplifting and poignant. For nearly 2 and a half hours, it felt like David Bowie was still alive. When the film was over, I suddenly missed him terribly. I will definitely buy the blu-ray.
