Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973)
*** (out of 4)
Famous documentary takes a look at David Bowie's transformation in Ziggy Stardust and his band The Spiders from Mars. Filmed at the Hammerstein Odeon on July 3, 1973, this documentary from the equally legendary D.A. Pennebaker (DON'T LOOK BACK) captures Bowie at what many consider the height of his career. I should admit right off that I'm rather new to Bowie so I wasn't too sure what to expect but as far as his performance is concerned I thought the concert was great. The entire show was very smooth, looked great and sounded extremely well and it appeared that everyone involved was having a very good time. "Watch That Man", "Changes", "Space Oddity", "The Width of the Circle", "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" and "Ziggy Stardust" are just a few of the highlights here. We also get a strange but serviceable version of The Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together". The entire concert is full of wonderful energy that comes off extremely well with the songs and their performance. The one major downside to the film are its technical limitations. I'm not sure what the backstory to this film was but it really seems like the director didn't have much time to get ready for the shoot or perhaps his budget just wasn't big enough to do something more. The biggest problem is that the look of the film is downright ugly and I guess you could even call it vile. The entire movie looks like crap with the camera missing out on stuff we should be seeing or perhaps just picking the footage up as a blurry mess. An HD channel has been playing this recently and in all honesty it still looks quite poor. Even with that said there's no doubt that the film comes highly recommended to fans of Bowie or those wanting to see the legend at the height of his fame.
*** (out of 4)
Famous documentary takes a look at David Bowie's transformation in Ziggy Stardust and his band The Spiders from Mars. Filmed at the Hammerstein Odeon on July 3, 1973, this documentary from the equally legendary D.A. Pennebaker (DON'T LOOK BACK) captures Bowie at what many consider the height of his career. I should admit right off that I'm rather new to Bowie so I wasn't too sure what to expect but as far as his performance is concerned I thought the concert was great. The entire show was very smooth, looked great and sounded extremely well and it appeared that everyone involved was having a very good time. "Watch That Man", "Changes", "Space Oddity", "The Width of the Circle", "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" and "Ziggy Stardust" are just a few of the highlights here. We also get a strange but serviceable version of The Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together". The entire concert is full of wonderful energy that comes off extremely well with the songs and their performance. The one major downside to the film are its technical limitations. I'm not sure what the backstory to this film was but it really seems like the director didn't have much time to get ready for the shoot or perhaps his budget just wasn't big enough to do something more. The biggest problem is that the look of the film is downright ugly and I guess you could even call it vile. The entire movie looks like crap with the camera missing out on stuff we should be seeing or perhaps just picking the footage up as a blurry mess. An HD channel has been playing this recently and in all honesty it still looks quite poor. Even with that said there's no doubt that the film comes highly recommended to fans of Bowie or those wanting to see the legend at the height of his fame.