This Is It (Michael Jackson)
MAN!! 51 years old and the guy could still move and dance like there was no tomorrow. There was so much garbage going around in the days following his death about how he couldn't move, he couldn't dance, he couldn't function, he couldn't sing, he was incoherent, he was unprofessional, etc. That was all bunk. There were over 80 hours of footage from the dress-rehearsals alone that they somehow managed to condense into about 2 hours. All of it shows a consummate professional who knew what he was doing, knew his music, knew what he wanted, had the ability and where withall to get the job done, and who commanded the professional working respect of all those around him. It was cool to watch, yet a little eerie knowing that in some of the footage, he was just days (even hours) away from his death.
Michael was nice to people. When there would be screw-ups, either by him or by others, he'd just say, "That's OK, that's OK.....this is why we have rehearsals". Or when he'd change something or admonish (I can't even call it admonish), he'd always soften it somehow so he wasn't openly criticizing the person in front of everyone. The backup singers and dancers, and the musicians loved working with him. The sound was wonderful, and MJ was a perfectionist when it came to the beat. It was neat, too, to see the workings of just HOW MUCH goes into having a show of this caliber. Just......WOW on the amount of work involved. I thought it was a really good concert documentary. Hell, that wasn't even going to be a "concert", per se. It was going to be a huge SHOW. It was just a HUGE production.
I'll just add that my personal fave was "Billy Jean"... just Michael doing his trademark moves, no backup dancers. Besides the rehearsal footage, we got to see what a big production "The Earth Song" was going to be, and "Smooth Criminal" (black and white, set in the middle of a Humphrey Bogart-Edward G. Robinson film) was going to be so cool, and of course getting to see "Thriller"... just in time for Halloween...you can't beat that (the ghouls, etc. were great). If you see this film, you'll forget all about the ill-looking, strange faced man Michael Jackson was seen as in the last few years before his untimely death.
p.s. "This Is It" is NOT a tear-jerker.
(Shaotie, I hope you see this on the BIG screen.)
Edited to correct gobs of words that got stuck together. Grrrr!
[ Last edited by stargazer234 at 2009-10-30 10:59 AM ]
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