Bowie: The Man Who Changed the World

I thought this would be something very interesting and some of it was. What I found hard to believe was the complete omission of any actual music. I watched almost the entire documentary and did not hear one clip of any actual music. Why? It almost seemed like they weren't allowed to use any of the actual music he wrote and recorded or from the concert footage used. I've seen many documentaries such as this that include small clips of live shows, clips of the particular songs they're discussing etc., but this was completely devoid of anything like that. Could have been much more enjoyable. Mostly just pictures and concert footage with a bunch of blabbering.

I had just finished reading "On Bowie" by Rob Sheffield, which was a touching a passionate tribute to the late singer. I thought that this documentary would be the perfect follow-up, providing a clear portrait of the man's life, art, and personality set against the social climate of the decades that saw his rise in popularity. It absolutely wasn't. It was a directionless mess, with the sort of obnoxious narration and editing one might expect from a celebrity news program - phony, superficial, and without a clear vision or narrative driving it. You see the same pictures over and over again, the same interviews are sampled. It's an exercise in monotony. You could easily complain about who wasn't interviewed for this documentary, but more egregious is the fact that the film couldn't even secure the rights to Bowie's music. Can you imagine a Jimi Hendrix movie that didn't feature his rendition of The Star Spangled Banner? Or a Prince movie where we don't hear "Kiss"? And yet this movie references "Space Oddity" and "Fame" without a single note of these iconic songs. No clips of "The Man Who Fell To Earth", "Labyrinth", or any of his music videos. There is footage of his live performances with the audio removed because who wants to watch a movie about a singer and actually hear them sing? This is a crass and tasteless movie that was clearly cobbled together after Bowie's death in an attempt to exploit his grieving fans. He deserved better. His fans deserve better.

As a great fan and admirer of Bowie's career I was very much looking forward to watch this. Turns out that there is no Bowie music played - which for a documentary about a musician is absurd. As if that is not enough, the narrative's pace is awful. Bowie's career was a long one and difficult to cover in a couple of hours, but the documentary offers only extensive coverage of the 60s, when Bowie struggled for years to get noticed. Interviews are only with people who knew him at the beginning of his career. The last third of screen time is rushed to get through the "remaining" decades, while in the background, poor quality photos of Bowie flip and rotate, as if in an amateurish PowerPoint presentation. Bits and pieces of interviews with Bowie himself are shown here and there, but nothing that cannot be found browsing Youtube. What you get is: poor quality images, a handful of photos that rotate several times regardless of chronology, a few anecdotes of Bowie's youth and ZERO music. It is maddening having to listen to somebody mentioning Life on Mars? or Space Oddity and hearing instead some anonymous drumming in the soundtrack.

Just when you think you've seen everything about David Bowie already it's a treat when something comes along that forges its own path. I don't want to over hype this and despite mixed reviews I was looking forward to it. My expectations were surpassed. It explores the global power and impact of the music of David Bowie and reveals the passions, experiences and forces that shaped his life and revolutionary sounds and looks at the career of arguably the greatest pop star who ever lived. The filmmakers used interviews with friends who give testimony regarding Bowie's impact on their lives. It is extremely insightful. I could go on and on. It's not perfect. Okay let's get the negatives out of the way and it's a big one – except from one of Bowie's early songs there's none of his music. The eeriness of the music score was fitting though. Positives? I'd just tell you watch it

It starts out with a Bowie interview in the 70's with the interview guy giving Bowie a real hard time about going back to England and how things would be so different. Then they talk about how Bowie felt very removed from his family. He said "I have to get out of this house". Most interesting thing I took from it is when they talk about his struggles to make it. I gave this a score of 8 and would 've given it 10 out of 10 stars only it didn't have the music. It would've been so cool if they had the original Bowie songs in there. That was the only thing I didn't like. Maybe the lack of original songs indicates a copyright approval issue. They may have not wanted to pay the royalties, or they could have just been flat out turned down by the label owners. Anyhow, I'm a huge Bowie fan and have been for over 30 years. His passing floored the majority of music lovers, but his memory will live forever. Overall very good and recommend you see this one.

This well done documentary is very interesting. It does a lot to investigate how David Bowie struggled in his early years to become an icon of our times. It includes archive clips as well as interviews with those who worked with him, and clips of the man himself. If you know the broader strokes of Bowie's music through the 70's and into 80's pop stardom, there isn't much you won't have seen or heard but what fun to see this early footage of Bowie.... it gives you a real sense of the early life and creation that David Jones made which became the brand image and the many faces of 'David Bowie', and the innovations that made him unique. The man was a five- star icon. Because there is so much to cover in such a varied artistic career it would be near on impossible to do justice to it all in a couple of hours and even though there is no musical performance at all this doc is really worth a watch to see some of the older footage and the new interviews with his friends and collaborators. The man was savvy business whiz, back in 2013, he shocked us all with the release of The Next Day, his first album in a decade.. It might be said that the release of his final album just days before his death was the greatest publicity stunt in music. The young Mr. Jones probably never thought it would be like this when he recorded 'Over The Wall We Go' with Paul Nicholas, banned by the Britain's BBC nearly fifty years ago. We miss you David. Thanks for all you have done to uplift us and for being the soundtrack of our lives. There won't be another. Farewell sir.

Bowie was the man who changed everything for me. I listened to his music on a loop. The early 70s was the start of my obsession with piling on make-up and reinventing myself. I identified with Bowie's twisted glamour. If you wanted to escape the dreariness of mainstream fashion, then Bowie was your man. Dressing up became a way of life for us. Even my straight friends with an ounce of imagination embraced their flamboyance, happy to be connected with Ziggy and his feminine side. This documentary really shows Bowie's genius and love of his craft. He turned lyrics upside down and inside out, right to the unfortunate end. Most interesting thing I took from it were the amazing background interviews and time warp interviews. Great documentary.

I was surprised at the low viewer rating for this documentary, but reading some of the writers here it's kind of understandable - there's not much David Bowie music in it. It's not something that really bothered me while watching because I picked up on a bunch of facts concerning Bowie that I never knew before, even though I've followed his music virtually from the beginning of his career. Like his older brother Terry being institutionalized for schizophrenia and eventually committing suicide, and Bowie's own belief in Roswell aliens which formed the basis of his early career, Ziggy Stardust persona. That Bowie brought a theatricality and showmanship to music that didn't exist before goes without saying. Not only did he entertain, but he intrigued and provoked audiences as well, while totally obliterating accepted musical boundaries. With that, I found it interesting that an early influence on his career was Anthony Newley, the well regarded British singer and actor, who never achieved Bowie's sort of flamboyance, but did have an infectious energy and style while performing. I found that quite interesting. Probably the one downside for this viewer that others have mentioned was the narrow scope of the film's focus. There was a heavy preponderance of things going on in the single year of 1969, the year when 'Space Oddity' hit the music charts. Almost the entire rest of Bowie's career is given fleeting mention, including collaborations with Marc Bolan and Mick Ronson, who helped him develop the androgynous look, blurring the lines of sexuality in his music. I think if you read some of the harsher reviews for the documentary on this board you might be put off seeing the picture, but I think there's some value to it, for music and Bowie fans alike. If I had my preference, I would have liked to see and hear more music too, but there are plenty of other sources for that. Give this one a try and I'm sure you'll pick up some nuggets you didn't know about just as I did.

This 'documentary' is straight-up terrible. Couldn't manage to get through more than 25 minutes before realizing I'd learn more - and be more entertained - by watching random clips of Bowie interviews on YouTube. The opening credits are your first clue the film will be terrible: The graphics look like something you did in iMovie, and then you find yourself wondering why a movie about David Bowie is starting without using a song by David Bowie. About 10 minutes in, you realize: Whoever did this doc didn't have enough money to pay for the rights to any Bowie songs! So in a movie about a musical artist, there is NO MUSIC BY THAT ARTIST. About 15 minutes in, you realize that none of the major players in Bowie's life will appear. Which isn't a surprise by this point, because any film that can't afford a single Bowie song probably has about as much chance as I do of scoring an interview with, say, Iman or Brian Eno or Mick Jagger. At 20 minutes in, you start to notice that the image collages are starting to repeat over and over again, randomly. They aren't grouped chronologically or thematically - they just sort of fly by sometimes. And the constant sound level issues start to get extra annoying (why is the voice-over always mixed deep into the music bed?). At 25 minutes, you check IMDb to see what rating this amateur-hour documentary got, and you realize that there is no credit for the narrator. Why? Either he didn't want his name associated with this, or he's the producer's next-door neighbour who agreed to do it for free. (I also find it interesting that the producer has buried HER credit after everyone else's. Is she hoping no one will associate her with this in future?) Anyway, don't waste 25 minutes like I did. If you're interested in Bowie, find another source of info/footage.

I love David Bowie as an artist and visionary. The writer/director of this horrible documentary has painted the most dull and boring picture of a vibrant and exciting subject. It is almost a miracle to fail this badly. There is ZERO music of Bowie's in the film which leaves you feeling completely empty. The story telling drives you back and forth through time randomly so that a new fan of Bowie would be totally lost. All of the most important people in Bowie's life are nowhere to be seen in this disaster. There is no redeeming qualities other than the interviews of David himself. A must-not-watch.