Michael Jackson's "This Is It," the film

http://www.fackeldeyfinds.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/it-is-what-it-is-via-ffffound-917dc848cb569e5acfa694019004488b7f84d29d_m.png

http://baboonatops.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/the_strokes_-_is_this_it_a.jpg

One glove, white skin: OMG that's him, isn't it? :-(

seeing it tonight, hopes are high

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7-e6Yhu5SU

The only point of the whole thing is to make loads and loads of money. Hence, a predictable hagiography. (And the reaction at that this-is-not-it.com site I linked to)

that doesn't mean it won't be good. but i don't care about any sort of investigation into his personal life, just the music & performance. for that, it seems way more interesting to have all this rehearsal footage than a super slick film of the finished show.

Rave review from Roger Ebert, '...one of the most revealing music documentaries I've seen.'

Still won't see it though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9kKf7SHco

looking forward to movie featuring his reanimated corpse, when is that coming out

This is it

http://www.fraterslibertas.com/Images/Separated/pythonits.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw0dFY4fwTw&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P8h4TONE50

I went this afternoon. It was really good. It's basically a straight concert film, except the concert never happened so it's been pieced together from three or four rehearsals. There are a few interviews and clips of auditions, etc. but they're fairly minimal. It works pretty well.

Michael looks pretty thin, though he still moves well. But his voice was pretty shot, I think, and a lot of the vocals come from backing tapes. He sounded okay when he wasn't pushing it, but he was having to save his voice - he scolds the crew at one point for letting him sing 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' all the way through.

waiting for someone to write This Is Shit.

someone just did

or how about "this is an anagram of shit" or "this is an anagram of hits"

Or maybe "This Is IT", a documentary chronicling Jackson's work in Information Technology Support.

I now must see this to feed my sick Kenny Ortega obsession.

xpost and the next single is going to be "Switch it off, switch it on again"

That's why Genesis were never any good on helpdesk.

This was fucking fantastic, particularly viewing it as a performer who has gone through the rehearsal process on a much smaller scale through several levels of performance, up to and including national television broadcasts of concerts. The numbers were all incredibly entertaining and awesome (possibly my favorite being "They Don't Really Care About Us", yikes) and watching the rehearsal process unfold was riveting; also watching the moments where Michael would stop marking and get swept up in what he was doing were chilling. Also, the level of involvement and control he had over the entire process was totally unexpected and really, really, really great to see; it was really nice seeing him as a functioning, scarily competent adult with a punishing work ethic as opposed to a grotesque, overindulged man-boy.

I now feel like a huge dick for being so cynical about these concerts when they were announced. They would have been amazing.

It was really good. He had a profound feel for rhythm. The best scenes for me were when he was explaining to the keyboard player how to play behind the beat, and asking the bass player to add more syncopation. He knew exactly what he wanted, and vocalized it perfectly, but the musicians, being human, couldn't really do it.

I loved the staredown he was having with the music director/keyboard player over the slow intro to "The Way You Make Me Feel".

i felt really happy for the dancers & musicians that this came out. i mean, how heartbreaking it must have been to spend months rehearsing this huge show (and for some of them it seemed like it was their big break), and then not getting to perform it even once. at least they have something to show for it.

He didn't really come across as a confrontational guy, it must be said xp. Every time he was trying to get someone to do something, even if he was really angry, it was caveated with a 'you are amazing' or an 'I love you'. I was longing for him to throw a proper tantrum.

Yeah, that made me actually like him even more.

Still, lolz at "I want you to play it like I recorded it. THAT'S how it should go."

or was it "wrote it"? now I can't remember

"it should sound like the record" or something

"Go back to my temp"

http://www.screenhead.com/~screenhe/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/james_cameron1.jpg

I really want to see this.

I watched this yesterday, a bit randomly and not expecting anything special and it was quite good. I agree with the positive things said already. It's nice to see him working and even looking that good.
he seemed very in control and nice and I like how everybody around him is full of respect and admiration but also pretty relax and having fun.
I also thought these concerts would be awful and he was over (for years). I was wrong !

The Op Ed in Saturday's Guardian, in slating it, said that the film 'raises so many moral questions'. I disagree, I thought it was a film about rehearsals for a series of big concerts.

hahahaha so many moral questions like "how can they endanger Michael Jackson by putting him on a crane platform"

is it wrong to depict the undead in 3-D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSfwlwnEKyk

Calculation? What, like he meant to do it, for sympathy?

lol @ the "omg he broke a hip" gasp from the crowd

It was really good. He had a profound feel for rhythm. The best scenes for me were when he was explaining to the keyboard player how to play behind the beat, and asking the bass player to add more syncopation. He knew exactly what he wanted, and vocalized it perfectly, but the musicians, being human, couldn't really do it.

― Thus Sang Freud, Monday, 2 November 2009 16:40 (Yesterday)

OTM. Funniest example of this was when he was trying to get the young guitarist to hold a note. "WEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!" he said. "This is your time to shine! WEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWW!"

I always thought movies that showed the music-making process couldn't get made -- i.e., Ray, Bird, Walk the Line focusing so much on drugs and cheating and stuff. Maybe this will change that.

^^I meant like commercialized big-budget movies not being able to get made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yIxIhO23c

watched this this weekend.

was nice...obv it gets a little boring by the end as it's not really a film or a doc as such rather than just a bunch of rehearsal footage

but it was amazing to see him work and how much effort goes into putting on a show like that.

also just struck by how special he was as a dancer and how detail oriented he was as a musician

he was just musical as a human being, like everything he did seemed like music....as compared to, say, like madonna he was just from another planet, much more like elvis, just effortless different and special

Here's my review, FWIW -

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/11/it-would-have-been-something/

nice tracer!

yeah yr definitely right about how fascinating it is to see the insane production behind the scenes...

there was one part where michael was beatboxing how he wanted the band to play and i was just like...damn...how talented.

i'm glad you guys have good things to say about this, since i think the aura of a necrophiliac cash-in circulated so strongly around it that it wouldn't even have occurred to me to see it. now maybe i will.

his death is not discussed or even really acknowledged, which i think works...i mean it clear forms the context, but it's largely unspoken...only the audience really knows that no one will ever see the fruits of all this work, which makes it kinda sad

it doesn't really feel like a film or complete but it's a fascinating snapshot