Bad 25 Venice Review

Posted 11 years ago by myetvmedia

Spike Lee’s Bad 25 is a truly amazing documentary focusing on the passion, inspiration and most of all – the music. By selectively presenting rare, unseen archival footage and interviews with people closest to the creation of the record BADSpike Lee shows us the brilliance of Michael Jackson as an artist. He takes us on a trip, song by song, making us feel like a part of the process. Michael Jackson’s life was mirrored in his compositions. What makes this film fresh is that we don’t see Michael through the eyes of media nor through the eyes of people who idealized him. The film does not make a statement on Jackson’s life – it describes his music, dancing skills, songwriting process and professionalism.

I was expecting yet another film about the tragedy and/or glory of Michael Jackson, a person trapped in a ‘wonderland’ of the celebrity life. Instead I saw a document on the creation of one of the most important albums in the history of music. As Spike Lee clarified afterwards – he wanted to show the work of Michael Jackson, to share the creative process. To see the blood, sweat and tears. “Michael did not just sit on his ass” says Lee. He was working hard from the age of 7 when he was studying the great musicians like James Brown. Michael Jackson confessed two of his greatest heroes were Fred Astaire and Gene KellySpike Lee says he wanted to show how much hard work it is. “You don’t just roll out of bed and become a genius”. He wanted to show how involved in every aspect of the production Michael was.

Similar to Cameron Crowe’s ‘Pearl Jam 20’ we can tell that Spike Lee knows his story from the inside – culturally, emotionally and sometimes even esoterically. Lee managed to show archival footage of Michael’s collaborations with Quincy Jones and also to interview not only the group of people involved in the production process but also different generations of artists inspired by Jackson including Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Cheryl Crowe and ?estlove among others.

Michael Jackson, like Elvis Presley or The Beatles, changed the music scene forever. ‘BAD’ came after two huge successes; Thriller (the world’s best selling album) and ‘Off the Wall’ but as Spike Leeshows, Michael wanted to do even better. The film mentions Jackson’s controversial life and his death only when it’s absolutely justified – to show the inspiration and passion of an artist.


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Bad 25 Venice Review

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Spike Lee on Michael Jackson and Bad 25

Spike Lee on the Red Carpet

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