The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

 

Directed by Frank Marshall and written by Mark Monroe, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is the story of the legendary British pop group of three brothers who were popular in the 1960s and then became superstars in the mid to late 1970s and then take a back seat in the 1980s to be songwriters. The documentary film chronicles the group’s unique journey as it is told by those who worked with the group but also those they influenced and from the sole surviving Gibb brother in Barry who is carrying the group’s legacy. The result is a fascinating and heartfelt film from Frank Marshall.

The story of the Bee Gees that consists of the Gibb brothers in the eldest Barry and his younger twin brothers Robin and Maurice were born in Manchester as they moved to Australia with their family that included their youngest brother Andy. In Australia, the three brothers would hone their musical chops and be influenced by many acts including the Mills Brothers and later the Beatles prompting them to return to Britain where they would become a major-selling pop group with guitarist Vince Melouny and drummer Colin Peterson as they were managed by Robert Stigwood. The story of the Bee Gees is legendary as they were this pop group who scored a lot of hits in the 60s and early 70s yet a brief break-up in 1969 that lead to their reunion a year later where they had to deal with an ever-changing music scene only to change their sound in the mid-70s to something akin to the R&B music of the times.

The film doesn’t just play into the band’s history from the early 1960s to the late 1990s but also their influence and the many ups and downs they would endure during those times. Featuring archival interviews with Robin and Maurice from the late 1990s as well as other archival footage from TV talk shows and such with Barry talking from one of his homes in Miami. Associates such as Vince Melouny, longtime touring/sessions guitarist Alan Kendall, keyboardist Blue Weaver, drummer Dennis Byron, and producers Albhy Glauten and Karl Richardson all talk about the music and their contributions. Most notably a scene of how Glauten and Richardson created the rhythmic drum loop for the song Stayin’ Alive by taking drum samples from the song Night Fever since Byron was unavailable due to a family emergency.

Also interviewed aside from Maurice’s widow Yvonne and Robin’s widow Dwina are various producers and artists such as Mark Ronson, Noel Gallagher of Oasis, Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Maurice Gibb’s first-wife Lulu, house music legend Vince Lawrence, and Eric Clapton as he was the one who suggested the Bee Gees to go to Miami to record their 1975 album Main Course. Gallagher and Jonas both discuss the many highs and lows of being in a group with siblings as well as the fact that when brothers sing together, it has a unique sound that is unmatched with anything else. The film also talk about the unfair and unfortunate backlash the Bee Gees endured after Saturday Night Fever and the disco craze as a club deejay from those original discotheques revealed that disco began as an underground thing for gays/lesbians, blacks, and Hispanics at the time but when it became mainstream. The shit hit the fan as people in the world of corporate industry put the name disco on anything to the point of overkill and the Bee Gees were an unfortunate target.

There’s a sequence where the Bee Gees played to a sell-out crowd in 1979 at the Oakland Arena as they were treated with large adulation that is then inter-cut with what happened on July 12, 1979 at Comiskey Park in Chicago where Vince Lawrence was an usher at the stadium as that was the infamous event that was Disco Demolition Night that was held between a doubleheader game between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers. Lawrence revealed that in that bin where all of the disco records were found and were to be destroyed that not all of those records were disco records. Some of the records were from R&B acts like Steve Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and Marvin Gaye as it definitely showcased an ugly scene but also evidence that the event had a lot of racist and homophobic implications with the Bee Gees being a target because of their music.

With the help of cinematographer Michael Dwyer, a lot of the interviews that Marshall filmed are straightforward as it also play into some of the tragedy the band endured such as Andy Gibb’s death in 1988 due to heart failure relating to his drug addiction issues. What was more heartbreaking about his death was that the Bee Gees were going to announce him as an official fourth member as a way to help him. Editors Derek Boonstra and Robert A. Martinez do excellent work in cultivating a lot of the archival footage as well as rare home movies taken by the Bee Gees during their time including moments in Miami where the entire family was living there as if it was paradise. Sound editor Jonathan Greber does brilliant work in not just showcasing some of the demos of the songs but also in some of the audio interviews that play into some of the band’s history as well as the fact that Barry Gibb is the last Bee Gee standing.

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is an incredible film from Frank Marshall. It’s a film that doesn’t just showcase the brilliance of one of the great pop acts of the 20th Century but also in how they influence artists and culture as well as the story of a family who use music to bring them together. While the film doesn’t touch upon every subject, the film does succeed in showing why they mattered then and still matter despite the fact that only one of the brothers is alive and is carrying on their legacy. In the end, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is a sensational film from Frank Marshall.

© thevoid99 2020

Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall

Directed by Spike Lee, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall is a documentary film about the period in the life of Michael Jackson from his success as a child when he was singing with his brothers in the Jackson 5 to the first major solo release of his career with 1979’s Off the Wall where he would begin to break out on his own. Featuring rare archival footage and interviews from historians, musicians, artists, and those who knew Michael reveal the boy who was driven to become one of the greatest figures in the history of pop music. The result is an entertaining and exhilarating film from Spike Lee.

The film chronicles the period in the life and career of Michael Jackson from being this idol for children when he was singing in the Jackson 5 and then leaving Motown for Epic to find creative freedom with his brothers that would lead to wanting to make a solo album of his own. It is really the look of a someone who desires to make something of his own while studying everything around him from those he was inspired by to the legends of the past. It’s a film that showcases a prodigy growing up and finding his own identity as a man and an artist and how this album that would set the course in him becoming a legend would be this impact for many people including musicians, artists, actors, athletes, and everyone else.

With interviews with Michael’s brothers Jackie and Marlon as well as Motown founder Berry Gordy, producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, filmmakers Joel Schumacher and Rob Cohen, songwriters Valerie Simpson and Sediah Garrett, Stevie Wonder, and others that knew him. The people Spike Lee would talk to doesn’t just reveal Michael’s drive and persistence but also that desire to wanting to be more than just some bubblegum singer. Even as it comes to the music as he really did all that he could to make it great as he was known for being a perfectionist. The stories about him at Studio 54 reveal that he was there for the music and would spend much of his time either on the dance floor or in the DJ booth. The film also interviews musicians such as Questlove, Pharrell Williams, the Weekend, and David Byrne as well as producers Mark Ronson and Rodney Jerkins where they would dissect each of the songs on the album and reveal why it still holds up.

With the aid of cinematographer Kerwin DeVonish in filming many of the new interviews where actors like John Leguizamo and Rosie Perez talk about the impact of his music and what it meant to them in their adolescents and growing up into adulthood. Lee also brings his own personal experiences about Michael’s music and the impact it had on him and every African-American child growing up when the Jackson 5 were around. With the aid of editors Barry Alexander Brown and Ryan Denmark in compiling many of the footage of concerts including the ones the Jacksons did in the late 70s and early 80s as well as archival audio from many of Michael’s interviews by sound editor Philip Stockton. Even as some of the demos of the songs Michael made for Off the Wall and the stuff he did with his brothers reveal the work that went into those songs which plays into the importance of musicianship and taking the time to make these songs matter in this age of laptops and machines that doesn’t have the human capacity of what can be done.

Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall is an extraordinary film from Spike Lee. Not only is it a fascinating documentary about one of the finest albums in the history of popular music but also an intriguing look into the man that made it and what it took to make a statement from being this child prodigy to a genius that is nearly unparalleled with anyone else in the world of music. In the end, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall is a phenomenal film from Spike Lee.

Spike Lee Films: (She’s Gotta Have It) - (School Daze) - Do the Right Thing - Mo' Better Blues - Jungle Fever - (Malcolm X) - Crooklyn - (Clockers) - (Girl 6) - (Get on the Bus) - 4 Little Girls - (He Got Game) - Freak - Summer of Sam - (The Kings of Comedy) - (Bamboozled) - (A Huey P. Newton Story) - 25th Hour - (Jim Brown: All-American) - (She Hate Me) - (Inside Man) - (When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts) - (Miracle at St. Anna) - (Kobe Doin’ Work) - (Passing Strange) - (If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise) - (Red Hook Summer) - Bad 25 - (Oldboy 2013 film)) - Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth - (Da Blood of Jesus) - (Chi-Raq) - BlacKkKlansman - Da 5 Bloods - (American Utopia)

© thevoid99 2016