Word: concertizing
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...full redemption, not to mention true resurrection, requires a personal appearance. And on the 125th day he rose from the dead, at least on screen, with Michael Jackson's This Is It, a docu-musical record of the star's rehearsals for his comeback London concert series that was to begin in July. Sony, the music and movie conglomerate that has had a decades-long stake in Jackson's economic fortunes, shrouded the project in mystery until its premiere, which was held simultaneously on Tuesday night and Wednesday in 16 cities around the globe. (Sony took over all 13 auditoriums...
...only pre-premiere insights to the film came from two people who had been close to Jackson. His father Joe told the British tabloid News of the World, "This movie features body doubles, no doubt about it." (Given Joe's wrangles with his family and with AEG, the concert's promoters, he may not be an unimpeachable source.) Michael's stalwart buddy Elizabeth Taylor, who attended an early screening last week, effusively tweeted that This Is It was "the single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever seen." And she was in The Sandpiper. (Read a Q&A with...
...what is This Is It? A concert film without the concert. A backstage musical that takes place almost entirely onstage. A no-warts hagiography that still gets the audience closer to the real Michael Jackson - MJ the performer, that is - than anything in the man's avidly documented history. Wisely and decently ignoring the circumstances of his death and the circus that followed it, Ortega focuses on the re-creation of about a dozen Jackson standards for the concert. ("Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," "Black and White" and "I'll Be There" are all here.) At times...
...concert movies...
That said, one obvious hurdle the film faces is that it's a concert film with no concertgoers - just 18,000 silent seats. That's a whole lot less boisterous than the normal adrenaline-fueled arena chaos. It could be a point of strength: Ortega insists there "is something quite special" about the fact that there is an "emptiness where there would have been a roar of applause." But as a viewing experience, it will doubtless take some getting used to. (See the last pictures of Michael Jackson...