Admirable film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

They say that past is prologue. As I write this, David Bowie died two days ago, succumbing to a cancer diagnosed eighteen months earlier. In one of those instances of cosmic serendipity that quite often manages to surprise me, this film aired last week on one of the cable channels and I decided to record it. It captures David Bowie's final concert in the persona of Ziggy Stardust, one of many that the talented singer brought to the fore over the course of his long and varied career. It was recorded on July 3rd, 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, an array of seventeen tunes both familiar and unfamiliar (at least to me). From today's vantage point, his eerie 'My Death Waits' would seem to be oddly prophetic, but after all, this was over forty years ago so I don't want to assign any undo meaning to it. Accompanied by Mick Ronson on guitar, the band rocks it splendidly, as mostly teenage girls in the crowd swoon over Bowie's characterization. In many respects, he WAS the Wild Eyed Boy of Freecloud, and I'll miss him. Rest in Peace, David Bowie.

Concert films tend to be rated highly by fans of the band or performer. To non fans its just a concert film, even some highly regarded concert films such as Talking Heads 'Stop making sense' are a tad overrated as far as I am concerned even though I actually like the band.This is the concert film shot in London and the last to feature David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona. Some fans might say this was at his pomp although Bowie has made good music since and at this time he was experiencing serious drug issues, bit churlish to say he was at the height of his powers when he was so drugged up.The footage contains some of his early great songs that even non fans would know, although some songs are rather dark. There is great showmanship from the thin white duke, costume changes and interplay with his guitarist Mick Ronson.It certainly looked shocking 40 years ago especially the way Ronson and Bowie cavorted on stage looked daring and camp, but of course now its largely dated. Bowie is now just a guy with heavy makeup and dated costume, so its reliant on his songs and stagecraft.However the concert is not that well filmed, its not well lit, the backstage footage is not that interesting. It is a historical record of an era for Bowie, a period he himself does not remember well because of his hedonistic lifestyle but there is still some power in those classic songs of his and great guitar from Ronson.

This is the film of the final concert that Bowie would ever play with his (then)back up band, The Spiders From Mars (featuring Mick Ronson on guitar). It was filmed/directed by D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, Monterey Pop). Despite those credentials, this is unfortunately a very poorly shot & edited document of a very good concert. The camera(s) seem to shake,rattle & roll every time they're fixed on a band member (Pennebaker seems to have a real problem keeping the camera in focus, making this film about as much of a challenge as watching the first reel of Warhol's 'Poor Little Rich Girl'--where the entire first reel is totally out of focus). Bowie & company manage to be in finer than fine form,snorting fire during this Odeon Hammersmith performance in 1973. This film was originally filmed for what was intended to be the pre cursor of the DVD, the laser disc, but after viewing the poor quality of the film, the producers of the laser disc quickly changed their minds. 'Ziggy' then managed to sit in the can for ten years, until it managed to somehow get spotty distribution (via the art house circuit)in 1983. If you can get past the clumsy, in and out of focus camera work & poor editing,this film just might give you a clue into what Bowie was into back then. Honestly,I would have to recommend picking up the sound track CD instead.

Bowie is clearly enjoying himself here, although today he claims to find this record of the Spiders final show unwatchable. The costuming IS spectacularly dated and Ziggy's antics do more to camp up a storm than forewarn of an imminent apocalypse. Aside from the music though, there is more going on here than silly, decadent posturing. Backstage musings by Bowie are suggestive of why he is not merely a relic from a past era: there is inherent tension between the public persona and the demand to discover the "real" Bowie. Rock music has since split into 2 positions along these lines: for the most part, the English traditions of camp and irony have served as a distancing device from the demands of an "authentic" self which can impose on others in an intrusive way- Jewel's folk music/"Knight Without Armor" is merely the latest manifestation of the latter tendency (also, despite the hatred of hippies, Nirvana ironically shared their "no hang ups" philosophy in their "Come As You Are" period). Ziggy was, at the time, the most extreme movement away from the "authenticity" of Woodstock Nation in which there was nothing separating the performer and the audience...been an "alien being" also guaranteed a spectacular show for record buyers who may otherwise have had little interest in live music given the high fidelity improvements in recording technology and home sound systems which were starting to become available. It is the irresolvable tension between these two tendencies toward camp/authentic which helps generate the excitement of the audience captured in this film, and which can still inspire interest and enjoyment today.