New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Members of the movie audience all serve as stand-ins for those who were supposed to attend the live shows and there is a palpable sense of what this concert might have been. Caroline and I turned to each other several times and whispered, "that would have been kewl!"


The members of the movie audience also represented interesting aspects of Jackson's popularity and cultural significance. There were several small children, not much younger than when Jackson was first introduced to the world, gleefully singing along at their full, school-aged best. The songs therefore take on a timelessness when children not even born before Jackson's last album's release can easily sing along. There was the older white woman who stood in the doorway and watched a large portion of the film. It is easy to forget with today's easily permeable racial boundary of pop music how significant Jackson's socio musical impact was. But the audience watching the movie with us was a demonstration of his appeal to many varied demographics.

Throughout the film, the dancers often served as proxy audience and fans. The movie often cut to them gathered in the front of the stage while Jackson performs alone and they are seen reacting wildly to what they are witnessing. Presumably, most of them are half his age and often act as unabashed fans. The movie in fact opens during the dance auditions where several of them profoundly recount what his music and legacy means to them. Throughout it, they serve as what the audience would have been.

While This Is It is obviously intended to be a positive take on Jackson's talent and legacy, those things that led to his downfall and tarnished his reputation irrevocably manage to creep into the film. While his prowess as a performer -which lends itself to deference - is obvious, there is an equally obvious sense of sycophancy. During moments of His displeasure, voices automatically drop to whispers, eyes are averted and there is a sense that the God-King is not pleased. While not intended, I am sure it's a fascinating glimpse of the inner workings of an entourage centered around the most famous pop star since the Beatles. It is also oddly unsettling to hear him talk using a near normal regular voice instead of the fey, falsetto speaking voice we all expect. One wonders what makes a man so shy as to affect the very way he communicates. The very sight of him, especially those close up, reminds the viewer of his cosmetically mangled, alien features. The movie also begins to delve into Jackson's well intentioned but seemingly self absorbed intent to heal the planet. His only responsibility to the dire situation is seemingly to awake others to the danger and nothing more (while other celebrities actually pitch in). There is also no footage of him other than that of him rehearsing or interacting with other performers that
decreases the boundary between Jackson and the rest of the world. It serves to continue to isolate him from everything else and make him seem other than normal.

It is also difficult at times to watch this movie, for it is filled with a pervasive sense of dread and deep sadness. Not just for the known outcome but for the accompanying sense ironically, of what might have been. Part of the human experience and how we are judged is based on how we react to those aspects of our lives that will alter the direction of our being. As I grow older, I become aware that, no matter the force of an individual's will, we may be powerless to divert impact from our life. Sometimes all one can do is not avoid trauma but stiffen to its violent arrival. But Jackson seems to have been so completely overwhelmed by a strange life. How odd it must have been to have a father like Joe Jackson, who drove children he supposedly loved with such uncompromising, unrelenting focus. Weirder still must have been his earlier life, caught in the midst of a popular culture maelstrom, with disruptive influences and what seems to be no support structure. He often remarked that much of his adult life's desire was to recapture a youth he felt he never had. Hence, he had the fascination with childlike things and perhaps deeper and much darker personal disturbances. Jackson may therefore be the most tragic child performer of our times, and he never recovered. All of this infuses the film with in intense under-current of macabre fatalism.

Continued:       1       2       3