History of The Eagles (2013)

[MisterBluxom]

I've watched a lot of Rockumentaries (documentaries about Rock&Roll groups) and this one is the best I've ever seen. It was 3 hours long and it held my attention all the way through. It seemed extremely honest to me. It told a great deal about the band's good points and bad points. All in all, it was just terrific. I can't imagine liking it any more than I do.  If you have any interest in The Eagles, I'm sure that you will enjoy this film very much.

Edited to Add: I figure  I might as well name some other well-known Rockumentaries and discuss them.

Among the other films were:  Shine a Light by the Rolling Stones - this is really just a concert film. It shows many songs performed by the Stones in a concert attended by Bill Clinton. The Stones have made several other films. I haven't seen them all. But none of the others that I've seen come close to being as good as this one.

I think that I should also name some films that I thought were really bad. These are just my opinions and many of you will likely disagree. But I figure that I will name them and then you can check them out for yourself if you are so inclined. Some Rockumentaries that I would consider quite bad include:

Stop Making Sense - David Byrne and The Talking Heads. Much of this concert film contains Byrne running around on the stage - doing little more than calisthetics. But, IMO, the music and film were both very bad. At least, that is my opinion.

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same. I'm sorry to say this since so many people just love Led Zeppelin. I've always loved them as well. At least, I love their music. But this movie was really unfortunate. It was directed in 1976 by Peter Clifton and Joe Massot and although I've never heard of either of them, I'm sorry to say this film was hard to class as any better than "terrible". The music failed to sound anything like the great music they produce on their albums. I was extremely disappointed with this film.

The Last Waltz - This film was kind of borderline. The music was very good. This film documents The Band playing many of their best hits. Some Rockumentaries show bands playing their music and also show segments where the individual band members talk about their history and share stories of their time spent putting the band together and time spent performing on the road. I have found the best Rockumentaries usually spend about half their time showing them playing their best songs while the other half features individual members discussing their lives both in and out of the band.   IMO, the best films usually spend about half the time doing each of these things. The Last Waltz does. Half of the movie shows their concert performances and that part is really good. Unfortunately, the other half is really boring - not interesting in the least.  Again, that is just my opinion. Many of you will disagree. I suppose it depends on how well you know The Band and how much you like them.

The Song Remains the Same only shows Led Zeppelin playing their songs. But, unfortunately, the sound quality is just awful. They would have been much better off had they just played their music and dubbed the sound from their albums for the movie.  Instead, we wind up with a very poor movie. A terrible shame considering that, IMO, it should have been so easy to produce a really great film.  I don't really know much about making musical movies and so, I base that opinion on the admittedly simplistic idea that if they filmed the band playing their music in concert and they reproduced the audio using people who know how to reproduce music. I may well be wrong thinking that would produce a film with excellent sound. But, if I'm correct, then I'm hoping the product would have been an excellent film.

 

Edited May 30, 2017 by MissBluxom