April 30, 2023
FILM: MOONAGE DAYDREAM
DIRECTED BY BRETT MORGEN
STARRING DAVID BOWIE
RATING: 3 ½ OUT OF 4 STARS
By Dan Pal
First off, I have to admit that I was never a huge David Bowie fan. I liked a lot of his music but he never ended up in my Top Ten of any year nor did I ever see him in concert or seek out his films. However, the documentary Moonage Daydream has woken me up to so much about this legendary artist that I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for who he was as an artist and a man.
The film begins with images conjuring the outer universe – a place where much of his work began and ended from Space Oddity and Ziggy Stardust to The Man Who Fell to Earth and his final work, Blackstar. In many of the early interviews featured in Moonage Daydream people seemed perplexed as to who and what Bowie was. Where was he from? Was he an alien? These questions are juxtaposed with numerous science fiction film clips including George Melies’s A Trip to the Moon and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. We get a sense as to what the reaction to Bowie was in his early career. Some saw him as an-other worldly being who didn’t fit in to the standard way of behaving and performing as more conventional musicians did in the early 1970s. So, it’s only appropriate that everything writer/director Brett Morgen does here is to create a work which serves the legacy of Bowie by reflecting who he was on multiple levels.
Yes, Morgen includes footage of Bowie performing some of his most famous songs (although curiously not Fame.) But rather than follow the predictable patterns of most “rockumentaries,” which often provide specific discussions of key songs, albums, and influences, Morgen treats these works as different facets of Bowie’s artistry throughout his career. He was more than just his songs. Bowie discusses some of the personas he created including Ziggy Stardust. These characters were often seen as androgynous and bisexual (we might call them gender fluid or non-binary today.) Bowie’s costumes, makeup, and hairstyles were artistic outward manifestations of these personas.
In many Bowie interviews, he freely discussed everything from his changing physical appearance, spiritual life, and paintings. Morgen seamlessly overlaps these discussions with clips from Bowie’s many on screen roles as well as some of his art work. The visual style throughout the film is quite stimulating and colorful and reflects the many shades of Bowie the man. All of the technical elements Morgen employs here from the fast cutting to the remastered recordings are expertly realized and music effectively underscores everything we see on screen as it all attempts to capture the inner, non-spoken world of Bowie.
Many of us may have become most familiar with Bowie in the 1980s when he had his greatest commercial success with the Let’s Dance album. It’s interesting to hear Bowie’s perspective at the time suggesting this was his foray into “positive, uplifting music.” This movement into commercialism proved a bit much for him though as it re-ignited his drive to express in his art that which was most important to him. He had little interest in appealing to a mass audience. Even as he was dying he created his final work, Blackstar, as an expression of the transcendent period he was then entering.
It becomes very clear through all of this that Bowie never meant to be a pop/rock star. He was an artist. Everything that Morgen does here reflects that. This isn’t a conventional documentary by any means. It’s more avant-garde, like Bowie, never intending to be anything other than what it is: a very revealing portrait of an artist who broke barriers and conventions while remaining true to his own inner spirit.
Moonage Daydream is now streaming on HBOMax.
FILM: MOONAGE DAYDREAM
DIRECTED BY BRETT MORGEN
STARRING DAVID BOWIE
RATING: 3 ½ OUT OF 4 STARS
By Dan Pal
First off, I have to admit that I was never a huge David Bowie fan. I liked a lot of his music but he never ended up in my Top Ten of any year nor did I ever see him in concert or seek out his films. However, the documentary Moonage Daydream has woken me up to so much about this legendary artist that I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for who he was as an artist and a man.
The film begins with images conjuring the outer universe – a place where much of his work began and ended from Space Oddity and Ziggy Stardust to The Man Who Fell to Earth and his final work, Blackstar. In many of the early interviews featured in Moonage Daydream people seemed perplexed as to who and what Bowie was. Where was he from? Was he an alien? These questions are juxtaposed with numerous science fiction film clips including George Melies’s A Trip to the Moon and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. We get a sense as to what the reaction to Bowie was in his early career. Some saw him as an-other worldly being who didn’t fit in to the standard way of behaving and performing as more conventional musicians did in the early 1970s. So, it’s only appropriate that everything writer/director Brett Morgen does here is to create a work which serves the legacy of Bowie by reflecting who he was on multiple levels.
Yes, Morgen includes footage of Bowie performing some of his most famous songs (although curiously not Fame.) But rather than follow the predictable patterns of most “rockumentaries,” which often provide specific discussions of key songs, albums, and influences, Morgen treats these works as different facets of Bowie’s artistry throughout his career. He was more than just his songs. Bowie discusses some of the personas he created including Ziggy Stardust. These characters were often seen as androgynous and bisexual (we might call them gender fluid or non-binary today.) Bowie’s costumes, makeup, and hairstyles were artistic outward manifestations of these personas.
In many Bowie interviews, he freely discussed everything from his changing physical appearance, spiritual life, and paintings. Morgen seamlessly overlaps these discussions with clips from Bowie’s many on screen roles as well as some of his art work. The visual style throughout the film is quite stimulating and colorful and reflects the many shades of Bowie the man. All of the technical elements Morgen employs here from the fast cutting to the remastered recordings are expertly realized and music effectively underscores everything we see on screen as it all attempts to capture the inner, non-spoken world of Bowie.
Many of us may have become most familiar with Bowie in the 1980s when he had his greatest commercial success with the Let’s Dance album. It’s interesting to hear Bowie’s perspective at the time suggesting this was his foray into “positive, uplifting music.” This movement into commercialism proved a bit much for him though as it re-ignited his drive to express in his art that which was most important to him. He had little interest in appealing to a mass audience. Even as he was dying he created his final work, Blackstar, as an expression of the transcendent period he was then entering.
It becomes very clear through all of this that Bowie never meant to be a pop/rock star. He was an artist. Everything that Morgen does here reflects that. This isn’t a conventional documentary by any means. It’s more avant-garde, like Bowie, never intending to be anything other than what it is: a very revealing portrait of an artist who broke barriers and conventions while remaining true to his own inner spirit.
Moonage Daydream is now streaming on HBOMax.