Morgan Spurlock, the famed filmmaker behind the fast food exposé "Super Size Me", has a new documentary coming to theaters this weekend. Spurlock has tackled a variety of tough topics in the past - McDonalds, Osama Bin Laden, advertising - but his this time he's showing us something truly important: boy bands. "One Direction: This is Us" is an inside look at the meteoric rise of the pop band One Direction. Spurlock follows band members Liam, Harry, Zayn, Louis, and Niall on their tour, while weaving in vignettes of their home life and road to discovery.
Most financially successful concert movies are of recent pop stars, like "Katy Perry: Part of Me" or "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds", so "This is Us" has a chance of making a pretty penny. But where will it stand amongst the concert movies that have been received well by critics?
Let's take a look at some of the most noteworthy concert movies of all time.
"Stop Making Sense" was director Jonathan Demme's first feature-length documentary, and is considered one of the greatest music concert films of all time. Shot over the course of three days at Hollywood's Pantages Theater, the film captures the peculiar show of legendary rock band The Talking Heads.
"Stop Making Sense" was innovative for a number of reasons. It was the first movie to be made using entirely digital audio techniques. There are few audience reaction shots throughout, so as to allow the viewer to form their own opinion of the show. Rather than using quick cutting during the performances, Demme uses lots of lengthy shots so the performance is not concealed. He also makes no effort to hide crew members that come onstage to chance set pieces. All of these give "Stop Making Sense" a raw feel that you can analyze without feeling manipulated.
Directed by Albert & David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, "Gimme Shelter" is the recounting of a bleak day in Rolling Stones history. The Mick-Jagger fronted band was giving a free show with Jefferson Airplane at Altamont Speedway in California. Security for the event was provided by the notorious motorcycle gang, the Hell's Angels. The Hell's Angels proved to be a poor choice for keeping people safe, as they began fighting spectators during Jefferson Airplane's performance. At one point, the bands lead singer Marty Balin is actually knocked out by one of the Angels.
While this itself is alarming, what came next was shocking. As the Rolling Stones perform, an 18-year-old is stabbed to death by one of the Angels right in front of the stage. "Gimme Shelter" focuses heavily on this event, even showing the Stones members watching footage of the murder and reacting to it.
In 2004, New York's own Beastie Boys put on a concert at Madison Square Garden. Rather than spend a lot of money for a real director and film crew, the hip-hop group devised a clever way to get their show on film. They handed out 50 relatively cheap camcorders to enthusiastic (and one supposes trustworthy) fans and simply told them to keep rolling. At shows end, the footage was returned to band member and director Adam Yauch to be edited into "Awesome; I F***ing Shot That!"
Reception of the unorthodox documentary is predictably mixed, with many unable to get over the poor cinematography. Still, others find the unpolished "Awesome; I F***ing Shot That!" to be a unique take on the concert film genre.
Competing with "Gimme Shelter" for the most tragic entry on this list is "Michael Jackson's This Is It". It seems misleading to even call this a concert movie, as Jackson never got the chance to put on the show. "This Is It" is a series of behind-the-scenes videos of Jackson as he prepared for his This Is It tour, which was set to open in July 2013. Sadly, Jackson died 18 days before the opening show.
The footage in "This Is It" was originally never supposed to be released, claims director Kenny Ortega. It wasn't until the King of Pop passed away that Ortega and others felt that people should get to see Jackson's last weeks. Footage of Jackson's rehearsals are edited together in the order of his planned set list, giving us a pseudo-concert experience.
"This Is It" is the highest grossing concert film of all time.
It doesn't matter that Spinal Tap isn't a real band; "This is Spinal Tap" is an amazing concert film. A mockumentary of a British heavy metal band, "This is Spinal Tap" is a brilliant satire of the ego and wild behavior of rock musicians.
As we follow Spinal Tap on their US tour - for which shows keep getting canceled due to low ticket sales - we are treated to interviews with the band that reveal increasingly ridiculous secrets. From learning about their numerous drummers dying in bizarre ways (spontaneous combustion, a bizarre gardening accident, choking to death on the vomit of persons unknown) to watching a dwarf dance around a miniature Stonehenge, "This is Spinal Tap" chronicles the absurd collapse of a clueless band.
In 2002, "This is Spinal Tap" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation by the United States National Film Registry.
