I have a ton of updates to catch up on (Halloween, etc), but we just saw the Michael Jackson movie/documentary and I just had to blog about it.
Even if you’re only halfway a fan of Michael Jackson, go see it. It was like watching an almost-concert of the King of Pop with a behind the scenes look at what goes into a concert like that. Every song number was a huge production number, with movie footage and outlandish props and crazy lighting and moving stage parts. The bits we saw made us go wow, I can only imagine how much MORE everything would be had MJ actually been able to perform in concert. You could see Michael Jackson was a true artist, from his perfectionism with the music to his flair for entertainment and bringing drama into his performance. Oh, and the dancing! He was a 50 year old dancing with 20-something year old dancers, and he was matching them with stamina. I can imagine his concerts would have been equivalent to 2-hour workouts!
As a child of the 80’s, it feels like Michael’s music is part of the soundtrack of our lives. I had forgotten that some of the songs were his, even though they were all instantly familiar. And I appreciated Michael’s effort in making his concert songs as close to the records as possible, so even after hearing the first few bars of music, you were instantly taken back in time. One of my favorites was the Thriller number, with all new footage of zombies coming out of the ground. I loved their plan to have ghosts floating in the aisles in the actual concert. I also enjoyed the choreography of They Don’t Care About Us, the black and white movie in Smooth Criminal, and the save the planet footage and stage props of Earth Song.
And even if he was a huge star, you could also see Michael’s humility. You could see how much his dancers and staff loved Michael, as fans and as family. You could see that he was willing to share the limelight with his guitarists and his band and giving them time to shine.
One thing we also noted was that Michael Jackson didn’t really have any guest stars at his concert (at least none that we were shown), but he really didn’t need any. He could carry the entire concert by himself, and you would be entertained every minute of it. The King of Pop was truly in his element on stage, performing. Go see it. Just go and see his final curtain call. It is totally worth it.
