Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Directed by Kenny Ortega
Runtime: 112 min.
Fans will cheer Michael Jackson’s This Is It.
Haters will sneer (as expected). But Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese,
Oliver Stone and other first-class filmmakers who failed to transition
Jackson onto the big screen during his pop-idol years ought to weep at
the missed opportunities that This Is It makes apparent.
Based on rough video records of Jackson’s rehearsal process prior to
his planned comeback and world tour (plans cut short by his death on
June 25, 2009), This Is It captures
Jackson at peak inventiveness. His genius is brought closer and
clarified. Behind the tabloid image, he’s seen thinking, devising,
improvising—and performing masterfully. At age 50, Jackson was still a
prodigy; possessed of protean talent and when in the company of
collaborators ("These dancers are an extension of Michael" says
director Kenny Ortega) he is inspired. He proves/justifies the legend
the world already knows.
Several of the rehearsal numbers—especially a nearly acapella "Billie
Jean" and a stirring new arrangement of "The Way You Make Me
Feel"—immediately rank with the greatest musical performances even
seen on the big screen. That’s the opportunity lost by such pop-attuned
directors as Scorsese, Stone and, especially, Spielberg—who betrayed
Jackson by cutting off ties following the witchhunt and erroneous
accusations of bigotry that met the 1995 release of "They Don’t Care
About Us." Spielberg’s failure to engage Jackson on a movie-musical
project (Peter Pan or Earth Song or Childhood) deprived the world of a
possible Minnelli-level masterpiece.
Ortega’s collage work on This Is It shows the same care for dance and spectacle that distinguished his original High School Musical from
its poor sequels. He blends behind-the-scenes details with prospective
stage concepts so that Jackson’s showbiz vision remains a tantalizing
probability. Both marvelous entertainment and post-modern
deconstruction, its art value is as high as Jonathan Demme’s Talking
Heads film Stop Making Sense (recently remastered on BlueRay
DVD by PALM Video, it's an instructive parallel to Ortega's
accomplishment). Ortega integrates addition footage commissioned for
the world tour--mini music videos that recall Jackson’s great
achievements in that field.
The what-if aspect of This Is It has a poignant element. It recalls the posthumous ballet sequence of The Red Shoes (1948) where empty ballet slippers trace a late artist’s well-rehearsed steps. Yet, This Is It is
too vital to be elegiac. We’re watching a virtuoso in the midst of
creativity. This is pop, after all; plus a dazzlingly accomplished
run-through of some of the greatest music of our lifetime—whether the
scorching "Black or White" (a song many Americans still can't face that
occasions Jackson‘s gracious encouragement of a shy white blond female
guitarist) or the magnificent "Jam"—the most powerful rock song ever
to masquerade as funk. (His desultory, though hot, Jackson 5 medley
shows he has transcended fans’ nostalgia.)
Jackson’s concert version of Smooth Criminal features a new movie-intro where he is inserted into Hollywood mythos, interacting with Rita Hayworth in Gilda as
well as Bogart, Robinson, Gloria Grahame and a panoply of movie land
immortals. This flamboyant sequence asserts Jackson's physical oddity
yet it proves Jackson's fame equaled theirs and surpassed their talent.
Just as Richard Pryor had to make his own concert movie to show the
rich artistry Hollywood ignored, this Smooth Criminal clip glimpses the new Astaire and Kelly Hollywood should have embraced.
Look at Jackson's "I Can’t Stop Loving You" improvisation: music goes
through his body, inspiring physical poetry--pointing, picking notes
out of the air like berries on a bush. He’s some kind of pop mandarin
whose art (performed at the crossroads of genius and injustice) is just
beginning to be understood. This, indeed, is it.
Armond White’s Michael Jackson Video Show premieres at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater on Nov. 22. His new book, Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles is available at resistanceworkswdc@yahoo.com
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