6.46am
23 January 2011
I can't remember if there was ever a topic on this documentary about Paul's involvement in the Concert for New York after 9/11, so I thought I'd do one as I got my copy of the dvd today.
I admit, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard of this doc. I was hoping people wouldn't just view it as a vanity project. It was a lot more than that. Often, we get frustrated when historical events aren't documented properly, but this dvd did a fair job at documenting Paul's involvement in the huge concert. More than that, you see Paul in his element…talking with fans, giving interviews, performing and rehearsing, talking with fellow music icons and friends, including Pete Townshend and James Taylor, and being kissed on the mouth by Elton John.
The portions of Paul in the streets shows how people react to him when they meet him…with disbelief, enthusiasm, hysteria, tears, and crazy behavior. One man actually (I think) tries to get Paul to replace a copy of Let it Be he had stolen from him. Paul tells him he's sorry…and makes a quick escape after listen to the man's confused/odd ramblings for a minute. He often tells his driver George to make a quick getaway so people won't follow him after he gets in the car. Some have said they couldn't believe he allowed the parts of himself refusing autographs because people sell them on internet to be shown on the dvd. They thought it cast him in a bad light. I thought it was just typical for someone who is used to signing lots of autographs. He could tell this particular man was just out for the autograph to sell it because he had a stack of pictures. So Paul just signed a blank sheet of paper through the car window. I didn't think it made him look particularly bad at all. Every celebrity should know when to draw the line from fans wanting a bit of your time to people trying exploit you (and others) for a buck.
Some have also said that the constant plugging of the song Freedom was annoying. I can see that to a certain extent because he talks about the song a lot (to Clapton, Townshend, off screen to Jagger). One of the funniest bits to me was when Paul jokingly told Clapton that he felt he was “f*****g auditioning for Mick.” It was really funny, and they both had a good laugh over it. Other funny bits showed Paul actually being nervous before going on Howard Stern for the first time and being a little indignant afterwards about Stern going on about Paul “doing black chicks,” which the black woman on the show said he obviously had because he toured with The Ronnettes. Paul thought that was a little too personal, and I agree. Though it's not too surprising considering he was on Howard Stern. He got his own back later when he and Rusty said Stern was embarrassing himself with the assless pants he was wearing and yelling at celebrities (Drew Barrymore) for fleeing the city.
Other especially good bits of the movie were Paul's conversations with Bill Clinton and the snippets of the concerts and the reactions backstage, especially Stella's reaction to The Who waking up the audience and her and Paul bragging on Zak Starkey, and Stella's proclamation that she has to go out front when Bon Jovi come on because she loves them.
The whole thing was just a great look into the process of the creation of a charity concert and especially a great look into how Paul handles day to day fame. It also shows the rich and famous acting like regular old people, just like they are.
The only odd bit was the lack of Heather. I wonder if they completely cut her out of the footage or if she wasn't there for much of it. She certainly wasn't backstage the night of the concert. It would have been too hard to cut her out of all that footage.
Anyone else seen it yet? Thoughts?
"You can manicure a cat but can you caticure a man?"
John Lennon- Skywriting by Word of Mouth
11.36am
16 February 2011
2.20pm
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1 May 2011
5.41pm
1 May 2010
4.26pm
7 December 2011
I saw this in the television (I think it was More4, off hand) and although interesting, it’s not high on my “To Buy” list.
I’m not surprised that there’s no footage of Heather in it, though, as *allegedly* Paul had the DVD masters of “The Space Within Us” DVD were re-edited to remove any footage of her, as they had recently seperated when the inital edit had been completed.
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