Written by Linda
September 20, 2009
When you see the word "unauthorized" in a doc title like Devotion: An Unauthorized Tribute to Michael Jackson, you've got to be suspicious. A rush-job, if I ever saw one, Devotion was released so quickly that it includes footage of his televised star-studded memorial service but in reality, MJ's body had not even been laid to rest yet. Now THAT's fast!
The curious thing about unauthorized docs is that the filmmakers have both hands chained behind their back. It appears that there is a certain amount of public domain material (news conferences, news reports, random interviews) that can be included, but (shockingly for a documentary about a musician, fer chrissakes), Devotion does not include a single piece of Michael Jackson's music. Nor does it include any footage of his performances. Instead there is a seemingly random amount of footage that rarely matches the linear chronology of his life story. (And we all know that all it takes is one look at MJ's face to know what decade, or even what year it is.)
So, for example, you have a stock (pre-MJ's-death) interview with Quincy Jones, talking about the production of MJ's record-shattering Thriller album, but you can't hear samples of any of the hit songs, much less their iconic music videos. Or, say, the narrator mentions how Michael's fame exploded when 40+ million viewers saw him perform the moonwalk on the Motown 25 TV special, the doc can only show a random dancer's feet doing the signature move.
Call me picky, but this defeats the whole purpose of a retrospective of an artist's work. Like talking about Leonardo da Vinci but not being able to show the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper. Or talking about Martin Scorsese, but not being able to show any clips from his films. So here, we hear all about Michael Jackson, but don't get to even hear his songs. Um, what?
To its credit, Devotion does include news footage that is both well known (like the Berlin baby-dangling incident), and more obscure (MJ is on the roof of a hotel waving and smiling at fans, then scurries away giggling like a child). Plus there is more coverage of his involvement with charity work, which has only seemed to come to the surface since his death.
I'd say Devotion is for fans only, but truthfully it is the anti-fan documentary. Fans will only be frustrated with the all-talk, no music version of Michael's life. I'd be curious how long it will take for there to be a warts-and-all authorized biography of Michael Jackson's amazing and troubled life. I someone think that if the Jacksons have anything to do with it, it's not going to happen.
