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http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2806
My tolerance for muppets has not improved over the past twenty years. And I forgot that this is (ugh) a musical. Between the muppets and the songs, I could barely sit still through the thing. It’s more an infomercial to show off 1985’s muppet technology than it is a coherent film. And David Bowie’s songs are insipid pandering mainstream crap. This is the guy who wrote Ziggy Stardust? Really?
Okay, I’m being harsh. It’s a children’s movie. (But I hated it even when I was five!) And I do understand why it’s a classic; it’s got a resonant coming of age story and a couple of great scenes. Well, okay, one great scene specifically, which I’ll admit is awesome and looks like it comes from a far superior movie:
But that aside, it’s got endless cutesy muppets, and muppets singing songs, and Jennifer Connelly overacting (I don’t blame her–she was fifteen–but I don’t want to have to sit through it, either), and lots of wandering around through a boring maze, and jokes that aren’t funny, and cliched one-dimensional characters, and, yeah, it’s just not a good film. (I also have to admit that George Lucas’ involvement creeps me out. After reading this, I think my opinion of him is permanently tainted.)
Bowie’s kind of hot. I guess. But he’s barely in the movie and his character isn’t interesting. And he’s not hot in a way that appeals to me. His character is a manipulative “bad boyfriend,” all domineering traditional masculinity, “Fear me, love me, do as I say” (”and I will be your slave,” right). He spends the whole movie fucking with the girl’s head and trying to control her. Yuck.
The Bowie I find hot is creatively vital and sexually subversive. This is hot:
( 1972 photo of Bowie playing Mick Ronson's guitar with his teeth )( Bowie with his hands all over Ronson on Top of the Pops in 1972; I think I ship them )
Also the Life on Mars music video, which I could watch all day without getting bored. [Stupid EMI won't let me embed it.]
And I don't think I'd like Bowie if he didn't have the harder-edged, darker songs. Today's obsession is the Ziggy Stardust movie version of "Rock N Roll Suicide." I wouldn't have expected this song to work live, because it's not your typical verse-chorus-verse rock song--it's more a piece of theater. But here they add in all these backing vocalists and musicians to give it layers, and what makes it truly spectacular is the theatricality and the merging of life and art. The audience actually does play their part--they run up on stage, they try to drag Bowie into the crowd. And Bowie both plays his part and lives his part--the song is Ziggy's death and the show itself is Ziggy's last, Bowie literally killing off the Ziggy character. The whole Ziggy idea is fascinating, Bowie becoming a rock star by playing out the Ziggy story in real life.
(Why, yes, I am trying to remind myself why I like still like David Bowie after sitting through Labyrinth.)
Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
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