58 / This Is It?

I boycotted the Michael Jackson film for ten days; I thought it was a bad idea - a dance on a performer's grave, who tragically had been bullied into doing a demanding concert series he was not capable of doing at a time when his health was less than good, with the demands of the project indeed killing him. Well, was it?

In discussions with friends and my children I voiced this opinion so many times, that I finally thought, 'my god, you've gotta go and see this thing.' I got the surprise of my life (well, of my week). The film gives an idea of the man's greatness. Goodness, could he move! What an artist, what a performer, what a perfectionist, hard worker, inspiration to those who worked with him.

The film is very flawed, it has to be - the performances are cobbled together from various takes on successive days/weeks; furthermore, he held back with his singing, to preserve his voice. But the movie is a lot better than I thought it would be. It is clear he had surrounded himself with an extraordinarily talented bunch of musicians and dancers. The staging, the musical direction, the choreography, the sound and especially his dancing are sensational. Had the concert series gone ahead - the resultant concert movie would have been a knock-out.

One question remains. The cliché, 'It is what he would have wanted' is used when the movie is justified. Is that true? Would he have wanted to be shown to the world - to his fans - in an imperfect composite of snippets of rehearsals? We will never know. Nevertheless, I had a great time as I was reminded how much of a loss his death is. I am looking forward to a movie with a collection of his greatest video clips - where MJ is shown at his best.