Michael Jackson's This Is It

            I couldn’t wait on this and had to write it immediately.  I’m not even proof reading until tomorrow because I actually stayed up until 7am to finish it, but posting right now.  Expect a much shorter version later, but this has everything, including a song-by-song breakdown.  Please excuse rambling.

I was lucky enough to go to the New York premiere tonight of Michael Jackson’s This Is It.  They took up the entire Regal E-Walk theater in Times Square for this.  The security was intense and surprisingly all white guys.   The tickets were not only specially made and hand delivered, but they had this subtle imprint of “MJ” strategically placed over a black spot on it.  Security guards made sure to touch every ticket to make sure it was consistent to avoid fakes.  Why they were so crazy about a movie that is released to the public two hours after the “premiere” I cannot tell you.  And since when can white guys do security like black guys.  Nobody’s scared of the white security guys, come on.

They did 18 simultaneous premieres around the world.  The main one was obviously LA, where Kenny Ortega introduced the film.  Well, before that, there was a major red carpet.  They simulcast this on the Sony Pictures website as well as in the theaters we were in.  I got there early to get seats, and was forced to watch some woman give awful interviews to awful people.  D-list celebrities in attendance included Jamie Kennedy and Jennifer Love Hewitt, David Cook, Adam Lambert, Ian Ziering, J.C. Chasez, and a whole bunch of shitty LA people.  Will Smith was the last to arrive, and they apparently held the screening for him as he greeted fans.

That guy’s the biggest star in the world in any medium, currently the only actor who can open any film he’s in no matter what it is.  And he’s Black.  But nobody talks about his being Black and he completely avoids anything of any importance.  I hope he eventually does something that matters, because he certainly has the ability.  Maybe he’ll take some inspiration from MJ.

The LA prem was at the new Regal theater next to the Nokia whatever they call it and the Staples Center (where Kobe got his pinky ring at the same time).  From what I’m told, this theater is a big deal, like bigger than the Arclight, and they rushed its construction to have it ready by this premiere.  Yet another “ghoulish” decision made to profit on Michael’s death. 

Sidenote: “Ghoulish” refers to Nikki Finke infamously describing to AEG’s (concert promoters and owners of the footage that made up the film) Randy Phillips saying “he was our partner in life, and now he’ll be our partner in death.”  Google that or just look at www.deadline.com.

It was apparently very windy outside the new Regal theater opening out there where they were holding the premiere.  Everyone was coughing and talking about it, making them look even worse and less interesting.  Just a small part of the disaster.  This interviewer was awful.  The best moments were Kenny Ortega’s.  First, she grabs him off the carpet for a few questions, albeit the same obvious ones she’s asking everyone else.  He gets some dust in his eyes and just treats her like a child.  It was amazing.  He literally just turns to his wife, tosses the interviewer aside, telling her (paraphrased) “hold on, yeah, yeah, just wait a second” while she stands there with nothing to do.  It was glorious.

Minutes later, she was interviewing the Jackson brothers.  The conversation was dead, just saying things like “yeah, he was amazing, I don’t know what else to tell you.”  Gabi Conti, a girl who went to Emerson with me, graduating Broadcast/Journalism last year, could’ve, with zero experience, done a much, much better job.  So Kenny comes by again to say hi to the Jacksons.  He literally pushes her to the side and hugs them all.  She tries to play it off, but she’s been, as gamers say, pwned.  They cut away but have nothing to cut to but the wide so we still see the whole thing.  It was just amazing.  Kenny, a completely sincere and by all means solid guy and total sweetheart by the looks of it, greets them and takes his time, then eventually lets her get back to the interview, at which point she just repeats herself.  Pathetic.

The whole thing made me think of Tom Sawyer’s funeral.  Thankfully, there were some genuines there to counter the bullshitters.  It also made me think again about why I don’t live in Los Angeles.

More on Kenny Ortega.  He introduces the film, giving us no sentimentality because he knows we’re about to see enough of it, and rightfully so.  The most touching moment though came before the speech.  He walks up and an audience member shouts “we love you!”  He shouts back, conjuring MJ himself, “I love you more.”  Holy fuck.  Tears right now even writing this.  He thanks the Jacksons, speaks briefly of his pleasure knowing Michael and working for so long with him.  He says the standard “this is a celebration, not a mourning.”  If it didn’t work, it wouldn’t be a cliché at this point, but some clichés are there for a reason.

Kenny Ortega is the Rudy Giuliani of this whole fiasco.  While Randy Phillips and AEG look like greedy opportunist scumbags, Kenny Ortega has consistently, from the memorial to this movie, been the one we can look to for sincerity and understanding after a loss of what felt like a family member to so many.  The only difference is that many hated Giuliani before September 11^th, but people just didn’t really know much about Ortega unless you were in the biz or a big HSM fan.  Ortega proved himself a good guy with all of this and the footage in the movie supports his being a genius as well.

A full two minutes of FBI disclaimer.  FYI, I saw it twice tonight back to back, the second just the regular midnight screening on Imax, and this was not there.  They were actually worried about bootlegging when it’s being released two hours later.  On that point, who else gets a premiere like this for a movie that’s coming out two hours later?  The NY screening had some amazing people from the music and film world there, thanks to Brian Bantry’s and Peggy Siegel’s lists, but really because of MJ.  None of their other screenings get the names in the audience tonight.

Finally, about twenty minutes after the supposed 9pm start time, Sony Pictures’ pre-roll comes on.  More logos and such.  Then a text scroll over silent black detailing the creation of this film, you know the story already.

Before any music, we get testimonials.  Not that I need remind you, but these were taken before he died.  We hear all of the dancers telling us how special this is and how lucky they feel to be this close to Michael.  The last few start to cry.  Most touching is the dancer who just says “I’m from Australia,” then breaks down crying.  That’s basically all we get from him.  Then the real guy who I want to see more of is the mustachioed junkie looking one who opens with “life is tough, you know.”  He says he’s been “looking for a jump start to get himself going.”  Then gives the speech we’ve heard so often about his love for Michael and tells of how important working with him is.  All with tears in his eyes.  I don’t need big words to describe this guy, he just felt real.

What’s key here is these are professionals following in his footsteps who aren’t sucking up to the guy.  They’re also not fair-weather fans getting all gushy after he’s died, as we all have.  These aren’t standard underlings saying nice things about their boss.  You don’t cry.  You don’t go this in depth.  These people really love and appreciate Michael Jackson, as he really shaped who they are today.

“Wanna Be Startin’ Something.”  The opener isn’t really that good because it’s just him and the footage is shitty.  He’s only singing half the song and not doing any great dancing.  It breaks into amazing footage of the auditions for the dancers and the crew prepping the stage, which really shows us the scale of this.  Hundreds of dancers on one stage.  Warehouses full of gear.  Nothing like an MJ show.

The second half of the song kicks in after this and now it’s full band, full dancers, with Michael more alive and it kicks ass.  The movie does not stop from there.

“Jam” is way better than I remember it.  I loved “Dangerous” as an album.  This was my generation’s album.  I was eight when this came out and had a broken leg.  “Jam” was one of four cassette singles in my first music purchase.  I got the album and played the hell out of it.  I remember how much my mom and I looked forward to the video premieres that summer, back when that stuff mattered.  First was the Spike Lee one with both MJs, Jackson and Michael Jordan.  I don’t remember order after that, but despite not caring about the song, “Remember the Time” video was classic.  Then came the song that I’ll get into later, which is my second favorite MJ track, and one of the best videos ever (extended version of course), “Black or White.”

Point is, I loved the old stuff, but didn’t have ownership.  My dad was a disco (mama-se mama-sa ma-ma-coo-sa) guy so he’d always know more old MJ than I, but he was too busy to get into “Dangerous” like I did, so this stuff is special to me, when I got to be the fan.

Early in the set comes a highlight, one that was previewed when they announced the film, “They Don’t Care About Us.”  Damn.  This track was great when it came out, but here he takes it higher.  The CGI stuff is wild.  This is the ultimate stomp song, more than anything Jack White will ever write.  This was one reason I needed to see it again right after.  Nobody in my theater was stomping because the premiere was full of rich people (except Nile Rodgers, who knows how to groove to a thick bassline).  At the midnight screening though, with the fans, everyone was yelling and dancing.  I love MJ when he gets into the angry attitudey vocal and this is a full song of it, all performed excitingly.

“Human Nature.”  The first teary moment of the set.  Perhaps the best moment of the film is the snarling “I LIKEALIVIN’ THISA WAY.”  Fuck.  Anyone who has ever criticized him who watches this automatically feels small at this moment.  Michael’s all about love.  Love is human nature to him.  If anyone misinterprets his actions for anything else, he’s telling them that they’re flat out misinterpreting and maybe take a look inwards to see if you’re just projecting.  MJ was a huge victim of projection throughout his life, and it actually seems that has ended.  It’s just the classic we fear what we don’t understand or difference.  Now the tide has turned on him and it’s all love coming back.  If only this sea change happened earlier, we could’ve actually seen this motherfucking masterpiece of a tour.  More importantly, the man could’ve lived a better life.  I wish I could have been his friend.

 If “I LIKEALIVIN’ THISA WAY” isn’t the highlight, then perhaps a pause during this song is.  The soundtrack doesn’t capture it because it’s just the regular version, but when he’s on his own on the end of the stage he gets to “looking out…” and pauses.  He just looks.  This is the introduction of a theme we’ll see over and over again.  Pacing.  Allowing the music and the moment to marinate.  The band follows him.  The drummer doesn’t lead them.  They all stay on beat with Michael’s cues.  He stops and there’s silence.  “Looking out…”  LOOOOONG pause.  Audience is gaping-mouthed.

Apologies for digressing, but this song has an oh snap moment every 5 bars basically.  This got more audience reaction than anything else.  His vocal and his dancing are in rare form, and what a song to be on point for.  This doesn’t look like a rehearsal as some others do. 

His body control strikes me and I think of Patrick Swayze.  We lost perhaps the two best male dancers of modern times this summer.  We lost a lot of amazing people this summer.

“Looking out…” 

He looks. 

We hold our breath. 

“Across the morning.”  

We collectively shed a tear and a loud, impressed exhale.

Next we go to Rita Hayworth singing in Gilda.  They make a big production out of “Smooth Criminal,” green screening and cutting Michael into footage from a number of 1940s film noirs.  Other than Rita, we get Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, amongst some other notables.  MJ gets chased to the stage where an elaborate dance piece with a full crew of dancers ensues accompanying his singing the song.

Before the song starts though, MJ comes out and goes off cue, so they stop.  Ortega, on the PA, asks what happened.  “We’re sizzling.”  Audience laughs.  With a childlike tone, Michael seems ignorant and out of his league.  Then he digs himself deeper after working this out with Ortega.  MJ wants to turn later, and Ortega asks “how will you see the screen change from the marquee to the city?” which is his cue.  “I gotta feel that.”  He says it as if this doesn’t sound ridiculous, even though he speaks with a tone as if to his father, which is returned with Ortega speaking to his simple son.  We get the inkling that maybe he’s not being stupid though.

Then they start again.  Lo and behold, he fucking feels it, and nails it.  Without looking, he nails it.  This moment trains us to stop doubting him, even when he says some more absurd stuff later.  Obviously, this entire set piece kicks ass.  After they ditch the cross cutting between the 40s video, they turn the live footage black and white midtake.  It was a nice touch, and credit to Ortega or whoever made the decision not to do it with a cut.

Ok, next comes my favorite Michael Jackson track ever, “The Way You Make Me Feel.”  It starts out with studio footage where he’s rehearsing with just the band to get the track right.  This song is my highlight of the show.  We get a little of everything here.

He talks to the band leader, telling him he needs to slow down basically.  MJ wants him to wait until the end of the bar, “like you’re getting out of bed.”  The words he uses are always ridiculous and oblique but when he says them, if you don’t get it, you’re the one who’s fucking missing something.  The band leader gets a little testy with Michael, but again, it sounds better done the MJ way. 

Michael shows his lighthearted attitude in between the perfectionist when he’s asked if he wants “a little more booty.”  This is a real smile. He agrees and adds “you gotta let it simmer…bathe in the moonlight.”  Yes, “bathe in the moonlight.”  MJ shakes to embody what he means by this, and again, we get it.  The sarcastic band leader has been one upped officially, so he retorts “alright, let’s see what we got simmerin’ wise.”

Continuing the slow intro, a big construction worker set piece is introduced.  Michael sings the first verse like a ballad, very slow, over only keys and light drums.  It’s a beautiful song even without the thick bassline, and the courting dance he does with his female counterpart is quite charming.

Then we get some footage of the choreographers teaching the dancers the moves.  The women are trying to harness the male dancers’ crotch grabs.  A very humorous scene that reminds us again about how similar Michael Jackson is to the rest of us, and how he’s really just another guy, but then at the same time so incredibly different.

Then back into the song with the fucking bassline in there.  Damn.  Even Nile Rodgers (from Chic, only band worth comparing basslines to MJ’s) acknowledged these basslines as pretty fucking bad ass.  The choreography here was great, and MJ was on point, clearly one of those tracks where he went for it, not just like a rehearsal.

This one had me wanting to get up and dance more than any other.  They need to show this film at clubs so that people can watch it and dance.  I think it’ll have an even greater impact that way.  Imax is nice, but I felt weird sitting.

Now the Jackson 5 medley.  I wanted him to stand stationary at the mic for “I Want You Back” like he did back in the day.  They showed the old footage on the screen behind him while he held a microphone for the only time during the show and walked around singing.  There were background vocalists all over the stage.  He did this, “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground),” “The Love You Save,” and “I’ll Be There.”

There are two nice moments in this set.  The first is where he stops because he misses a cue.  During the take, he had taken out his earpiece.  He tells them that “it felt like a fist was pushing into my ear.”  He makes this whole long speech about how he’s “adjusting” to it, but that it’s hurting his inner ear.  Kenny comes on the mic and quickly figures out the problem, asking Michael if turning it down would help.  Michael says “yes” and the problem is solved.  All he had to do was say so, but instead he would not tell anyone they were doing anything wrong.  He even prefaced his complaining by telling them how much he loves and appreciates them.  They start again. 

Then, at the end of “I’ll Be There,” he pauses on stage alone, he’s singing to the crew and dancers all watching below.  He says “excuse me, I’m just trying to conserve my throat.”  But they’re there, so he needs to really perform even though this is just a blocking and dress rehearsal.  He proceeds to deliver a beautiful extended solo, hitting all the notes like it’s opening night.  Afterwards he lectures them that “you can’t make me do that.”  He yells at them for making him use too much of his voice as they all completely ignore and applaud and cheer him.

“I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.”  The female duet vocalist is no match for him here.  Her voice is fine, no worse than the original singer’s, who I don’t even remember.  But she just doesn’t move like Michael.  He has to move her like a puppet, instructing her throughout.  But he does it with graciousness and respect.  Before he does a thing, he actually bow down to her as she comes in following his opening.

The dancing in this song is great.  He moves with every word.  On “I. Just. Can’t. Stop. Loving. You.” He makes staccato hand gestures like he’s grabbing the air with his forefinger and thumb on each word.  It’s great.  Better is just the parts from the original when he sings with the snarl on “if I can’t be with you.”  Shivers. 

Then on the last verse, he has them point the last “you” to the audience and hold it until they go back and forth riffing with the best their voices have to offer on the last line repeatedly.  The dancers watching go nuts.  You even hear Ortega on the mic acknowledging how special the moment was.

After, with Ortega, he yells at the audience again “Don’t make me sing when I’m not supposed to sing.  I’m warming.  Why do you do this to me?”  To his duet singer, “You can do it all you want, I just can’t.”  Ortega laughs him off.  Then together they go over the last part’s dance move, and Ortega shows his moves.  They do this come here thing with a mean face on and it kicks ass.

Not too much to say about “Thriller.”  Obviously it’s the biggest set piece and it’s incredible.  Just watch it.  All I’ll say is I don’t get how they could do it in the regular show without either another set of dancers or a long break before and after.  Were they going to give the audience 3D glasses?  Quite elaborate and one of the main reasons I’m sad we’ll never see this show live.

Another reason to be sad we’ll never see this show is the wardrobe segment.  The designers tell us about all of these groundbreaking technologically advanced costumes for “Billy Jean,” but we’ll never actually see them.  They sounded pretty fantastic though.

Before “Beat It,” there’s a break about the cherry picker.  MJ wants to do the first test with a full rehearsal, but Kenny asks for a safety one first.  Michael agrees, and Kenny breathes a sigh of relief saying “you’ve been there before.”  Touchingly, Michael tells Kenny as they’re taking off “I trusted you,” describing how he would have done it without the test.  This harkens back to one of the major turning points in Jackson’s life—the Pepsi commercial.  Let’s not talk about that here.  I’ll just say I was surprised they left Ortega’s line in since it referenced something that brought such sadness to the rest of Michael’s life.

 During “Beat It,” Michael directs the band again, with words that are characteristically difficult to decipher, but as always, to the point in their own way.  After the confusion, the dance they all do is the dancing highlight of the film.  “And let it burn…the lights out…lights out…let it burn…” as he walks off stage knowing he’s the best at this there ever was and will be.

“Black or White” is my MJ track.  I’d call “Way You Make Me Feel” the best, but this one is mine.  Like I said before about “Dangerous,” this came out when I was old enough to get into it.  Macauley Culkin, who’s about my age, was in the video.  I love the riff.  In college, I’d rock out to this on repeat blasting, singing and playing air guitar.  My roommates thought I was weird.  I’d put it on when people were over and make them listen to it with me, teaching them the words and chords to rock out with me.  It was weird.  Weird enough that I still do it.

A great moment in this performance is when he’s with the ingénue guitarist Orianthi (whose solo debut album was advertised before the film) playing the solo.  The band stops at the end and she stops.  He turns back to her telling her “no, no, no, no.  You keep going even after they stop.  This is your time to shine.  Hit the highest note you can.  We’ll be right there with you.”  He air guitars the chords with her and sings the tones.  He’s some director and some musician.  He’s also just a really, really nice guy.  He knows exactly how to teach someone, and be tough on them, all while being extremely encouraging.  And she melts major faces on this song.

“Earth Song” has another big video piece.  It’s a girl running through a beautiful rainforest.  I’m not sure what happened here.  It was clearly shot in a studio.  And there was a lot of CGI.  But then there are leaves and plants with dead and brown edges.  How did they not get rid of that?  You don’t see that in the Amazon.  With all of this top notch production value, that gets through.  Otherwise the song’s great and the video’s touching.  The pre-viz used to show us the live set piece looked great, and I’m sad we’ll never see it.

No moonwalk in “Billy Jean.”  This is just because it’s a reheasrsal I assume, but one of the big letdowns in the movie.  Overall, this song, apart from a few nice dance moves, is pretty boring here.  The intro before the synth dun dun…dun dun comes in plays but not for long enough.  I wanted him to just stand there looking at the audience for a while as they play the intro for a minute or two.  Just give us a moment to cheer and marvel at the amazing production that is this song.  I guess that might not be the MJ way, but it would’ve been cool.  I thought that maybe this could be a good moment in the set for him to thank the band and introduce them.  The big moment of the song is the slow crotch grab over the jangle guitar break.

They cut to the dancers and crew watching, and they’re all going nuts throughout.  At the end of the song, he says “at least we got a feel for it,” and fists pump and jaws drop, amidst hooting and hollering.  Kenny comes up and says “church.  Church of rock and roll.”

Grand finale.  “Man in the Mirror.”  Kenny comes on stage with the choreographer.  He says we’ll just run through this for sound check and then refers to “the MJ air ending,” with arms extended.  Damn I wish we could’ve seen this.

Sadly, they didn’t get great footage of this one, but they cut the first half together with some nice documentary footage of them preparing, some testimonials and such too.  The footage is pretty plain, but once he starts to give the full performance and not skip lines, it sends major shivers.

He ends the song on the stage but as close to the crowd as possible and uses sign language to say I love you to the audience.

Credits roll.

Stay until after the credits, of which AEG Live gets a logo jump, there’s another bit.  Michael just does some bad ass moves while talking to Kenny about them.  Nothing major, but we’ll take as much MJ as we can get since that’s it.

In a way this is the perfect Michael Jackson film that would never have been made except under these circumstances.  Any other film would have had many more close-ups and montage.  They didn’t have a choice though, so they just held on the wide shots.  This had the effect of allowing us to witness the mastery that was Jackson’s performance.  That way people could have said the cameras embellished his moves, but like this there’s no argument.

Kenny Ortega lets Michael speak for himself here, injecting sentimentality only when it’s inherent in the moment.  He uses the testimonials sparingly, and seemingly at the right moments.  He doesn’t use kid gloves on Michael either.  Ortega allows Michael to get himself out of holes where he would have embarrassed himself.  He does not explain nor excuse anything.  He lets Michael be Michael for better or worse, and it so happens here that he looks pretty good.

Sure, there were 100 hours of footage.  As rumored, is there a great deal of footage that’s been buried?  Is there a conspiracy to hide how weak Jackson really was, only highlighting his stronger moments?  I seriously doubt it, especially when he’s dancing and shaking the way he used to in “Way You Make Me Feel” and “Beat It.”

I cried my eyes out for the entirety of the memorial service months ago.  Ortega produced that.  He seems to understand that we didn’t need to cry or mourn anymore, and like he said, celebrate instead.  This film is a celebration of Michael Jackson.

            Obviously nothing can replace Michael Jackson, “the king of pop,” as it says in the freeze frame ending.  Even though I loved it, I wish against anything that this movie didn’t exist.   Given the circumstances, and even given that a bunch of assholes will make a shitload of money off of it, this is the best-case scenario.  We couldn’t have asked for more.  This footage shows us the man in what might as well be his prime.  It’s not like video of him in his twenties shows any better performances than this would have been.

            This film stands as the greatest testament to an artist in modern times for two reasons.  First of all, he’s 50 years old here and still putting on the best show on earth.  Any doubters are put to sleep by this footage.  Second is the effect he has on us.  I discussed after who else could do something like this.  Nobody.  Not Paul McCartney.  Not Mick Jagger.  Not Madonna.

            Michael lived a life of love.  Sadly, it seems that he gave love much more than he received it.  Well, obviously he had fans.  I mean in his life though, his friendships and relationships were few and strained.  Now, much like Tom Sawyer, everyone is acknowledging his greatness and calling him a saint after his death. 

Normally, when writing about someone who has died, we’d say something like well, he was no saint, but X was a good guy.  Honestly, Michael Jackson is one of the most sympathetic figures I can think of.  He tried really, really, really hard to love and be loved.  The word love comes out of Michael’s mouth in this movie constantly.  He clearly always wanted to make a positive difference on those close to him as well as the larger world around him.  He was misunderstood more than anyone should be expected to tolerate.

            Yet after a decade long break, he was about to return to the same stage that lead to the torment those close to him describe he lived.  Hopefully all of these things put together will make every one of his critics shut the fuck up and grant what would make him happier than anything else—LEAVE HIS KIDS THE FUCK ALONE.