One day, someone will make a measured, balanced – and surely unsettling –
feature-length film about Michael Jackson’s controversial personal life. Bad
25, a documentary by American director Spike Lee commemorating the 25th
anniversary of Jackson’s record-breaking seventh album, is not it. This
watchable two-hour film, originally screened at the Venice Film Festival
(and recently abridged rather heavy-handedly for US Thanksgiving audiences),
instead paid homage to Jackson the entertainer.
Lee’s approach was to do a clinical track-by-track analysis of Bad, and in
doing so make a case for it being as important an album as Jackson’s
glittering 1979 funk-soul-disco record Off the Wall and the
gazillion-selling R&B and pop follow-up Thriller (1982). To this end, Lee
succeeded, often in an entertaining way. His interviews with the people
behind Bad, from keyboardist Greg Phillinganes to video director Martin
Scorsese, revealed snippets of fun information – that the album was to be
called Smooth Criminal but master-producer Quincy Jones hated the name, that
Jackson’s ‘shamon’ yelp was a tribute to Sixties soul singer Mavis Staples.
Meanwhile, everyone from Stevie Wonder to Justin Bieber offered their
unqualified praise for the album’s songs
.
.
And quite right, too. Bad, though it did not go on to sell as many copies as
Thriller – it’s a lowly fifth on the all-time best-selling albums list to
Thriller’s first – was a record-breaker in its own right, becoming the first
album to spawn five consecutive US number one singles. It was also the first
solo album where Jackson was the dominant songwriter, making it a definitive
assertion of the American singer’s musical ability at that time. Lee should
be commended for giving us a timely reminder of the album’s genius.
Footage of Jackson from the Bad era showed a driven and exceptionally
hard-working person, while clips of him performing live confirmed that he
was an astonishing vocalist and extraordinary dancer. But whenever someone
delves into the world of the King of Pop, a tension simmers underneath.
There were moments in Bad 25 which touched upon Jackson’s character and left
you willing Lee to ask that extra question and delve just a little deeper.
Off the cuff comments and incidental details about Jackson brought into focus
troubling issues regarding his private life, suggesting a sexual ambivalence
and a childlike mentality. Former vocal coach Seth Riggs suggests Jackson’s
high-pitched speaking voice was a front – “he really didn’t want to grow up,
he wanted a child’s voice.”
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