Critic Doctor (Herb Kane) - DVD review by Peter Sobczynski: All That Jazz (1979)

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ALL THAT JAZZ (DVD)

If the kids in "The School of Rock" needed to find a classroom film that best captured the thrills, pitfalls, tension, noisy excess and creative excitement that can be generated by the power of rock and roll, they could choose no better example than "The Kids Are Alright", Jeff Stein's fascinating 1979 rockumentary chronicling the history of the legendary rock group The Who. Even though the band became famous for complex musical narratives like "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia", the group-Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and the late John Entwhistle and Keith Moon-were always at their best when the energy was high and the artistic pretensions were low and the film, which they financed, closely hews to that idea; instead of a stodgy history lesson which recounts the history of the band with all the excitement of a teacher discussing the Louisiana Purchase, Stein takes a willfully anarchic approach which jumbles together archival materials with newer performances and interviews and nary a contextualizing moment. (The one flaw to this approach is that it renders the film nearly incomprehensible to people who aren't die-hard Who fans-then again, why would they be watching the film in the first place?) Although the group would soon fall prey to all of the standard rock clichés (dead members, numerous farewell and reunion tours, pimping out classic tunes for car commercials), it is possible while watching "The Kids Are Alright" to forget all of that and revel in a time when they had both the talent and integrity to be called one of the world's greatest bands. Well, you can almost forget it-it is worth noting that even though the performance of the anthem "Won't Get Fooled Again" seen here is appropriately earth-shattering, it would also mark the last time that Keith Moon performed before an audience before his untimely (though not wholly unexpected) death in 1978.

CREDITS: Directed by Jeff Stein. Starring Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwhistle and Keith Moon. 1979. 108 minutes. Rated PG. A Pioneer Home Video release.

-- DVD Review by Peter Sobczynski

CRITIC DOCTOR DISCLAIMER

While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.

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