I don’t think there is a Michael Jackson fan out there that would not enjoy the movie “This Is It”.
It is essentially just rehearsal footage of MJ shot at the Staples Centre, before he was to go to London to perform 50 sell-out concerts at the O2 Arena…until news of his unfortunate “death”, that is.
(Those who know me well would know that I still believe that MJ never really died. But that is a story for another day.)
But I guess MJ is the only entertainer in the world that could make a movie consisting only of rehearsal footage interesting.
No one else in the world could pull it off.
I’m really glad they featured some of my favourite songs such as “Human Nature” and “Man in the Mirror”.
Now on to the movie proper:
In our constant haste to label MJ horrible names such as “wacko” or “eccentric” or “pedophile” during his career, we have always overlooked the fact that MJ was a gifted musician and of course, a supreme performer.
There were a few things that struck me about the movie.
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Perfectionist
One, it is that MJ is a perfectionist.
He knows exactly what he wants to achieve in his performance, be it in terms of choreography, or every single note that the musicians are playing, or the synchronisation between dance moves and music, or intentional pauses in the song, etc.
He has it all mapped out in his head, and he makes sure it is delivered.
He was not the eccentric, spaced-out weirdo that we all believed him to be.
In fact, he was all business during the rehearsals.
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Gifted Musician
Two, it is that MJ is a gifted musician.
Maybe not a gifted “instrumentalist”, but definitely a gifted musician.
He “feels” the music in every sense of the word.
After all, this is the same MJ that led the Jackson 5 group – one of the most gifted child performers the world has ever seen.
It’s still the same guy.
He has such an incredible feel for the music, and he knows exactly how he wants the music to be presented for maximum effect.
I really enjoyed watching the part when he was guiding the musicians as to how he wanted them to play certain parts of the songs.
And there was also one scene early in the movie when he publicly gave the bassist a dressing-down cos the bassist wasn’t giving him the groove that he wanted for “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”.
That was a cool scene.
It shows you that you still can’t mess around with MJ when it comes to music.
Oh and by the way, it is a very overlooked fact that MJ actually wrote songs like “Heal The World”, “Billie Jean”, “Earth Song”, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Smooth Criminal”, “Black or White”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Beat It”, and many others.
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Professionalism
Three, I was struck by MJ’s professionalism as demonstrated in the movie.
He always made sure he was in good form even during the rehearsals.
His moves were still slick as ever (even for a 50 year old), and he never missed a step.
As one of his musicians commented, he still knows all the lyrics of all the songs.
C’mon, this is a 50 year old guy we’re talking about, and he hasn’t been performing for quite awhile…and yet he looked as if he never left the stage the last few years.
Still on top of his game.
And his voice was still there too, although he kinda conserved it cos these were just the rehearsals.
If I’m not wrong he still hit the same keys for all his songs (except for the Jackson 5 songs, which had to be transposed down).
MJ Love!