So many thoughts, so little time…
First off, watching movies is part of my job, so I’m probably pretty jaded, but I was still lying awake at 2am with PJ songs running through my head. What hit me first was that after 20 years, I still get goose bumps at the first note of the songs. Then it hit me that it has been
TWENTY years! Apparently a part of the 15 year old in cut off jeans, my father’s old flannel shirts with hennaed hair down to my waist is still there and 'Alive' still packs a powerful punch even though in a different way then back then. My grandmother had just been diagnosed with lung cancer which resulted in me suddenly morphing from minor to caretaker - and not being able to go to the 1992 show at the Rockhaus which actually still pisses me off more than having to work full time while still going to school when she died - but I'm still alive. Take that universe!
I liked the combination of serious parts (Andy Wood’s death, Roskilde, dealing with the sudden fame and the craziness tied to it, Ticketmaster), laugh out loud moments (Singles, ‘Look, there’s a Grammy’, the mug, ‘Boom Gaspar, 292 shows’, EV and CC horsing around on stage during Hunger Strike,the Drummer Rap feat. Spinal Tap, SG's face when the lady at the Ticketmaster hearing called them something like very delightful guys) and just plain interesting stuff like the sudden change in Eddie during the Vancouver gig.
I also thought the Crown of Thorns montage was well and respectfully done, especially since it was made clear in earlier segments of the movie how much Andy Wood still effects and to a certain extent influences everyone who knew him.
The respect and love these guys have for each other after all this time was also pretty palbable IMO. It’s normal to get on each other’s nerves from time to time, but they seem to have each other’s backs when it counts (‘I would have said it if I’d had the balls’ re the Grammy speech or ‘He could have easily killed himself a couple of times and that would have been more than I can take’). Makes me proud to be a card-carrying Ten Club member.
The movie really did lean heavily towards the first years, but 20 years is a lot of ground to cover. I agree with whoever said a miniseries would have been better, but that probably would have appealed to a very limited audience only.