Michael Jackson's This Is It
Michael Jackson's This Is It is an amazing experience. This documentary takes us backstage to see Jackson prepare for his series of sold-out concerts in London’s O2 Arena. Despite ugly post mortem rumours about the King of Pop, Jackson did not look depressed, gaunt, or drug dependent. He did look fit and more notably he looked happy.Along with his genius at his craft, what comes to the fore is Jackson’s kindness while exerting total control and by osmosis some of his nobility. The consummate professional, Jackson constantly performed like there was a crowd of fifty thousand even though it was only a handful of the cast standing around watching in awe and applauding wildly. While they were dressed down, rehearsal or not Jackson always dressed the part and the result of the above combination is a show as close as you will get to witnessing the completed vision. Speaking of those back up people your heart goes up to them. There are 11 dancers who came from all over the world and survived an audition of 5,000. Among the veteran musicians is 24 year old Australian guitar virtuoso Orianthi Panagaris who was a knockout backing up Carrie Underwood at the Grammies this year and a show stopper working for Jackson. As he said to her “this is your chance to shine” which it was but for her and all the others, on June 25th 2009 that all went away. Veteran director Kenny Ortega whittled hours of footage down to just under two hours and cynics might criticize him for leaving out negative moments but who knows if there are any. In truth this is very one sided and less of a documentary than a labour of love to pay homage to an old friend. If there is anything to be sceptical of it’s the assertion that filming was not for general viewing and only for Jackson’s personal files. They may not have had an agenda now but it seems logical to assume that in the back of someone’s mind there was the vision of a potential future revenue stream. Regardless of plans real or imagined the film provides a cool glimpse at the pre production of sets, animation and amazing make-up. The abundance of footage also allows several songs in the repertoire (gleaned from an online poll taken of fan favourites) to be flawlessly edited from a variety of takes into a seamless number, giving Jackson fanciers a complete look at what may have been the best concert never staged.