I have never been a big Police fan, I do like some of their music, but a greatest hits record seems to be enough for me. "Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out" is a documentary that is narrated and shot by Stewart Coplend, the Police's drummer and contains old footage from their early days.
It starts right out with a very pretentious narration from Copeland talking about the first incarnation of The Police as a punk band through stills and flyers, within a few minutes we have Andy Summers and we also have a drummer talking about how much better they were then the punks and the new wavers. We get some archival footage of early shows then some studio footage and footage from the first video shoot, the whole time with Copeland yammering philosophically about the band and since it is Copeland's singular voice we only hear his issues about things like what does a drummer do during an outdoor video shoot since he had no drums with him.
The doc is so one sided... All we hear is Copeland's thoughts about everything... His big revelation about the Police's arrival to the big time? He got a bigger drum kit! What a revelation! And a good chunk of the early movie is focused on his brother Ian (Whom the film is dedicated to), too much Copeland not enough Police.
The surprising part is that one of the Police's biggest mythologies is the fighting between Copeland and Sting it's not ever mentioned... Not once.... And how does the Police (And the movie) end? Apparently they were bored and did the best that they could and could never top it so they just quit... How noble!
If you are a big Police fan it has some cool footage, but if you want to learn about a band that was pretty huge and volatile at one time you won't learn much from this.
What a wasted opportunity for an interesting doc, such a pity....
-G
That's really too bad to hear. I'm no Police fan, but it would still be nice if it were done better.
ReplyDeleteI caught a few minutes near the end of the recent Rush doc "Beyond The Lighted Stage" and it seemed very well done. I need to pick that up sooner or later.
-R
Oh and one more thing. The only song I really love by The Police is Wrapped Around Your Finger. Everything else is ok at best.
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It was on one of the movie channels so I thought I'd catch it, behind the scenes could have been fun and interesting... It wasn't. Not because it couldn't be, but because the film maker was stuck on himself.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen it. Something that's been mentioned here before: the live experience. I saw them on the reunion at Wrigley, and I thought they sucked.
ReplyDeleteI think the egos got in the way, and they were all about the cash.
Beyond the Lighted Stage is great.
After hearing the rumors and reading Mikes response it is obvious that those stories were true...And after watching the movie I think Stewart Copeland was the problem, you don't hear of Sting being difficult and he plays with lots of musicians.
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