"This is It": Michael Jackson's final message
Amy Bauer
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Life!
As the familiar disco rhythm of "Wanna be Starting Something" blares from the cinema speakers, the audience of Michael Jackson's This is It is no longer at the movies, but in the Staples Center, watching the King of Pop give his best one last time.
The documentary begins with interviews of several of the dancers, who had come from all over the world, for a chance to share the stage with Michael Jackson. All of them shared the same message: Michael had been a figure of inspiration for each of them as artists. After these comments, the quiet tone of the documentary explodes into a spectacle of color and lights, with Michael at the center of it, singing and dancing like when he was in his prime. The documentary, directed by Kenny Ortega, features footage from the rehearsals, beginning in March and ending just days before his death on June 25th, for the 50 sold-out concerts in London which were to begin in July of 2009.
Ortega and Jackson work in tandem to not only do justice to the hits the fans love, but also to infuse them with new and exciting elements, modernize the costumes, and create new video footage for "Thriller" and "Smooth Criminal." The new "Thriller" video is taken to a higher level, with creepier zombies and new dance moves that enhance the classic "Thriller" dance that so many know by heart. Jackson and the eleven zombie dancers perform the famous "Thriller" dance with added twists, like the fusing of one of Jackson's later songs, "Ghosts," into the music. "The Way You Make Me Feel" is also given some new flavor when it is slowed down into a bluesy number that Jackson describes as feeling like "you're trying to get out of bed in the morning." Jackson teases us with a verse of this slowed down version of the hit song, before launching back into the original version that gets all listeners off their seats and on their feet.
Michael seeks a level of perfection to make the audience "feel it" the way he did while writing it. The documentary features Jackson demonstrating his creative authority and his incredible skill to the other musicians, bewildering the skilled performers with his ability to discover just the right sound. He uses his own terminology to describe just how the songs should sound, coining new phrases like, "You have to let it simmer!" or "I'm sizzling." Jackson responds to questions from the crew with simple statements like, "I'll feel it," which he does, getting the cues exactly and achieving the sound he desires to hear effortlessly. For Jackson, at the heart of all the rehearsals and the preparation of the concerts is his message of love. Jackson was quoted as saying the concerts meant a lot to him because it was an opportunity for his children to get to see their father perform. Between songs are beautiful moments of Jackson laughing and smiling with his crew, creating songs on the spot about love and how everything they do is done with "the L-O-V-E, love."
The documentary begins with interviews of several of the dancers, who had come from all over the world, for a chance to share the stage with Michael Jackson. All of them shared the same message: Michael had been a figure of inspiration for each of them as artists. After these comments, the quiet tone of the documentary explodes into a spectacle of color and lights, with Michael at the center of it, singing and dancing like when he was in his prime. The documentary, directed by Kenny Ortega, features footage from the rehearsals, beginning in March and ending just days before his death on June 25th, for the 50 sold-out concerts in London which were to begin in July of 2009.
Ortega and Jackson work in tandem to not only do justice to the hits the fans love, but also to infuse them with new and exciting elements, modernize the costumes, and create new video footage for "Thriller" and "Smooth Criminal." The new "Thriller" video is taken to a higher level, with creepier zombies and new dance moves that enhance the classic "Thriller" dance that so many know by heart. Jackson and the eleven zombie dancers perform the famous "Thriller" dance with added twists, like the fusing of one of Jackson's later songs, "Ghosts," into the music. "The Way You Make Me Feel" is also given some new flavor when it is slowed down into a bluesy number that Jackson describes as feeling like "you're trying to get out of bed in the morning." Jackson teases us with a verse of this slowed down version of the hit song, before launching back into the original version that gets all listeners off their seats and on their feet.
Michael seeks a level of perfection to make the audience "feel it" the way he did while writing it. The documentary features Jackson demonstrating his creative authority and his incredible skill to the other musicians, bewildering the skilled performers with his ability to discover just the right sound. He uses his own terminology to describe just how the songs should sound, coining new phrases like, "You have to let it simmer!" or "I'm sizzling." Jackson responds to questions from the crew with simple statements like, "I'll feel it," which he does, getting the cues exactly and achieving the sound he desires to hear effortlessly. For Jackson, at the heart of all the rehearsals and the preparation of the concerts is his message of love. Jackson was quoted as saying the concerts meant a lot to him because it was an opportunity for his children to get to see their father perform. Between songs are beautiful moments of Jackson laughing and smiling with his crew, creating songs on the spot about love and how everything they do is done with "the L-O-V-E, love."