|
INXS star and manager expose...
Make no mistake. No question about it. Michael Hutchence was a rock star. Someone with the charisma of Bowie, Jagger or Bono. And had he not been taken from us before his time he would undoubtedly have been up there with the greats.
This documentary is a fitting tribute to the man, telling the Michael Hutchence story from the early days of INXS through to his untimely demise. There’s telling contributions and insights from family, friends, band members and producers, patched together with plenty of contemporaneous footage of the man himself.
For the most part it’s a riveting watch and you can’t help but feel sorry for a guy who just wanted to make music, but was torn apart by the pressures of the media circus that surrounded him and his intractable battle of wills with Bob Geldof over custody following Paula Yates' desertion.
Particularly telling are the contributions of Michael’s father, who comes a cross as genuine, level headed and someone who loved his son a great deal.
On the other hand, Chris Murphy the manager INXS comes across as someone who loves himself a great deal. His contributions (he’s probably the main contributor after Michael’s father) come across more as the Chris Murphy story.
It would have been nice to have more music and videos but the timing suggests this was probably a made for TV production. And the extras are limited to about 15 minutes of interview outtakes, a few stills (taken form the footage included in the documentary) and a couple of minutes of home videos.
The complete package comes with a 6 track bonus CD, which includes 2 unreleased solo tracks, but this wasn’t included with the dvd promo. I suspect this is going to attract, in the main, to Michael Hutchence / INXS fans. Oh, and to Chris Murphy fans.
***
Review by Pete Whalley
|
