UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Red-Barracuda This concert film is probably most famous for capturing a pivotal moment in music history. It is the last show that David Bowie performed under the Ziggy Stardust persona and the last time he was on stage with his backing band The Spiders From Mars. Seemingly his announcement near the end of the show stating that this was the final appearance was not only news to the audience but to the band as well!The film takes the form mostly as straightforward concert footage. There is also some backstage material interspersed throughout which I think it would have been good to have had more of, seeing as it revealed a little bit more of what Bowie was like behind the mask. But as it was, the vast majority of material is taken from the concert. The approach taken is very stripped down and basic. There isn't really a lot of imagination in the approach but I guess the idea was to let the show speak for itself. Perhaps though it might have been better for a live performance by such a flamboyant performer as Bowie to be presented with a little more imagination. Sometimes, it's the audience reactions to the show that are truthfully the most interesting, seeing as some of his fans seem to be almost hyper-ventilating with emotion. Some of the costume changes now provoke a chuckle or two; although, in truth, I have always found the fashions of the 70's glam rock era to be absolutely catastrophic. But at the end of the day it is a time capsule film and in this sense it is interesting. Even if Bowie does feel the need to do a mime artistry routine.The concert itself? One for Bowie devotees especially I would say, of which I am not one I have to admit. But I thought Mick Ronson was very good on guitar and they all do knock out the tunes with some energy. It was also interesting to hear a good version of The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat close the show.

Michael_Elliott Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973) *** (out of 4) Famous documentary takes a look at David Bowie's transformation in Ziggy Stardust and his band The Spiders from Mars. Filmed at the Hammerstein Odeon on July 3, 1973, this documentary from the equally legendary D.A. Pennebaker (DON'T LOOK BACK) captures Bowie at what many consider the height of his career. I should admit right off that I'm rather new to Bowie so I wasn't too sure what to expect but as far as his performance is concerned I thought the concert was great. The entire show was very smooth, looked great and sounded extremely well and it appeared that everyone involved was having a very good time. "Watch That Man", "Changes", "Space Oddity", "The Width of the Circle", "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" and "Ziggy Stardust" are just a few of the highlights here. We also get a strange but serviceable version of The Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together". The entire concert is full of wonderful energy that comes off extremely well with the songs and their performance. The one major downside to the film are its technical limitations. I'm not sure what the backstory to this film was but it really seems like the director didn't have much time to get ready for the shoot or perhaps his budget just wasn't big enough to do something more. The biggest problem is that the look of the film is downright ugly and I guess you could even call it vile. The entire movie looks like crap with the camera missing out on stuff we should be seeing or perhaps just picking the footage up as a blurry mess. An HD channel has been playing this recently and in all honesty it still looks quite poor. Even with that said there's no doubt that the film comes highly recommended to fans of Bowie or those wanting to see the legend at the height of his fame.

Dick Chester but I like it. This is a terrific concert recorded 30 years ago by Bowie. Considering that Bowie is in his 50's now and still recording and touring this is an excellent opportunity to see him in his prime. His voice is in great shape & the songs are first rate. Ziggy is one of the peaks in Rock and Roll history. Also Mick Ronson is one of the greatest rock guitarists ever. Much has been made of the costumes & Bowie's use of mime etc. but it is the music which carries the day.

Anonymou-4 I still love David Bowie, and still very much would have loved to see one of his Ziggy Stardust shows... but this video is a cruel teaser. I couldn't understand why a videotape book I saw called it "practically unwatchable, and unlistenable"--now I know why. Bowie does his best to put on a good performance, but that's not the problem here--the problem is that this may very well be the WORST filming of a concert ever made. The cameras, obviously handheld, are constantly refocusing themselves and forgetting their places, they are shaky, the quality is no better than your typical home movie, they all too often focus on the audience for far too long when we wish we could see the changes going on on stage in the show instead, the sound quality is hideous, and worst of all, we only get an IDEA of what the concert was like (I still have no idea what even the full STAGE looks!). If it weren't for the fact that this is a legitimate release, I would swear that it was an illegally-filmed movie made by a group of fans who snuck cameras into the concert. It's THAT bad. It's really terrible when the cameras are so set on awful closeups and are so shaky and unsteady that you can't even understand most of what's supposed to be going on on stage. After watching it, I felt like I had only been given a hint of what one of those Ziggy-era shows was like... and I still have no more of a full idea of what the experience was like than I did before sitting down to watch this. It's terribly, terribly sad that this is apparently the only footage shot of one of those shows--because we Bowie fans who weren't there would STILL love to see the show in its entirety.