This Is What, Exactly?

I more or less agree with the New York Times review of This Is It. The new Michael Jackson documentary is everything I thought it would be:  rushed and exploitative.

A lot has been said about the legacy of the late King of Pop, his talents and pitfalls. That he was a deeply troubled child who grew up in an abusive household that caused him to hate what he looked like and obsess over youthfulness, drastically altering his outward appearance to conform to some warped ideal image of a pale-skinned, stringy-haired prince. This outward transformation ostensibly dissociated him from his sordid past and allowed him to craft a new persona of a smooth criminal whose suave mannerisms and disregard for authority allowed him to reign supreme on airwaves across the globe. This persona is a stark contrast to the real Michael Jackson, a shy man-child who drowned his inner turmoil in painkillers.

Michael Jackson’s story not only speaks to America’s ongoing social and economic crisis, Michael Jackson is America. Unbridled talent whose outward expression and demonstration of that talent has been mutilated by an obsession with European notions of beauty and the appearance of dominance and vitality, but whose core is rotting, hooked on media distractions, superficiality, materiality, sex, and drugs (including prescription).

And then comes Obama This Is It, a concert so huge and stupendous that it promised to recapture the hearts and minds of people across the globe and introduce the wonder that is Michael Jackson to a new generation. But Jackson collapsed. And what did we get instead? A rushed film that seeks to recoup losses and exploit the Pop star’s demise by forcing a vapid and contrived homage down the audience’s throat. 

The only question is, will America be fooled again by these charades? Initial box office sales suggest, yes.