Compliments to Simon Verhoeven: no banal black and white with good guys and bad guys, but a differentiated view. I find this all the more remarkable because it is an entertainment film and not a report.
I suspect that the attempt to give credit to the truth was also the reason why the film even got the rights from Frank Farian.
In a time of superficiality, I find it very positive when a director doesn't aim for maximum cheap sensationalism with simplistic Hollywood good-evil cateories, but rather for balance.
Schweighöfer, who I actually don't think is that great, I find very convincing as a FF.
And the way the two actors portray Rob and Fab, who had been professional dancers for years, make the MV phenomenon of that time understandable today is exceptionally good.
Despite the 2 hour running time, I think that the film would have benefited from another 15-30 minutes:
The explosive rise in the USA to superstardom and the personal problems that come with such a life could have beenfitted from more time. Or the personal problems of superstars, who are ultimately very alone after the adrenaline and drug rush.
I think also the very difficult personal decisions that were made, could have been more emphasized and therefore benefited the emotional side of the movie: Farian in Europe, not able to get his boys flying high under control far away in the USA, and therefore deciding with a heavy heart to cancel the project, or on the other hand, the two giving back their Grammies (nobody could have taken the Grammies from them) showing decency, way more decency than the really horrible media exaggerating the "scandal" for - profit.
Even to this day, the media is lying that this was the "biggest scandal" in music history. As if Hollywood and the showbusiness was ever about authenticity...
Congrats to Simon Verhoeven, for setting the record straight with an enjoyable entertainment film.
I suspect that the attempt to give credit to the truth was also the reason why the film even got the rights from Frank Farian.
In a time of superficiality, I find it very positive when a director doesn't aim for maximum cheap sensationalism with simplistic Hollywood good-evil cateories, but rather for balance.
Schweighöfer, who I actually don't think is that great, I find very convincing as a FF.
And the way the two actors portray Rob and Fab, who had been professional dancers for years, make the MV phenomenon of that time understandable today is exceptionally good.
Despite the 2 hour running time, I think that the film would have benefited from another 15-30 minutes:
The explosive rise in the USA to superstardom and the personal problems that come with such a life could have beenfitted from more time. Or the personal problems of superstars, who are ultimately very alone after the adrenaline and drug rush.
I think also the very difficult personal decisions that were made, could have been more emphasized and therefore benefited the emotional side of the movie: Farian in Europe, not able to get his boys flying high under control far away in the USA, and therefore deciding with a heavy heart to cancel the project, or on the other hand, the two giving back their Grammies (nobody could have taken the Grammies from them) showing decency, way more decency than the really horrible media exaggerating the "scandal" for - profit.
Even to this day, the media is lying that this was the "biggest scandal" in music history. As if Hollywood and the showbusiness was ever about authenticity...
Congrats to Simon Verhoeven, for setting the record straight with an enjoyable entertainment film.