For big fans like myself there was nothing new, except that "Song to a Seagull" was a cover of an early Clapton song ... which it isn't of course. That's a weird blunder to include in an already crammed documentary.
For not so big fans like my wife it painted a full picture of the artist and person, so that we could reflect "from both sides" afterwards.
The (female) directors did well in letting JM reveal what a female artist has to struggle through, like not being allowed to go to Woodstock because of a TV show and then see CSNY being flewn over to be in the same program. Or how she bailed out of a second marriage when haunted by the images of her frustrated musical grandmothers. Or how giving away her daughter is a stain on her image and a personal trauma, while many male artists have abandoned their children with much more ease.
They could have left in at least one whole song, like Little Green, or one whole performance on stage so as to show, not tell, what a great composer and performer she was.
Mostly one wonders what the point is of reducing such a career to one hour. And how on earth you would still and falsely credit a man for the greatest female songwriter of all time - and you could drop the adjective.
For not so big fans like my wife it painted a full picture of the artist and person, so that we could reflect "from both sides" afterwards.
The (female) directors did well in letting JM reveal what a female artist has to struggle through, like not being allowed to go to Woodstock because of a TV show and then see CSNY being flewn over to be in the same program. Or how she bailed out of a second marriage when haunted by the images of her frustrated musical grandmothers. Or how giving away her daughter is a stain on her image and a personal trauma, while many male artists have abandoned their children with much more ease.
They could have left in at least one whole song, like Little Green, or one whole performance on stage so as to show, not tell, what a great composer and performer she was.
Mostly one wonders what the point is of reducing such a career to one hour. And how on earth you would still and falsely credit a man for the greatest female songwriter of all time - and you could drop the adjective.
