The life, death, and reunion of Canadian dance-punk two-piece band Death From Above 1979.The life, death, and reunion of Canadian dance-punk two-piece band Death From Above 1979.The life, death, and reunion of Canadian dance-punk two-piece band Death From Above 1979.
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Great Band! Mediocre Documentary.
Death from Above 1979 is in my opinion one of the best bands currently out there as of now. Which is why it's such a shame that this documentary ends up being just barely an average one.
The first 25-30 minutes of the film is actually really good. We get the backstory of the band along with some rare footage and interviews of musicians and celberities talking about how much of an influence that the duo actually had on the Canadian punk scene.
However, everything after that following the bands reformation and recording the next album is rather dull. The studio footage just isn't that interesting and neither are the duo outside of their music. A big reason for this is the fact that despite being focused around a very unique band, the film presents itself a very ordinary style. A documentary tackling a topic like this needs to have it's own unique style to prevent itself from feeling like any old documentary and that is where this fails. There is some cool footage of the band at the end performing their first show since their reformation, but it's not worth sitting through the entire thing to get to.
Even at a very short 73 minutes, it becomes apparent at the halfway point that the makers behind this struggled to find enough material to fill the runtime. It's not without it's moments and does have some pretty interesting footage and interviews, but the whole thing just feels like a wasted opportunity that should have belonged in the hands of someone more experienced with this genre of filmmaking. Unless you are a die-hard fan of this band, I'd recommend passing on this one and putting your time forth into watching a better rockumentary out there. This one brings very little to the table.
The first 25-30 minutes of the film is actually really good. We get the backstory of the band along with some rare footage and interviews of musicians and celberities talking about how much of an influence that the duo actually had on the Canadian punk scene.
However, everything after that following the bands reformation and recording the next album is rather dull. The studio footage just isn't that interesting and neither are the duo outside of their music. A big reason for this is the fact that despite being focused around a very unique band, the film presents itself a very ordinary style. A documentary tackling a topic like this needs to have it's own unique style to prevent itself from feeling like any old documentary and that is where this fails. There is some cool footage of the band at the end performing their first show since their reformation, but it's not worth sitting through the entire thing to get to.
Even at a very short 73 minutes, it becomes apparent at the halfway point that the makers behind this struggled to find enough material to fill the runtime. It's not without it's moments and does have some pretty interesting footage and interviews, but the whole thing just feels like a wasted opportunity that should have belonged in the hands of someone more experienced with this genre of filmmaking. Unless you are a die-hard fan of this band, I'd recommend passing on this one and putting your time forth into watching a better rockumentary out there. This one brings very little to the table.
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- RustyShacklefordd
- Nov 7, 2015
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- Also known as
- Death from Above 1979: A Fly in Amber
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
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Top Gap
By what name was Life After Death from Above 1979 (2014) officially released in Canada in English?
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