Zappa (2020 Doc)

USA 2020

This is, likely, the very best special and biography that has ever been done on Frank Zappa, and it featured a lot of people that were in various bands of his and helped establish a musical legacy that is so different and important ... without a doubt one of the great composers in America, although too many folks only like his rock material, which is sad ... his classical work is right on par with the best modern composers, and at the very least, he was appreciated in Europe and a lot of his classical work was shown, before it ever made it to America.

The film has a lot of footage from the famed archive in the Zappa household, and he even shows us a lot of the things that were in there, and it is almost like every minute of his life in the band was all recorded, and ... most of it will never be heard, even though Ahmet, his son, is in charge of it. Dweezil Zappa tries to play some of the stuff now but apparently he has been stopped and prevented from doing so, which I think is a good thing. Dweezil needs to let go of his guitar hero bs and create his own music and make his own name if he is ever to do anything with his music, specially as his Zappa plays Zappa was OK but in reality not very good or as tight as Frank's bands were.

And there are some neat details, and the special part of this is the last hour of this special, and how it ends up showing us how much he cared and stood up to a lot of things, that many people take fro granted from freedom, to the efforts to prevent censorship, and several other endeavors that he took up the cause for his whole life.

One thing that we get to see and appreciate, is his life long fight against the record companies, and how much they have robbed the artists, and kept so much music and work away from the public ... and one of the things that always got him upset was that he could not do his experimental music in America ... be it too expansive, or in one example, the fact that they could only have 2 rehearsals, and Frank specified that the music could not be done right, with just 2 rehearsals. And, my friends, there it is ... the reason why classical music, and specially modern materials are not heard or seen, and continue to be ignored. And this has been a problem since the political changes many years ago, that started to take the arts out of the educational system, because it was thought that too much of it was way too liberal ... and sadly, all we have been left with is ... commercial music, and a list of the top albums that supposedly are the best sales in America. And no one has ever verified those numbers or where they came from ... !!!!

I like how this documentary was done, as if it was done from "wihin", instead of it being some outsider taking a look at the artist, and still thinking of him as a freak ... well, if his legacy and amount of music is ever (the rest of it!!!) shown, we might find a composer with a great talent, and ability ... on top of being a fairly responsible citizen that stood out against censorship (going back to his early days in a band), and ever continuing towards material that is thought to be on the poor taste side of things, and it is even easier to say that ... he might have done that because the political scene was worse ... and maybe his criticism is just about that! 

A very valuable documentary, and so dofferent than most ... it really is nicely done, and the sad parts are towards the end when several of his favorite musicians show us how they really felt about it all ... they never thought that was being done was bad ... they knew it was different, and very good ... not just another song ... a really valuable lesson in what an art this is ...

Superb documentary. A really must see even if you are not a "fan", although I have never been a "fan", but someone that appreciated great music regardless of how it was done and sounded. And Frank Zappa was/is one of the best.

NOTE: (Side commentary) I would like to see the Zappa family resolve their issues, specially between Ahmet and Dweezil so that they can work on making sure that some of the materials saved in the vault are  put together and show to an audience that will think a lot more of Frank's abilities tham just a rock guitar icon ... there is more here ... that the Zappa family needs to wake up to, and not lose it all to time, by folks that don't value the art of it all.

Directed by Alex Winter

With Frank Zappa, Bruce Bickford, Pamela Des Barres, Bunk Gardner, David Harrington, Mike Keneally, Scott Thunes, Joe Travers, Ian Underwood, Ruth Underwood, Steve Vai, Ray White, Gail Zappa ... Ahmet, Moon and Dweezil are also seen in vintage footage.