Legendary music star Diana Ross has just turned 75 years old and this documentary based around her 1983 concert in Central Park which had to be abandoned on the first night of trying due to a freak thunderstorm, she went back the next day and so it all her fans!
There is no doubt about Diana Ross being a legend and and outstanding singer and performer. The thing is though she also deserved a much better tribute than this film, it was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought with it being a documentary that it would at least be put together in a good and nice way. That was not to be the case, I had seen a few bad reviews before going to see it but I still decided to head to the cinema for the one night only engagement.
Having now seen this "film" which was pretty much a badly edited version of the concert without any of the footage being restored in a better quality. This meant smaller on the cinema screen as well as very blurry at times, the same clips of the audience being used at different moments and all together just very bad editing. I was expecting as labelled a documentary that it would at least have other people on talking about the great singer, no not at all. Her children briefly said a few things at the beginning and we were shown random clips in no particular order from her career. Surely Diana Ross deserved a hell of a lot more than this?
I certainly thought so and was left rather annoyed and disappointed that she was not given a truly outstanding film that then showed the groundbreaking concert in Central Park. But in better quality through being restored. When the film ended it seemed to be just the end from the actual concert that was aired back in 1983, why? Surely have her children on again or have them on throughout. Why not even have Diana herself involved and talking about it?
Seems very strange that something like this in such poor form was given a cinema release, it just left me feeling annoyed that so much more could have been done and put into the film to actually make it worth watching. I am sure you could easily find the clips from that concert on YouTube which certainly takes away from the cinematic experience and idea of actually screening it?
I have probably confused a few people with my passion about how annoyed this has made me. But I have always been quite a fan of Diana Ross, you know one of those artists that you grew up listening to, I was even lucky enough to go to her Newcastle gig during her last UK tour. Just checking dates and that was all the way back in 2007! Anyway I feel this film with the title Her Life, Love and Legacy does not really show any of those things hence the disappointment. I hope one day we actually get a film about Diana Ross that we deserve and more importantly that she deserves for the music and performance level she has given for well over fifty years.
