Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Hey, I've been into Christian Rock for over 25 years. I bought my first Larry Norman album somewhere around 1978, and I saw bands like Sweet Comfort and DeGarmo & Key back when they'd just released their first LPs.
Here's my take on this documentary...
First, it's a "amateur professionial" production. It's an hour and a half of camcorder footage shot at a single Christian Rock festival (Cornerstone 2003?) edited into a "stream of thought" type experience with no narration, and "one mic interviews" where the subjects are answering questions, but you don't know the questions because the interviewer is off camera and doesn't have a microphone. Some call this "lean" or "edgy" but I call it cheap. However, good editing can really help and this footage, though seeming random and unfocused, is actually edited together rather well.
Second, it's not about Christian Rock in general, but about "indy" Christian Rock. If you're really into that scene, then you might just love this because there are a lot of interviews and concert footage. However, if you're not an "insider" already, there's isn't much context set for you, so you have to mentally put bits and pieces together as you watch.
Third, the people behind the documentary are apparently not Christians. At least one of the main creators, who narrated much of the commentary track, said she wasn't a Christian during the commentary. That actually made it more interesting to me because the creators really did attempt to remain objective and report what they saw. In fact, they actually seemed as if they were trying to understand the "indy" Christian rockers and their fan base without judging them. However, it was only possible to know that if you watch and listen to the commentary track, which I enjoyed much more than the documentary itself. A little context goes a long way.
Finally, I was going to give the documentary one star because they took Larry Norman's famous coined phrase "Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music" as the title, and they played the legendary song by the same title as the closing credits, and they showed footage of Larry Norman playing at the festival, but they didn't have any interview footage of Larry Norman! Thankfully they put the interview footage of Larry in the additional scenes section and they explained during the commentary track why they didn't put the Larry Norman interview footage in the main documentary.
So, if I had to watch this all over again I would first watch the commentary track, then the documentary itself, and then the special features. Then it makes sense.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music (2006)
Click here for more information about Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music (2006)
