Hendrix (2000)

Powerful

A Disappointing Continuation

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Perhaps the worst rock 'n' roll movie ever. It doesn't matter if you liked Hendrix or not, this is a first class stinker.The theme seems to be good boy goes bad, at least a bad ass American rock icon. I don't buy it. OK he is a rock icon, but never as goody, goody as this movie paints his early life. There is no explanation for the changes, the metaphorsis just happens.The script is bad, especially in the beginning and the acting not much better.The movie picks up a little speed, as the counter cultural Hendrix emerges, but the horrible script just takes it down again.The music that is used is OK with me, at least it has the Hendrix flavor, but of course Hendrix originals would helped.The flash back technique of story telling is annoying, but not as annoying as the lousy script. The supposed last day interview, used as the flash back vehicle, doesn't work. Hate to harp on it, but I can't see Hendrix ever behaving or talking this way.How he changed and influenced rock music, is simply being disrespected by this piece of low budget garbage.Having little budget is no excuse, great films have been made for peanuts. "My Own Private Idaho" cost 2 1/2 million and works because Van Sant paid attention to details. This "epic" not only misses the details, but many important major points. His song writing is ignored, his innovative technique with guitar not recognized or explained, there are simply no insights of any kind here.The constant zooming of the camera is pointless, we're not watching a porno here.I haven't even mentioned that the handling of his death is so incomplete, that all I can figure is that they ran out of money and had to stop, and bring off the conclusion as cheaply as possible.Wood Harris tries to over come this embarrassing situation and shows talent, but he needs the talent to recognize trash. Can you ever image Hendrix saying the words "dig it". If I were Harris, I would have demanded all clichés be eliminate before I say the words. The rewrite would have taken years and we would have all been spared.NOT FOR ANYONE!!!

I saw this movie without any expectations...and I was glad not to have had any...one point which especially disappointed me was the conflict behind the scenes Hendrix experienced with Chas Chandler and Michael Jeffry...Chas, in the movie, was more like Michael Jeffry was in real life and the other way around. The movie however shows very well what the business aspect of the whole music-industry did to Jimi and his ideas and how it destroyed him. Furthermore it was a shame they did not show what the Band of Gypsies actually achieved and how good Hendrix played with those guys...as it is well known that the 1970 new years eve concert at the Filmore East was one of the best Hendrix ever did. Besides that...what a shame shame shame that not one single original recording was used. The acting was pretty OK...besides the concerts and the guitar imitations. I only had some interest going throughout the movie due to my pre-handknowledge to Hendrix and thats about it...not a movie it would see once more. 3 out out of 10 but only because it good that his memory it's kept alive.

I didn't see the beginning and came upon this movie just by "zapping through", in the scene where Faye Pridgeon (Vivica A. Fox) tells Jimi "The Village ain't no neighborhood for a black man, Jimi, you'll see!" What follows then (not surprising for a made-for-TV movie) is a ridiculous medley of some terrible acting, really bad wigs and wannabe sixties set productions, reminiscent in parts of Oliver Stone's Doors movie. I guess I was watching for a little while just for amusement, when it occurred to me that Wood Harris as Jimi was catching my attention. He is giving a consistent performance throughout this inconsistent movie, channeling "his" Jimi Hendrix, who comes across as curious, vulnerable, friendly, pacifistic, bottled up, addictive, selfish, self-destructive, sad and complicated. That for me is an accurate enough description of the real-life Jimi to be satisfied. Also Harris looks a hell of a lot like Jimi and has the only talented wardrobe person on the set working for him (I wouldn't be surprised if he himself chose some of his own wardrobe). It is a hard task to begin with for an actor to portray a legend like Jimi, also performing on stage, making us believe he plays the guitar like one of the most unusual virtuosos of our time. On top of that, the concerts he is required to reenact are some of the most viewed (and admired) Jimi Hendrix performances: Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock etc. but I think he does it really well. The moment where he addresses the crowd at Monterey and tells them something like "I can't tell you 'thank you', 'thank you', 'thank you' enough - I just want to hug you all, squeeze you, like, uh..." you get this fuzzy feeling of a Hendrix who was not a cool and distant rock-star but a boyish, tripping (he just dropped acid), loving musician who did manage to transcend some of that love through his music. Wood Harris stands up to any close-up shots. He has a vast repertory of emotions going through his face, his eyes becoming more and more distant and blind throughout the movie, indicating effectively the disillusion with life and inability to 'understand' and cope that tormented Jimi Henrix. I do like also that the use of drugs is subtly indicated and not used in a melodramatic way. After all, they were the 'chosen' remedy against the disillusion and not its cause. There is a scene where Chas Chandler says goodbye to Jimi who talks but isn't really there. During the conversation he feeds his void, constantly swallowing pills, flushing them with alcohol, taking a drag off a pipe, while saying things like "Yeah, I'm cool man" in this almost, but not quite convincing tone. The drug use is indicated as barely noticed by Jimi himself, but very much noticed by his surroundings, unable to stop it or even address it. There is another scene which sticks with me: The "Plaster Casters" are visiting Jimi to make a cast of his penis. They show him the cast of Keith Moon's penis which is apparently not quite matching up to Jimi's size. The laugh with which Jimi responds is not one of an arrogant rock-god, but eerily confused, part what he feels is expected of him, part surprise with the seriousness of the "Plaster Casters" and part amusement with him winning this "contest" without having actually done anything. The movie seems so plump and with no real direction for the actors that it is beyond me how Wood Harris managed to give such a versatile performance. I wonder if he will be equally stunning in portraying completely different characters or if he just managed to channel Jimi Hendrix so well. I will certainly keep his name in mind and hope he will get interesting parts offered in more serious, important and artfully done movies. The worst part of "Hendrix" is the ending - no symbolism, no poetics, no mystery, just a text appearing informing us (what we already know ) how he died and this quote of his about transcending love and spirituality - well, dear director, that is exactly what your movie was supposed to do, to SHOW us what is in this quote, leaving no need to SPELL it out in the end....

A very lame, cheap & disappointing production. If this was a tell-all about the Monkees it would be embarrassing, but we're talking about the greatest instrumentalist of rock music, one of the true genius of 20th century art. What's lost in this film is Hendrix' MUSIC. He was an amazing songwriter, but you won't find any idea of that here. If your introduction to Hendrix is this movie, you'd think he was nothing more than a glorified karaoke artist. The film has the actor performing "Hey Joe," "Wild Thing," "All Along the Watchtower," "Star Spangled Banner" ... getting the drift yet...? ALL cover songs, not a single song or composition actually written by Jimi. Obviously the Hendrix estate / copyright owners had nothing to do with this production. Then there's the Woodstock conceit, with Jimi wailing in front of the half-million. Anyone who knows Woodstock or Jimi knows he played in front of the last remaining 40,000 straglers on the Monday morning when near everyone had left. Most of the acting was okay, but the rest is a waste.