A Brilliant Conflict

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The making of Peter Gabriel's 1986 album "So". Includes interviews with Gabriel, producer Daniel Lanois, musicians/artists who contributed to the album (Tony Levin, Manu Katche, Laurie Anderson, among others) and music critics. The album took Gabriel from an artist with a select audience to mainstream success.Great documentary on a superb album. The album is brilliant and deserves its "classic album" tag. Musically perfect with lyrics that are deep and socially aware.The documentary is well made: researched thoroughly with well-chosen interviewees. Almost every song on the album is covered in detail. Interviews are all relevant and incredibly edifying. Not your usual empty cheerleading interviews but highly interesting and informative. The only things missing are coverage of Big Time and an interview with Kate Bush.

In my eyes and ears, Peter Gabriel is a legendary musician, singer, and songwriter. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing him live yet, by I do own most of his solo albums on vinyl. He has such a beautiful and unique sound that combines rock and world music together, with a bit of jazz and classical. The result is a recipe for some of the best music my ears have ever heard. With Gabriel's 'So' album, Gabriel hit the top of the charts and became a household name with his hit single 'Sledgehammer', due in part to MTV.'Sledgehammer' came out a few years after MTV got very popular in the 1980s. And the music video for 'Sledgehammer' was and is still today considered one of the best music videos ever made. With its visual FX, animation, and music, 'Sledgehammer' entered the lives of many and made a permanent stamp in almost ever home of that time. This documentary follows a few people close to the making of the album including Gabriel, as they talk about the making of this award winning and yet odd album.It was great to see how people close to Gabriel talked about the album and the man himself. Gabriel is actual quite a funny guy with a very dry sense of humor. One thing is for sure though, Gabriel and his musicians are very methodical and detailed when it comes to their music. During this album, the musicians would sometimes do several hundred takes on one song. The needed to get it just right. And back then, they did not have the technology to do things at a fast and easy pace. Which means, tons of equipment broke, and it was left to engineers to layer and loop hundreds of instruments and sounds. Some of the songs were even put together on old fashioned tape.And Gabriel is aware of how slow he works. Much like Stanley Kubrick, Gabriel would spend sometimes years on one album, therefore Gabriel set up his own studio, so he can work at his own space with out having to pay someone else. During the course of this very short 60 minute documentary, there are several talking head interviews with writers, musicians, and Gabriel's long time producer Daniel Lanois. Not to mention Gabriel himself gives an enlightening interview.The documentary is spliced with concert and music video footage from the album, which I think if I hear the song 'Sledgehammer' one more time, I might have a nervous breakdown. This was a very odd album for Gabriel. It came out at the height of the 80s, but it seems like it is a timeless piece of music, although you can hear some 80's synth here and there. I hoped for this short documentary to be better, and to give us something that is not "by the book", but everything feels very scripted and comes across as a dull promo puff piece. For huge fans of Gabriel, you might enjoy this, however you might feel slighted at the lack of information and poor structure.