Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune (2011)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 1,732
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Movie Info
Documentary filmmaker Kenneth Bowser profiles American folk singer Phil Ochs, who rose to fame in the 1960s and whose hopeful, incisive ballads were written to inspire positive change in an era of profound social turbulence. Equally critical of the left and the right -- not to mention the politically apathetic -- Ochs penned countless songs and released seven albums, ultimately growing a sizable following thanks to his positive message and talent for songwriting. In 1976, following the deaths of
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All Critics (33) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (1) | DVD (1)
"Phil Ochs" not only is a good look at a man who carved a small but important niche into the folk world but a good record of the turbulent 1960s and what motivated its protesters.
Top CriticThe short and tragic life of Phil Ochs is as involving as the music he wrote and played, and that is saying a great deal.
A compassionate but not uncritical portrait of an artist whose creativity and vulnerability were inseparable from the political distemper of his era.
At once an unsentimental portrait of the ambitious singer who thought himself bound for glory, and an affecting elegy for a time when song was a form of revolution.
A complex portrait of an ultimately unknowable man.
A warts-and-all portrait of a singer and his celebrity, Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune is an overdue look at the '60s folk movement's anti-Dylan.
...captures both Ochs' glory days and his sad and rapid decline, communicating the brilliance of his songs (he wrote hundreds, and recorded 7 albums in his short career) as well as the less savory aspects of his life.
Top-notch documentary on edgy protest singer-songwriter of the 1960s and 1970s Phil Ochs.
This brilliantly composed docu about Phil Ochs not only captures the power of the singer/songwriter's personality, it reveals the period's social and poltical strife by following events in his career and reflected in his lyrics.
Kenneth Bowser's loving but honest documentary gives him his proper due as an important artist, without sugarcoating his troubled, and eventually self-destructive, nature.
It's a bit too worshipful, but certainly fills in the gaps in our knowledge of the life and times of the late 1960s singer-songwriter.
An engaging, sobering documentary that celebrates his life and music while suggesting that in the Dylan-Ochs rivalry, Ochs never had a chance.
... a "must see" for those who lived through the turbulent 1960s, and those who today question our country's continuing engagement in foreign wars.
Proves his work is still relevant, even if you don't know the words.
If nothing else, this film serves as a neat introduction to the music that helped create the anti-Vietnam War movement and define a generation.
Ken Bowser's film biography of a seminal American protest singer of the '60s and '70s is conventionally told but also informative and moving.
First-time filmmakers Wes Orshoski and Greg Olliver trained their cameras on Lemmy for three years and the results paid off.
More than just a biopic of the famed troubadour, Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune is also a brief, brisk, brilliant history of social turmoil in America in the '60s.
Despite all the sadness and disappointment in his story, Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune is an invigorating survey of its subject's life and times.
This film, which shows Ochs' life -- flaws and all -- offers up a history lesson to those who are not that familiar with his musical work and societal contributions, and for Phil Ochs it provides some overdue recognition.
keenly contrived
...keenly contrived
Audience Reviews for Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune
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January 7, 2011:
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