Looks like a bootleg concert video made by a gifted fan.
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture (1983)
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Reviews Counted:28
Fresh:20
Rotten:8
Average Rating:6.1/10
Theatrical Release:Jul 10, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: The quintessential moment in glam-rock history, ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS is David Bowie at his best. This film of the 1973 concert (released 10 years later) documents the... The quintessential moment in glam-rock history, ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS is David Bowie at his best. This film of the 1973 concert (released 10 years later) documents the hallucinogenic collage of kitsch, Warhol/Pop irony, and flamboyant excess that was the Bowie phenomenon: his trademark synthetic androgyny is a musical symbiosis of feminine passion and masculine dominance that define his funky, gender-bending art and, ultimately, the glam-rock genre as a whole. Early on, the film cuts to elaborate backstage costume changes between sets, highlighting a playlist that includes such classics as "Changes," "Space Oddity," "Time," and "Suffragette City." In this comprehensive document of a seminal peformer in music history, director D.A. Pennebaker captures the enigmatic singer's smoldering brilliance like a Hubble photograph of a supernova; it is essential viewing for Bowie fans and music historians alike. [More]
Starring: David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, Woody Woodmansey
Starring: David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, Woody Woodmansey, Ken Fordham, Brian Wilshaw, Geoffrey MacCormack, John Hutchinson
Director: D.A. Pennebaker
Director: D.A. Pennebaker
Studio: Cowboy Pictures
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Reviews for Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The...
Despite the silly costumes, poor stage presence and the rest of it, the songs have not aged.
The sound is muddy and so is the picture, but, nevertheless, Bowie and company glitter -- occasionally like fool's gold, but more often like diamonds.
A mediocre and muddy 'digitally remastered' print. Bowie does little more...than absent-mindedly pace the stage song after song.
The best available film of one of this master showman's several creative peaks -- a peep-show into the past.
As a document of the ever-mutable musician's signature persona, a wraithlike androgyne with a head full of apocalyptic dreams, it's fascinating.
Purely as document, D.A. Pennebaker's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars could not be a more ruthless portrait of a time and a music.
It, however, wasn't until years later when his former wife Angie wrote her memoirs did we learn that she once found Bowie in bed with Mick Jagger.
For fans familiar with the material ... Ziggy Stardust should be a satisfyingly nostalgic experience.
The entire movie, save for a handful of stolid backstage interludes, looks as if it had been shot by a determined group of fans perched on the shoulders of their buddies.
D.A. Pennebaker's long-unseen concert documentary, perhaps best for David Bowie's most rabid fans.
Visual annoyances aside, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is a precious time capsule worth appreciating, whether you were around to appreciate the original or not.
Perhaps more than any other concert film, 'Ziggy' is like a time machine, allowing viewers to travel back to London's Odeon Theatre on July 3, 1973.
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