By Terry Manning
Full disclosure: As I’m writing this, I have not seen “Michael,” the new movie biography of late pop superstar Michael Jackson.
I was, and remain, more a fan of Prince.
In my eyes, Jackson was a strange visitor from another planet who from his earliest childhood could sing and dance like no one else, while simultaneously singing and dancing exactly like performers everyone already knew and liked.
To borrow a reference from the world of video games, Jackson was the final boss of popular music.
Every song we had listened to or dance move we had seen up to that time came together in him. Whatever we thought a music video could be was perfected by him. When he called himself the King of Pop, it felt more like a statement of fact than a marketing campaign.
Based on feedback from screenings, audiences and critics are watching two different films.
Last weekend, “Michael” was tied for the highest popcorn (aka audience) rating of any new movie on the Rotten Tomatoes website. It was tied with a concert film from the Korean boy band BTS, whose members borrow heavily from Jackson’s style and moves in their music.
Critics ranked it third-worst among current releases, with many criticizing the film for glossing over Jackson’s odd public behaviors and scandals, including allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
Now, people can say Jackson acted strange at times, but hadn’t we seen that with other entertainers? How about Elvis Presley and the caped jumpsuits he styled after the comic book hero, Captain Marvel Jr.? Or his quest to become an agent of the that era’s version of the Drug Enforcement Administration?
Supposedly, Elvis became a federal agent for an anti-drug agency so he could travel legally with his personal stash of guns and drugs. Lord-a-mighty, I feel my temperature rising at the absurdity of that notion.
They say Jackson became addicted to plastic surgery. True, his facial features changed from more representative of the African diaspora to borderline anime pixie fairy, but again, that’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Hollywood is full of stories of stars changing their features to hit it big, from Clark Gable’s ears to Marilyn Monroe’s nose. Would these critics be shocked to learn Lucille Ball wasn’t a natural redhead? Or to find out (gasp) Elvis wasn’t born with jet-black hair?
As far as the sex abuse allegations, I say this: I have no idea. As we all are in are learning more each day, when you reach a certain level of fame and wealth, you become a part of a sphere where laws and morals are seen as mere roadblocks in the face of making more money and gaining more power.
I’m not forgiving Jackson for anything. At some level, I just have ask myself, where in hell were these children’s parents?
I grew up reading biographies of people who would later be seen as problematic. Among the sports biographies I tucked into my nightstand as a child was one about O.J. Simpson, the NFL’s greatest rusher at that time.
I watched and enjoyed movies that omitted key details or simply made up stuff about George Gershwin, Glenn Miller, and Charles Lindbergh. And it wasn’t just old black-and-white movies.
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Ray,” and “Rocketman” are modern box-office smashes that in some ways can be described — generously — as jukebox fictions based on real people. TV movies about the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and The Temptations are cut from the same cloth. I watched them all.
I remember an exchange between movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert about critiquing a film by comparing it to what the critic wanted versus evaluating it for what it is. Critics are missing the point if accuracy is what they are focusing on with “Michael.”
Accuracy was the focus of an intended nine-hour documentary of Prince. It was put together by Ezra Edelman, the same filmmaker who created the Oscar-winning “O.J.: Made in America.” The handful of people who have seen the movie describe it as a masterpiece.
It will probably never see a broad release because the Prince estate — including family and others with vested interests — view it as an attack on his legacy. Even super-fan Questlove said, it was “a heavy pill to swallow when someone that you put on a pedestal is normal.”
With so much bad going on in the world right now, let Jackson and his fans have this movie. We all could use a smile and warm nostalgia.
If anyone asks why, why, tell them that it’s human nature.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.