The Miles Davis Story

Rating:
Summary: This is a great biographic documentary
Review: Many below have complained of the lack of performance footage. There are some samplings from each phase of Miles' muscial career, however this is not meant to be a concert film. This is great documentary film making with interviews from numerous musicians, friends, family,lovers , etc that really gets to the essence of who Miles Davis was and most importantly shows clearly the influence this man had on jazz music in the second half of the 20th century. The testimony of so many jazz greats speaks for itself. Miles Davis' life was remarkable in many aspects and is certainly deserving of this type of treatment. I thoroughly enjoyed this and am happy to own a copy. Miles' recordings are there for the listening. This film enhances my understanding of the individual responsible for some of the best music ever created.

Rating:
Summary: Miles Deserves So Much Better.
Review: Problems with this documentary:
1. Should have clocked in at 4 hours - at the very least!
6 hours might have done the man and his prodigious career
justice. Might have, if it was organised intelligently
with an emphasis on THE MUSIC and how and why it was made
rather than the dude's personal life.

2. Weighted with lots of gossipy interviews in an attempt to
illuminate the person behind the persona. Which is fine and
valid, as far as that sort of thing goes. Unfortunately,
this stunt is attempted in a suspiciously selective way:
ex-wives, some business associates, a relative or two and
a handful of former sideman; but either too little too often
or too much too frequently to be fair to someone who cannot
defend himself (not that Miles would even care to bother).

3. Likewise, plods through some relatively minor stuff that was
obviously readily available (case in point: long segments on
the Louis Malle score), while absurdly glossing over so many
key periods (example: everything between Jack Johnson and
the 1980 comeback is treated as some drug-addled aberration).
Taken in tandem with Ken Burns' lame treatment of Miles,
similarly stupidly dismissive of the Dark Magus period, this
uncoolness is more than annoying - its insulting.

4. A biographer who does not seem to be at all hip. I cannot
believe how inept his description of a saxophonist's playing
was. Does this guy know anything about music? Don't seem
so. How in Gehenna did this dude ever manage to get Miles'
confidence?
When, oh when, will someone who REALLY digs
Davis, in all his guises and aspects and contradictions and
weirdness present this life the way it ought to be?!?
Miles deserves someone hip enough to delive into the substance
without coming across like a stuffy Oxford Don. He deserves
a cross between William Burroughs, Lester Bangs, Quincy Jones,
Marcus Miller and Samuel R. Delaney to do him justice.
Damn! Someone should spend an hour just describing how
He Loved Him Madly was put down!

5. So many notable recordings and concert tours and sidemen info
are missing from this mug that it is hardly worth watching
more than once. Give us the Miles we really want - and need!
And by the way SONY, where are all those unedited concerts?
There just HAS to be tons of Miles out there somewhere.
Get up with it!

Rating:
Summary: yup
Review: the majority here are right. it's very frustrating to see amazing footage of several of Miles' best bands from his most celebrated eras cut short to hear a bunch of psycho-babble by ex- wives and girlfriends about how great they dressed or what he had for lunch that day. who cares?!
this DVD focus is more on his life in a biographical sense- not necessarily the music. but until all complete performances or released in-full, there are a couple of great snippets of magic to be excavated here. just don't get your hopes too high!

Rating:
Summary: The title says it all!!!
Review: This DVD is amazing, offers an insight to Miles' career and personal life, from the people who lived and worked with him and of course from Miles himself. For all of those who might have read books on Miles' life, this DVD will not give you so much new information and facts, but what this DVD will do, is to offer you plenty of visualizations on things you might have read or heard.
This DVD though, as the title explicitly states is THE MILES DAVIS STORY and not Miles Davis Live In ...... , or whatever else, so I dont unserstand how some people were expecting live performances. This is a documentary and not a concert. What you see is what you get.
I really think that this is a great documentary, and everybody who wants to think of him/herself as a serious Jazz fan should realy own this DVD.
Five stars without hesitation.

Rating:
Summary: adequate intro / short encouters
Review: This is a possible entry point to Miles Davis' life and creation. Historical-, social-, personal-, musical-, and all sorts of -markers are scattered throughout, at times even connected.

From a musical perspective, as others here suggest, this material comes short by not providing full(er) versions of Miles' works. Worse yet, it is the absence of most any conceptual considerations regarding Miles Davis' works that bothers your exigent documentary-viewer. For example, was he a religious man, did philosophy matter to him, what was his debt to, let's say, classical and other forms of music? We learn, in passing, from family members about his listening to Khatchaturian and French impressionists or to Flamenco music in preparation of Sketches of Spain. We also learn about his interest in painting and drawing though there is no connecting line back into/from his jazz music. Too little analysis, too many trivial facts. In other words, the viewer is left wanting to learn more about how much of Miles' creation was pure instinct vs. informed?

Oh well, most interviews were taped in 1986 (he was still alive) and he wasn't making a good interviewee either. Apparently, too little time has passed for us to comprehend Miles Davis beyond the tunes of his recorded music. It will take time, and who knows how many degrees in musicology to start figuring out the enigma behind the notes.

On a technical note, this DVD brings little in addition to the VHS version since the menu-items are few and slooow to move among.

Considering its price, this DVD could safely make do as an introduction to Miles Davis' or as a pleasant encounter with some jazz legends of the past century.

Rating:
Summary: the miles davis story
Review: Too much talking, too little music. This documentary is ok as an introduction to Miles Davis. But the commentator is interrupting when the music is pumping, which is f..... annoying. There is still a desperate need for a Miles Davis DVD about the period between 1969-75. Without all the talking. Just pure music without interruption.
Andreas Jorgensen