Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: "The first time I saw this film I was visually captivated. I was watching a painting unravelling for hours on film and my senses were flooded with the delightful strokes marked. It certainly left an impression upon me. I am still stimulated" Kelly Clarke, Visual Artist, 2002
Rating:
Summary: Audio-Visual Feast for the Soul
Review: A phenomenal bigraphy portraying the life and art of Francis Bacon. The cinematography is impeccable and lends itself to the outwardly flamboyant and deeply complex lifestyle of one of the greatest painters ever. The viewer is thrown into a vortex of colour, form, and composition, whilst being led through the maze of Bacon's mind. Accurately detailed and presented with disturbing truth - this film comes recommended to anyone interested in modern art and / or the power of the soul in visual media. A lifechanging experience!
Rating: 
Summary: Dark
Review: A very dark decent into the mind and relationships of Francis Bacon.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish and boldly unflattering portrait of an artist
Review: Before seeing this film, I was familiar with Francis Bacon's paintings, but knew very little about him as a person. Visually, this film is extremely faithful to his paintings. It's full of shattered, twisted, and disturbing imagery that suggests suffering, confusion and psychological torture. Judging from this film alone, Francis Bacon, as a person, was just as twisted and disturbed as his work. The film begins when a rugged boxer named George breaks into his studio to burglarize it, and Francis, instead of being alarmed, instead offers to take George to bed in exchange for whatever he wants. George, himself obviously a homosexual as well, agrees and the two begin an unlikely relationship, both as boyfriends and as artist and subject/muse. It is soon apparent, though, that despite George's tough exterior, Francis is by far more cruel, sadistic, and detached than he is. Francis constantly belittles George, treating him like nothing more than a novelty and sexual object, and George, surprisingly, falls in love with Francis and begins trying to win his sympathy in increasingly self-destructive ways. At some point in the movie, after seeing Francis constantly berating both George and everyone around him, the viewer is left asking himself "Does this man have a heart at all?" Francis' reaction to George's sad fate seems to bring about a definitive answer. No.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and ugly
Review: For one thing, none of Bacon's paintings are seen in the film. Apparently, the owners of the Bacon estate wouldn't grant permission. This would have been okay if there had been a story presented in the film, but there wasn't. About half the movie is made up of abstract, disconnected scenes of Bacon and his friends making negative comments about life and insulting eachother and others. The other half is made up of abstract, disconnected scenes of Bacon's lover popping pills, engaging in sado-masochism with Bacon, and clips of his nightmares. Bacon comes off as a ghoulish monster with no redeeming qualities and his lover, George as a helpless, empty shell of a human being. I bought this video based on the all around good reviews I found on the net and because the great Derek Jacobi and talented Daniel Craig are cast in the leading roles. Alas, I suspect the good reviews must have come from some special standard for reviewing film with homosexual content (gay is good!) and these fine actors talents were wasted on this dog of a movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Jacobi "IS" Francis Bacon
Review: I couldn't believe how much Derek Jacobi actually resembled Francis Bacon, in addition to emulating his high camp mannerisms. This impression of Bacon's relationship in the 1960s with petty criminal George Dyer has been widely panned in the UK but it must be remembered that John Maybury created the film with no cooperation from the Bacon estate, which is why none of Bacon's paintings even figure in the movie (quick quiz: which cult movie of the 60s opens with two canvasses by Bacon? see below for answer).Still, the recreation of Bacon's milieu in 60s Soho is passable, dear, despite the filtering out of the more offensive conversational profanity which was a daily aspect of life and communication amongst the artists, proprietors, dilletantes, drunks and hangers on who formed Bacon's inner circle, or who hung out in the glorified front room of the Colony Room club or the Coach and Horses. As Bacon would say: "Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends". (Answer: 'Last Tango in Paris')
Rating:
Summary: An inventive look at a fascinating yet disturbing man.
Review: John Maybury provides viewers with a creative portrayal of the English painter Francis Bacon. Bacon was fascinated with violence both in his paintings and in his personal life. This is evident from the very first scene in which Bacon confronts George Dyer, the inept burglar who has fallen into his studio. Jacobi's chilling, yet mesmerizing, portrayal of Bacon is seen as Maybury closes in on Jacobi's face as he deliciously anticipates being bedded and dominated by this strange young man. And while the film's frank portrayal of lust and sexual dominance is clearly evident it also explores the life of a man who consciously chose the dark side of life. The performances of both Jacobi and Daniel Craig, as Dyer, are outstanding as is the inventive camera work of Maybury, who mimics the surreal images of Bacon's paintings. Jacobi's performance and voice-over narration help to illuminate this disturbing and fascinating man. Disturbing because he revelled in the violence and pain that most of us abhor and fascinating because Bacon was so unabashedly honest in his approach to life and his work.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Shows Rather Than Tells
Review: The essence of painter Francis Bacon is not a personal life lived on the sordid side but how he was forced to take in life. Seen through his central nervous system and eyes, we experience his world of fragments, like collage pieces of existence. The only place he could make those fragments whole was in a painting. Otherwise, he was wholly inable to put a fully realized human being, himself, together. Tellingly, one of his best friends comments that he has done a superb one-on-one job with his lover George in his paintings of George. However, he has been unable to do that in his actual life lived with George! That sums up Bacon, his art and his life, in a nutshell. Bacon is not a person you will like but you will understand him and how the fragments of his existence made for great art. Yet he is also the most alone person imaginable, something no amount of lovers and sordid excess could allay. One of the very best films about an artist ever made. You don't need to see the actual finished paintings since it is the fragments he used to build his paintings in his head that matter here. If you want to see his paintings, you should be able to find page after page of them online in about a minute, or less, using any visual search engine.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Shows Rather Than Tells
Review: The essence of painter Francis Bacon is not a personal life lived on the sordid side but how he was forced to take in life. Seen through his central nervous system and eyes, we experience his world of fragments, like collage pieces of existence. The only place he could make those fragments whole was in a painting. Otherwise, he was wholly inable to put a fully realized human being, himself, together. Tellingly, one of his best friends comments that he has done a superb one-on-one job with his lover George in his paintings of George. However, he has been unable to do that in his actual life lived with George! That sums up Bacon, his art and his life, in a nutshell. Bacon is not a person you will like but you will understand him and how the fragments of his existence made for great art. Yet he is also the most alone person imaginable, something no amount of lovers and sordid excess could allay. One of the very best films about an artist ever made. You don't need to see the actual finished paintings since it is the fragments he used to build his paintings in his head that matter here. If you want to see his paintings, you should be able to find page after page of them online in about a minute, or less, using any visual search engine.
Rating:
Summary: To either love or hate as a film
Review: The question is whether you're viewing this as a lover of Bacon's work or to enjoy what is simply a fascinating cult film in itself. A few of the intermittant shots are not the most original and the storyline might not be to all tastes, but the Jacobi-Craig clash and borderline humour of supporting characters combine for some wonderfully twisted dialogue that brings it alive! If you're aware that none of Bacon's work is on offer, and appreciate tongue-in-cheek humour of it's darkest type then you will love this film.
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