ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1973)

Posted by Daniel Metz

I thought to attend this film because I was already planning to see The Beaches of Agnès at 7 and Part Time Wife at midnight, so I figured I would make it a triple feature. I knew nearly nothing about this film except that it was Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust phase, the time in the early ’70s when Bowie was pretending to be an androgynous alien. I thought, erroneously, that it was a fiction film about the character. Instead, what I found from Pennebaker’s credit was a cinéma vérité concert film.

Obviously, this made me think of the brilliant Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back. Unlike that film, however, this is more typical of the concert film genre; it doesn’t feature much behind-the-scenes footage, and is really just an exercise in trying to capture the essence of a live show.

After one of his many costume changes, Ziggy does a few acoustic numbers.

Seeing this film, and listening to the music that I only half-enjoy, made me muse on the nature of the genre. A great concert film is a picture that either reveals something about the concert experience, or captures something remarkable. In the former category, there are films like Cocksucker Blues, which shows how boring touring can be; Chris Rock’s Kill the Messenger, in which three shows are spliced together to show how stand-up is just as repetitive as live music; or Don’t Look Back, which reveals all of the poison people lounging around the ’60s movement, and also shows the many sides of a difficult man to pin down.

A beautiful image, one of too few from the dressing room.

The latter category is more difficult. These magical films capture something by chance that probably could never be replicated. Woodstock, for instance, captures the legendary concert that promoters in fact did try to recreate a few times but could never get the essence caught by the crew in Bethel, NY (Jimi Hendrix’s performance itself is even more magical than the magical concert, and perhaps could be a sub-film of remark-ability). Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York, similarly, captures a special night.

I am afraid that Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars fits into neither of these categories. There are some nice moments, including a strobe light editing sequence that was nearly sublime, but in general it is merely a concert. The camera is relentless in its close-ups of David Bowie acting like a sexed-up freak, and it is clear, at least to this viewer, that Bowie is nearing 30 but acting 16.

Get a look at that outfit!

The banner of the film, if there could be one, would read: Come See the Freakshow. Bowie and his fans are a bunch of outcasts, acting out and transgressing social norms. Haven’t we seen this before with the Beatles and Elvis, though? The crying girls are shown but lack the punch that they did in Shea Stadium.

Prepare to experience sexual magic.

The film does give you, with 35 years’ retrospection, the opportunity to analyze glam rock’s sounds and images. I don’t really think it was worth much. All I could think of was Dennis in that great Spandex, clapping his hands and ooing to “Day Man.”