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(More customer reviews)"I blame the man holding his camera for all of my problems."
It's the final scene of "Everyone Stares" that kept running through my mind after seeing the film for the first time. This is not so much because of Sting's parting words as quoted above, but more the image itself, and how much more it seems to be telling us than what directly meets the eye. We see Andy and Sting, though Stewart's "eyes" via the camera lens, as they are all handcuffed to the railing of a precarious-looking staircase perched high above a city. The reasons for this unusual predicament are never quite explained, but it seems to make a telling statement about the band itself at that particular moment of time: cramped and trapped together at the top, and dangerously close to falling over the edge.
To those critics who have claimed that this film has no depth to it? I say that clearly, you simply weren't paying enough attention.
This film is not a strictly linear, fact-laden and/or impartial documentary. Neither is it the expose of "sex, drugs and rock and roll" (emphasis on sex and drugs) that some curiosity-seekers seemed determined it should have been and were disappointed that it wasn't. Instead, it is a fractured, personal collection of video "snapshots", capturing the small moments of life on the road as well as the absurdities and monotonies of becoming a rock star. For the well-versed Police fans, it is also a chance to experience the thrill of seeing events, concerts, and even photo-sessions from a perspective we've never seen before. It begins with a clever montage sequence of animated photographs as Stewart sets the scene with his narration, covering the early days of the band until he purchases his Super 8 camera, and suddenly the action really takes off, in more ways than one.
There is an interesting, dreamlike quality to the entire movie, which seems to come from the Super 8 footage itself: it is somewhat grainy, rendering every scene in a softer focus than we are used to on a big screen. As cars, boats, people, clouds and cities zoom by in time-lapse footage, and as stage lights blur past the camera when Stewart rushes on stage or struggles to get through crowds of fans, this sense of "unreality" slowly builds and at times it becomes almost dizzying. (It is also hard to believe that the Derangements were not written specifically for the soundtrack of this film, as they provide the perfect mixed-up/familiar-yet-different mood for everything we see, and the lyrics sometimes provide interesting and clever accents to the particular moments being shown.)
As for individual scenes themselves, I actually don't want to talk too much about my favorites, because a great deal of the enjoyment of them comes from being surprised by what you get to see, as well as the amusing little "subtitles" or comments Stewart adds to them. I think the first-time viewer is better off getting to experience that surprise for him or herself. Suffice to say the audience--particularly the avid Police fan--is likely to be incredibly amused and delighted at many moments, and wrapped up in the story overall as we get to experience it as if we were a member of the band ourselves.
While all seems to be fun and games at first, the cracks within the band slowly begin to start surfacing as the film progresses. It's presented with subtlety, not with in-your-face fights and screaming contests. It comes through more in small comments in Stewart's narration, as that "unreality" builds and we start to get the underlying sense that all is not as well as it might seem. The piles of money may be growing, but weariness and unease is settling in. The hotel rooms may be growing bigger, but they seem to have become more like prison cells than the familiar, cozy havens on the road they were years before. Indeed, it seems as though the band members have all become literally and figuratively handcuffed to that ivory tower, and as Stewart says near the end, it's time to break free from it all and really "learn what this life is all about."
In its own unique, quirky way, I'd say that "Everyone Stares" is just as revealing an autobiography as Sting's "Broken Music" was a few years ago. It's a piece of the Police story we've been missing, and as a fan, I have to say it makes me feel now that the story is complete in a way I didn't feet it was at all, three years ago after the Hall of Fame ceremony.
The DVD itself comes with some truly great extra features as well, most especially the audio commentary track by Copeland and Summers. Their comments and stories fill in the details of what we see on screen in the movie and make it all the more enjoyable on further viewing. Extra scenes include some humorous moments as well as a collection of "Live Shards", small sequences of live performances that didn't make the film but make for interesting viewing nevertheless.
A great film and a great DVD. All this fan could ask for!
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Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, the directorial debut of five-time Grammy Award-winning composer and drummer Stewart Copeland, is a first-person account of The Police’s ascent from obscurity to worldwide fame as well as an astute and sometimes hilarious commentary on the pop culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s.Culled from over 50 hours of Super 8 movies he shot during the acclaimed trio’s heyday, the film offers an insider’s perspective on touring, the other band members and the adoring fans that puts the audience in the drummer’s seat. Copeland’s kinetic and artful camerawork forms a visual ode to the rhythm of the road: a surreal swirl of hotel rooms, bus rides, press conferences and record signings punctuated by nightly flashes of electrifying on-stage exhilaration.
Formed in 1977 and marked by Sting’s keening vocal style and driving bass, Copeland’s intricately syncopated Caribbean-influenced drumming and Andy Summers’ lush guitar harmonies and The Police delivered a bracing, sophisticated alternative to the head-banging punk rock of the day.Shortly after the release of their first album, Outlandos d’Amour, the band’s fresh sound caught fire with audiences in the U.S. and Europe. In a few short years, these 20-something rock virtuosos went from touring grungy clubs in a beat-up car to flying between arena gigs in a private plane. But despite the sudden, intoxicating and sometimes terrifying rush of fame, The Police remained a remarkably close-knit unit throughout the early 1980s, sustained by a rare musical compatibility, a shared sense of humor and the knowledge they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams largely on their own terms.
Copeland’s breezy narration and onscreen annotations provide a wry, sometimes self-mocking perspective on the group’s high jinks, from a lip-syncing session on skis for an early music video to their later travels throughout the Third World. Edited with a percussionist’s precision timing and a composer’s ear for the inherent pulse of each scene, Copeland scores the film using a pastiche of de-constructed studio and live versions of The Police’s extensive and memorable repertoire.
"As soon as I raised the camera to my eye and started filming, amazing things began to happen," Copeland recalls. "A thrill ride began that took our group to the tippy-top of the music ziggurat.It was such an unreal experience that it seemed to make the most sense when I watched it through the lens of my camera.It was literally like watching a movie as the band sparked a fire that lit up the world for us.Everyone Stares is that movie."
Copeland is an award-winning film and television composer who has written scores for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film Rumblefish, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Talk Radio, John Hughes’ She’s Having a Baby, John Waters’ Pecker and Bruno Barretto’s Academy Award-nominated Four Days in September.His television credits include scores for Desperate Housewives, Dead Like Me, for which he received an Emmy nomination, and The Amanda Show.
He was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Birds of Prey" from his 2005 CD Orchestralli. Copeland won five Grammys for his work with The Police.
Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out is directed, produced, written and edited by Stewart Copeland. He is also the film’s cinematographer, music editor and narrator.
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