Michael Jackson’s This Is It

The poster for Michael Jackson’s This Is It.

As Printed in The Lumberjack on November 5, 2009

by Gary Sundt

My generation knows a very different Michael Jackson than those before us. I was born in 1988, just after sensational reports about his physical transformation began to surface. My first memories of the King of Pop have nothing to do with “Thriller,” charity, Pepsi-Cola or the Jackson 5; it was 1993, and Jacko was being called a nut job who sexually abused young boys. My parents listened to The Beatles and Bette Midler, so I didn’t get to earn a respect for the man and his music until I was in high school.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, a mere eight days before his 50-date “This Is It” tour was to begin — his first in nearly two decades and what was to be his “final curtain call.” The film Michael Jackson’s This Is It is a collection of footage shot during the preparation in the months leading up to the event. It features the dancers, choreographers, set designers, accompanying musicians, musical directors, the show’s director (Kenny Ortega) and, of course, Jackson himself — all working with the assumption that the show will go on without interruption.

There is a buzz about the film that suspects it is merely cashing in on Jackson’s death. But contrary to expectation, the sight of the late musician does not resemble a marionette corpse dancing for a mob of paying patrons. Instead, This Is It shows Jackson alive and thriving, still singing and dancing better than anyone else on the stage. We see his interactions with the show’s cast and crew, revealing the soft-spoken and polite nature the man showed in public was no act. Jackson is courteous to those around him, patient with those who misunderstand and misstep, and completely up for the challenge of putting on a larger-than-life performance at the tender age of 50.

The footage in This Is It was assembled under the direction of Ortega by the top editors at Sony Entertainment. It would be reasonable to assume the movie would be working to reflect on the artist’s achievements or explain/mask his controversy with a façade. Such is not the case. This Is It attempts the impossible task of bringing the would-be final performance of a great artist to his fans, and while it may seem too long at times and too strange in others (the rainforest bit will make more than a few heads tilt in confusion), the film succeeds. The movie does right by focusing on the performance’s preparation without hindsight or interpretation, and it offers the confused masses a look at Jackson that, if the show had actually taken place, may never have been seen.

This Is It will not make anyone forget the Wacko Jacko legacy, but how could it? The little boy controversies, the plastic surgery, the holding of his newborn child over a balcony, the fact that he named said child Blanket — it’s obvious this guy had issues. But the night Jackson died, I was out dancing to his hits in the downtown Flagstaff bars, and I had a similar experience when I was at the San Diego Comic-Con a few weeks later. When watching This Is It, I couldn’t help but dance in the theater seat.

The film isn’t designed to make people forget, but rather to remind us how gifted the troubled artist truly was. The world probably just wouldn’t be the same without the King of Pop, and while he might have been a crazy person, his diamond-studded glove shines a little less bright now that he’s gone.

Rating: 4 stars

Directed by Kenny Ortega. Starring Michael Jackson and the cast and crew of the “This Is It” production. and Running time: 112 minutes. Rated PG.