Moonage Daydream – the film - Tony Walsh توني والش

I watched the film ‘Moonage Daydream’, the latest, almost psychedelic, David Bowie event.

The title is taken from a song, best known from Bowie’s album ’The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’, though it was earlier released as a single by his band Arnold Corns.

This is part of a remarkable, and continuing, burnishing of David Bowie’s legacy.

Bowie Berlin — outside Bowie’s old home, Berlin by Mary Cula

Some is on the street, as in Berlin and London.

David Bowie Mural - Brixton London by James Cochran — David Bowie Mural – Brixton London by James Cochran

But most is by large organisations.
In 2015 a musical themed around his song ‘Lazarus’, a single that was also on his album, ‘Blackstar’, was developed and performed in New York and then in London during 2017.

Blackstar was released on his birthday, two days before his death on 10 January 2016. Overlapping Blackstar’s release and Lazarus’s performance was the ‘David Bowie is’ exhibition.

David Bowie is - Bologna — David Bowie is – Bologna

This toured the world from 2013 to 2018, attracting 2million visitors. Though the exhibition featured parts of Bowie’s own 75,000 item artefact, costume, and prop collection, he apparently gave the exhibit organiser, the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), a free hand on deciding how to use the collection.

The film Moonage Daydream, released on 16 September 2022 in IMAX cinemas, and elsewhere on a later date, also had a similar treatment, where Brett Morgen its creator had no input from Bowie’s family or Warner Chappell Music who bought his music rights in early 2022. The film features live musical concerts (45 partial songs in all) and interviews with Bowie. The narrative is of audio clips of David Bowie expounding on his thoughts, concepts and often tumultuous life. That life made a turn in 1990, when he says, ‘and then I met Iman’, his future wife.

The film has excellent reviews and, certainly, I found parts remarkable. Concentrating on his artistic prime it, naturally, could hardly be otherwise. At 140minutes I felt it could be edited for length and of course, as Bowie was the commentator was self-reflective, and not unduly critical.