In conjunction with the 10th Anniversary of David Bowie's return to his homeworld, Britain's Channel 4 has produced Bowie: The Final Act which primarily focuses on his life from the late-1980s when he was in a post- Let's Dance career slump and started his band project Tin Machine, through his joining the infinite just two days after releasing his final album, Blackstar, on his 69th birthday.
The theme of the doc is that Bowie was a great friend or collaborator until he didn't need you anymore and it's told by jumping back and forth in his career timeline contrasting the way he dispatched Tin Machine after two unloved albums - one brutal UK press review made him cry - and the way he sprung on the Spiders From Mars during their tour finale for the Ziggy Stardust that he was packing in the band or how he played the first Glastonbury Festival in 1971 at an ungodly 5 am slot to his career reigniting set at the 2000 festival which almost didn't happen at several steps along the way.
Using interviews with friends and collaborators from his earliest days to the engineer for his last two albums, including guitarists Reeves Gabrels, Earl Slick, keyboardist Michael Garson, producer Tony Visconti, his tour manager, various UK press and radio/video presenters, etc.
Previous documentaries David Bowie: Five Years (which covered the span following the end of Ziggy Stardust era through his Berlin Trilogy) which came out shortly after his death and David Bowie: The Last Five Years (which covers his last two albums and the Lazarus stage show) the following year were quite comprehensive for those periods and Bowie: The Final Act works to fill in a chunk of the time in between. By no means comprehensive - His Earthling album gets some time as does Reality, due to it being his last tour when he had a heart attack and retired for 9 years, but he had four other albums which are Memory Holed even though Outside was followed by a legendary tour with Nine Inch Nails - it's still a tidy worthy watch.
Bowie: The Final Act is currently available to watch on Channel 4's website, but only for residents of the UK and Ireland. Even alternate means of obtaining content are sparse as what was out there disappeared forcing new sources to be located.
Score: 7/10. Catch it on cable/streaming. (Currently unavailable outside the UK)
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