Reliving my life

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2007)

*** NO SPOILERS YET *** I'll put my spoilers below this summary.
I would've given "Control" a 10 for the following 3 reasons. (1) Sam Riley's acting. (2) The re-creation of the music live on stage by the actors. (3) The cinematography, which looked so much like Anton Corbijn had done it himself. Stunning.
The first 2/3 of the movie was a 10, but the last 1/3 made me give it an 8.
Oh, and I had a minor qualm with the portrayal of Peter Hook at times. (I've heard rumors it might be true, but who cares!) If you know NOTHING about Ian Curtis and/or Joy Division and/or Anton Corbijn, DEFINITELY GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It's a beautiful film.
And now for some personal thoughts and recollections, for those who DO know the history regarding the aforementioned folks and entities! *** SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE HISTORY OF THE BAND JOY DIVISION *** I'll share some personal stuff first.
I missed seeing Joy Division by only "THIS" much. (I still regret it.) My current partner of 27 years, ML (www.imdb.com/name/nm0422314/), saw Joy Division in England during their Feb 1979 tour. When I met ML for the first time later in the summer of 1979 he said it was the greatest live band he had ever seen in his life. And to this day he still says it. (And we were and are EXTREMELY active with seeing live bands, it would blow your minds, lets just say we won't be retiring EVER.) When I saw the posters for that period in the background shots I nearly died. When ML watched the live segments, he was blown away. Other than the crowd size in the venues (which he said was actually half-full when he saw them) the performances were dead on.
We lived and loved during Joy Division. I met ML via Joy Division. The first cassette tape ML made as a gift to me to impress me (Awwww!) contained "Transmission". And Tony Wilson made a copy of the not-yet-released first album on cassette and gave it to a friend in the US who gave a copy to ML, with permission of Wilson, because ML was one of the, if not the, first person in the US who truly loved them. And so I heard that album long before its release, was puzzled by its bleakness and lack of stereotypical "punk" qualities (the attitude is there, of course), and fell in love with it. Tons of playing in our car, it was worn out just before the actual album came out and the tape could be replaced! So along comes the part where the band in the movie plays their first live gig, using that same song, "Transmission". I started crying. Why? Because this movie has all of the EMOTIONS of that period, and I started reliving them, right there in my movie theater chair. I could remember that past so vividly. It wasn't the first time that had happened to me in a movie ("24 Hour Party People" too), but this was the greatest moment.
Note that I have seen lots of footage of Joy Division, but only as much as any fan of theirs can get their hands on these days. Nothing from vaults and such. (MAN do they need to make a movie from THAT stuff, if it exists.) Then there was sadness. Joy Division was scheduled to play here in Los Angeles at the Starwood during the scheduled first US tour. And the LA date was June 9. On ML's birthday! So when we learned, just a few weeks before that date, of Ian's demise... well, enough said.
But then, happiness, and ML got his wish. He managed a band back then, BPeople (from Pasadena), and he was able to get them as the openers for New Order at their very first gig in Los Angeles, 11/6/81 at Perkins Palace, in Pasadena! I still have a promo poster for the show.
Like I said, this band (and MANY others) was pivotal to our relationship at the time.
So I have to EXCLAIM LOUDLY, if you are a fan of all of these persons and entities in the past and present, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! You'll LOVE the first 2/3.
Now quickly about the last third. The movie becomes soap-opera-esqe regarding the feelings of the wife (the woman who wrote the book the movie is based upon) and the mistress. While watching I got into it partly, but it just went on way too long. And the ending scenes of Ian's death, they didn't work as much as I had hoped. Not that I wanted to see him die, I'm glad they didn't show it. It's just that it wasn't really as impactful as it should've been.
ANYWAY....
I think you see that I liked it enough to recommend it.
Hope I didn't bore you with the personal stuff. I rarely blog (I currently have my recent first-ever blog posted at the Interpol fan site, what a coincidence, HA) so I felt compelled to write this SOMEWHERE, and IMDb was the winner (or loser?).

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