Bring on the Night

Overall it's very interesting to follow the start of Sting's "new" music career after The Police. I think a lot of fans might have been disappointed, since the music he started playing after leaving The Police was completely different from what he used to do. However, I think this movie really shows what a incredible and talented musician Sting is. "Bring on the night" is a film that all fans of Sting & The Police MUST see. It's interesting to hear Sting talking about some of his experiences considering music. Yes, he seems a little arrogant in person - almost depressed. But his stage prescens is one of a kind. His voice sounds better and more clean than when he was in The Police and it's fun to see him play other instruments than bass guitar, like piano and electric guitar. Not many people know that he also plays the saxophone, oboe, banjo and several other instruments and is in fact very scilled in playing them.

As a total Police nut I bought this as soon as it was out on VHS. I loved it then and still do. Hell I learnt to play guitar because of The Police. But beyond the superb music, it is great to watch how the music is made, the band becomes a band (even for the short time this was the band). Also how the songs come together as each persons part is added. But really it's how working with different people can reinvigorate you and how you can learn from each other. As a film it is well paced starting with the rehearsals before moving to the first concert. The mix of soft and loud is very well balanced. It does get a little twee near the end. Finally, it showcases the best songwriter/singer trying to find himself again. Only 2 things are missing, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. Sting never had a solo number one, The Police had 5.

The version of "I Burn for You" is outstanding - Omar Hakim is incredible on drums in this version. I much prefer the video version of the song to the one on the "Bring on the Night" CD. Also, the scenes showing the component parts of "Children's Crusade" and how they fit together provide a whole new appreciation for the song. I also enjoy the lighter moments in the movie - for example, showing the entire band eating meals and joking around with each other is refreshing. With all of the garbage being released on DVD these days (see the bargain bin at any large volume discount store) - I cannot believe Bring on the Night has not been released on DVD yet! Please do so soon!

When this first came out 20 years ago I wasn't convinced Sting was as good as some (and he) would have us believe. After watching it, however, I had no doubts that this guy was a musical genius. Arrogant at times, but more often confident, he gambled his future on going solo, departing from perhaps the best rock group of its or any other time, the Police, and then rolled the dice again by allowing a film crew to capture the evolution of his new band from its inception. Shot on location primarily in and around Paris, the documentary-music-concert is full of revealing footage, showing the master at work as he directs his accomplished charges down a new path. The video is also filled, thanks to the wonderfully adroit editing of director Michael Apted, with light and spontaneous moments, banter and jockeying, as the musicians get to know themselves both as professionals and as people. In addition, candid and sometimes unpredictable interviews with Sting, the players, the band's manager, photographer, and others are strategically spliced into the body of the work. Fortunately free of the tantrums or heated exchanges so common in today's reality TV, this is nonetheless as authentic a portrait of music life behind the scenes as exists anywhere. The triumphant culmination is the concert where Sting unveils the band as well as his new material to an enthusiastic French audience. There are some surprises along the way, a questionable shot or two, but overall this is a real treat and one of its kind.

This film is a rare treat, a peek into the professional and personal life of one of the greatest musicians this world has ever seen. This film is about the solo venture of Sting after separating from The Police, into what became his first(if I'm not mistaken) solo album -'The Dream of the Blue Turtles'. I've been an avid fan of Sting's music especially since I heard his album 'The Soul Cages'. What I like about his music is the timeless and universal quality of his lyrics, the uniqueness of each and every song and at the same time a certain underlying uniformity of thought and tone. Listening to his music is like meditation...it's cathartic. I don't think there is any one aspect of human nature and human life he hasn't touched upon in his music. For this reason watching this film was really quite incredible. Paris, where Sting performed and rehearsed lends its own charm and personality to the film. There are funny moments as when these bunch of tourists are led by a tourist guide into the room of the chateau in which Sting and his band are rehearsing and the guide is telling them about the portraits hung on the walls! The sequence of the birth of Sting's son in the hospital to the tune of 'Russians' is the emotional high point of the film. The interview with Sting gives an insight into the mind of this complex man and musician. Altogether, an Experience!!

They don't get much better than this. This is one of those films that after viewing, you want to thank the producers for capturing and preserving the events for all of us to repeatedly enjoy. I came to this project knowing little of Sting and his music and being more familiar with the work of the Saxophonist, Brandford Marsalis, of the renown New Orleans Marsalis music family. I later learned that Sting was receiving much of the same criticisms Mr. Marsalis and his fellow musicians were receiving for joining in on this project of merged rock/jazz/blues/funk idioms. However, as we all know, the critics travel at a slower speed than the artists and often require time to catch up. One need only reflect on Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess,' 'Charlie Parker with Strings,' or any other project that breaks from traditional established patterns. Twenty years later, this is still some of the best music made. It rocks in the full sense of the word. This group of personnel were only together for a relatively short period of time, but fortunately, we have this event and period captured on video. When the pianist in this film, Kenny Kirkland, past away at such a young age in 1998, I was reminded of the great work of all the musicians in this film.

This is not a revealing doco. It's a celebration of the artist, Sting. On this tour he manages to round up some fine Jazz musicians and slot them right into his creative process. A few insightful moments are delivered but in the end it has nothing new to offer but a free peak into the workings of another creative mind in progress.

Apted is a marvelous documentarian - he caught the spirit of rehearsals, and the personal, creative dynamics between gifted musicians. Unfortunately, he also captured Sting and his manager Miles Copeland during a variety of candid and staged interviews. The two of them have the worst personalities you'll ever see in a documentary - arrogant, pompous, pretentious and in Copeland's case, just down right mean spirited to the point where you feared for the man's emotional stability. It was a real eye opener to see that a supposedly 'spiritual' talent of Sting's stature would employ such a truly tacky, nasty piece of work such as Miles Copeland. If you love Sting's music as I do, you'll not rent this thing because you'll never listen to him the same way again.

Good documentary featuring Sting and his new band doing a lot of rehearsing in a grand old domicile. We are treated not only to the final touches of putting together a new set of songs, but a peek into the more relaxed moments together and a rousing concert finale. An eye opening look into the inner workings of a jazz band and the mind of a talented entertainer.