Watch Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Excellent but underrated film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

What begins as an exhaustive chronicle of one of the most famous and influential musicians of our time descends into soporific soap opera after about forty-five minutes. Ignoring and/or underplaying numerous milestones and other touchpoints in Slowhand's life and career (his close affiliation with Delaney & Bonnie, the Rainbow Concert organized by Pete townshend), Zanuck calls into question her own knowledge of EC's career -or lack thereof- as well as the laissez fair attitude toward the film held by the man once called 'God."

In the words of the former England football team manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson. 'First half good, second half, not so good.'I liked the insight to Clapton's early life. Finding out that his mother was actually his grandmother and the woman who he thought was his sister was his mother who had abandoned him and gone to Canada.The young Clapton was good at art, loved blues music and had an inferiority complex at school. There is film footage of his family and various still of Clapton's artwork.When Clapton decides to enter the music industry, he has skill as a guitarist, horned after listening to all those blues records and copying their style. Clapton though was not a good bandmate, leaving The Yardbirds at short notice because they were heading in a commercial direction.The second half was more problematic. It zig zags the chronology, going back to the issues of mistrust with his real mother and grandparents. The film is hazy as to when Clapton became clean or did he just relapse too often? I recollect that Clapton said he had cleaned up in the mid to late 1980s from drugs and booze. Here it seems he was was still on the booze in the early 1990s and certainly admits to recording albums where he remembers being drunk as we see the later 80s albums in this montage. Did he lie back then? If he lied then, he might be lying now.Clapton deals with his notorious racist outburst in 1976 in a concert in Birmingham. Up to this point of the documentary, Clapton cited his influences of the blues and friendship with black US musicians. He was a supporter of the civil rights movement. Clapton also admired music and literature from the east. He was a fan of the musician Bismillah Khan. A Persian poem inspired the song Layla. Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish born head of Atlantic Records was a big champion of Clapton.Yet under the influence of booze and drugs, this racial outburst shocked his fans. In retrospect Clapton is rightly embarrassed with his outburst. He states that he comes across as a semi-racist. Only semi? I think it was a full on racist rant.Maybe the booze lowered his inhibitions and made him say things that were swirling around his mind at the time. Birmingham in the mid 1970s would look very different to an English lad born in Ripley in Surrey. Racism is complex, Clapton admits to having black girlfriends but he knows that he will never be able to live down his words.I was also horrified with his casual attitude to sex in an era of Aids. He had flings with several women and they became pregnant, Clapton does not seem to believe in using a condom. His interest in engaging with married women did not stop with Pattie Boyd.I found the latter half of the documentary to be self serving. Yet at times it does have flashes of brilliance as well. It helps that Clapton was cooperative with this film, he allowed access to his private documents.Looking at the reviews, it is clear that the documentary has skimped other people who should have had a part in this story such as Pete Townshend who helped Clapton become clean.

Eric Clapton proves it again, he never really acknowledges who really carried him thru all the years, his fans. On that being said, I was glued to this film, especially to the rare footage and photos from the early British rock years. Great moments with all the big names from the British rock scenes. What is astounding is his minimal reference to his first solo album, work with Delaney and Bonnie, and his admiration for JJ Cale. From 461 Ocean Boulevard to Another Ticket and all in between, including Slowhand, Clapton mentions those as his "drunk years" in which he can't stand listening to the way he played on those albums because he was drunk all the time. Well guess what Eric, there are some fans out there who feel those albums are a part of their lives, whether you choose to forget that period of your life or not. Eric has a tremendous amount of work that he should be proud of. The work Eric has done in the 70's defined who he is to the American fan base. I wish he wouldn't forget it. What Eric wants to portray in his movie is quite simple, throughout all his tumultuous years, he has finally found what he is looking for; a family.

I know I'm supposed to excuse all of Clapton's poor behavior over the years due to his drug and alcohol abuse. But the overall impression one gets from this documentary is that he's a selfish jerk, leaving a wake of destroyed relationships and obligations where ever he went. I've loved his music years, but after seeing this it will be a bit harder to enjoy it quite as much.