Featured Audience Ratings

• paul s

  
  I'm sure that out there somewhere there is a rock documentary that strays from the formula - but God Bless Ozzie is not that film - not that it doesn't manage to entertain and inform (which is, I would suppose, the goal of the enterprise). The formula, in case you are new… More
  I'm sure that out there somewhere there is a rock documentary that strays from the formula - but God Bless Ozzie is not that film - not that it doesn't manage to entertain and inform (which is, I would suppose, the goal of the enterprise). The formula, in case you are new to this 3rd planet in our solar system, is to show the person/band now, and then rewind back to childhood and then to the glory days that make us want to find out about the person/band in the first place. One of the failings in this film is that it shows the childhood pics by having Ozzie flip through them all and comment - a questionable tactic as his train of thought is still a bit scattered after 40 years of substance abuse. There are no real insights here - those come later, and mostly from his 2nd wife Sharon, who reveals that Oz has always had deep seated insecurities. Where the film shines is in showing that very bright light that was early Black Sabbath - as the many testimonials attest, Sabbath pretty much invented heavy metal - and musical luminaries such as Sir Paul noted that they were original, and looking back, quite talented and excellent song writers. The film then slogs through the post Sabbath, Randy Rhodes years as Oz self destructs - it is to the film's credit (or perhaps simply watching the act of redemption) that the slow catharsis and healing of OZ has some poignancy. At the end, when he speaks of finally accepting and coming to terms with himself, it rings true and resonates (something as simple as when, at age 60, he finally gets a drivers license - something most would take for granted - but here it signifies a return to the real world - and Ozzie has come full circle to embody that 3rd Sabbath album title "Masters of Reality").