Something stirred me - without me even being aware of it. It took all the pain away. Sign In. Original title: Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars. Play trailer Documentary Biography Music. Director Lili Fini Zanuck. Stephen 'Scooter' Weintraub Larry Yelen. Top credits Director Lili Fini Zanuck. See more at IMDbPro. Trailer Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars. Photos Top cast Edit. Eric Clapton Self as Self. Duane Allman Self as Self archive footage. Ginger Baker Self as Self archive footage. Chuck Berry Self as Self archive footage.
Pattie Boyd Self as Self archive footage. Jack Bruce Self as Self archive footage. Tom Dowd Self as Self archive footage. Chris Dreja Self as Self. Bob Dylan Self as Self archive footage. Ahmet Ertegun Self as Self archive footage. Hughie Flint Self as Self. Aretha Franklin Self as Self archive footage.
Richard Goldstein Self as Self. Jim Gordon Self as Self archive footage. Bill Graham Self as Self archive footage. George Harrison Self as Self archive footage. Jimi Hendrix Self as Self archive footage. Alex Hooper Self as Self. Lili Fini Zanuck. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Genius Amplified. Add content advisory. Did you know Edit. SnoopyStyle 2 January This is a biopic of the legendary guitarist singer Eric Clapton.
Is he truly God or just a troubled introvert guitar genius? He grew up believing his mother was his older sister. He didn't know his Canadian soldier father who went home after the war. He grew up obsessively playing his guitar to blues music. He played along with many of the big names and well known by his peers eventually gaining popularity as part of Cream.
He becomes obsessed with George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd. In the aftermath comes Layla. With heroin and alcohol addiction, his career rolls along and his messy personal life continues. He would marry Pattie, abuse her, and consistently cheated on her. He has a son with Lory Del Santo whose tragic death in leads to his iconic song. I don't really know much about his personal history other than Tears in Heaven before this documentary.
I knew he's a respected guitar genius with past drug issues like everybody else in rock. What comes through is his shyness, his obsessive nature, and his demons. Certainly, this movie has his approval and cooperation. Nevertheless, it is unflinching in telling his story.
It's his story, warts and all. Is there a good biopic of his life? I had no illusions about the man before watching this. I expected a troubled life but this is even more destructive.
I've always thought Tears in Heaven is a beautiful song but seeing the boy's face really elevates the sadness. Casual fans may not like it but it's the ugly truth.
There is salvation and redemption, no matter the regrets. Prismark10 1 July In the words of the former England football team manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson. 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 s from drugs and booze. Here it seems he was was still on the booze in the early s 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 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. 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 s 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.
One of my most vivid childhood memories related to music is my dad playing the first album by Cream. Having kept a casual interest in Eric Clapton, and having read a number of music mags with pieces about him I was intrigued to see the BBC show a recent feature film doc on him,which led to me playing with a slow-hand. View on the doc: Narrated by Clapton himself, director Lili Fini Zanuck plays an outstanding amount of archive material,from childhood photos of the Clapton's,grainy footage of infamous gigs,and joyful snaps from the present of Clapton enjoying life with his family.
Even with a 2 hour run time, the movie feels oddly lacking in depth, with the phases in Clapton's music career each being skimmed over, and people known to have played a big part in his life like Pete Townsend not getting one mention as Clapton plays the 12 bars of life. Lejink 23 May An unflinching near self-portrait of the artist Eric Clapton as a young and indeed mature alcoholic, who took years to come to terms with his addictions to both heroin and alcohol, in the end spurred onto beat them by a tragic domestic accident and at last finding love, happiness and a new family in his later years.
Clapton has provided director Lili Fini Zanuck with a good deal of sometimes unflattering private video footage, none more so than we see him snorting cocaine on-camera in the 70s as well as film of his obviously unhappy childhood and saddest of all, intimate father-son scenes of him with his young boy Conor who tragically fell to his death accidentally in New York aged only four.
In addition, much screen-time is given over to his awkward, to say the least, courtship of best friend George Harrison's then wife Pattie Boyd, which extended, painful process inspired arguably his greatest work, the searing "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" double album, although even after he won her, sadly the relationship didn't survive, mainly due to his alcoholism.
There's much fine music here in clips featuring his days with the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Derek and the Dominos and his long solo career plus rare video and audio footage no doubt from Clapton's own personal collection, including a taped conversation between him and friendly guitar rival Jimi Hendrix and commentary, some of it naturally archival, from key collaborators down the years such as Duane Allman, Steve Winwood and Bobby Whitlock amongst many others, although the highest credit is given to the late, great B.
King film of whom both introduces and closes the film. Clapton comes across as an often shy, troubled and difficult man as he would no doubt be the first to admit but he's also candid, modest and above all honest about himself.
There's none of the usual for this type of film, adulatory talking-heads over-the-top praise for either his music or musicianship which I certainly appreciated. The film depicts his troubled childhood emanating from his early abandonment by his young-at-the-time mother as the main reason for his future insecurity and eventual self-hating.
Later, it too quickly skips over the years from the mid 70's to the 90's ironically, a time of great commercial success for him in a matter of seconds, omitting in the process references to the career-boosting importance of events like his comeback concert at the Rainbow organised by Pete Townshend as well as his time with Delaney and Bonnie's band, or even his 80s hook-up with Phil Collins, although perhaps in so doing the director was demonstrating just how much of an empty void this time represented in his life as he struggled with the bottle.
It takes a long, long time for him to come out the other end of his own dark tunnel, but come out he did, as demonstrated both inside his career by the multiple Grammy success of his "Unplugged" album, and outside it, with the refuge for addicts he funded in Antigua from the sale of his vast guitar collection and lastly with the cosy domestic images of the at-last happy family man at play with his wife and young daughters.
Yes, this filmed life of one as long and full as Clapton's makes omissions, with no mention of his work with say J. Cale or his belated return collaborations with his Cream band-mates of whom he's now the last survivor , or Winwood.
Nevertheless, with much fine music, although it was surprising not to hear on the soundtrack such key songs from his career as "Sunshine Of Your Love", "Let It Rain" or "I Shot The Sheriff", fascinating private film and soberingly honest commentary from the man himself, this was a revealing and compelling insight into a great musician's often uphill struggle throughout most of his life with his own lack of self-confidence and inadequacy even after achieving great fame and success.
Told with refreshing and revealing candour, this is one of the better rock-docs you'll see. This starts out well, as Zanuck uses childhood footage with concert clips of Clapton. Some of the interviews are good, but I got tired of the endless Patti Boyd material. Clapton pined for George Harrison's wife and wrote "Layla" for her. Years later they hooked up, and it was the classic be careful what you wish for line.
He continued to drink and use heroin even after he finally got his girl. I wish more music was included and Boyd should have ended up a footnote in music history.
She was nothing but a glorified groupie. Zanuck's editing leaves a lot to be desired. At the end, we get to see Eric, as an older man with his young children. Watch Creams farewell concert instead. It was a golden opportunity to make a feature length film about one of music's leading guitarists - Eric Clapton. Clapton isn't usually known for being very forthcoming about his personal life so I was a bit taken aback by this documentary. However, the musician gave his blessing and collaborated fully with the filming.
The results could have been better. First of all, Eric Clapton the person is presented in a truthful and honest light in my opinion. His struggles with alcohol and narcotics are quite graphically detailed as there is footage of him indulging this and that.
We witness one man's journey as both musician and as an individual in many ways. How he learns his craft, finding success in different bands, experiencing a few personal tragedies and coping with the fact that his own mother didn't love him. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 90 minutes and I wouldn't want anything changed about it.
The archive footage of Clapton throughout the early years, is something to marvel at. I had never seen any of it before. However, the last 30 years of Eric Clapton's life and career were far too rushed and I felt very disappointed by this. It was as though someone thought: Ok I'm getting restless feet now, let's get the rest of our film over with.
Such a pity. After the usual genesis of becoming hooked on old blues records in the early s and graduation through the Yardbirds the only really interesting part of Clapton's career was with Cream. I'm sure there must be more to tell about that conflict but this snooze-umentary decides to concentrate on Clapton's simping for Patty Boyle, Clapton's friend's George Harrison's wife. The bore-umentary plumbs new depths of tedium exploring Clapton's world class simping including detailing an excruciatingly embarrassing hand written letter Clapton sent to Boyle.
Ok, So trying to fit in Eric Clapton's life in 2hrs has to squeeze the story down but the omissions as mentioned in other reviews are suprising as are the errors George Harrison is credited as Paul McCartney in one voice over is one example Surely Eric must have seen at least a rough cut of the film! Also Eric comes across badly He goes for what he wants Sod everyone else Which at least makes an honest film not a puff piece. In all a decent Doc but could have been so much better but if it makes anyone discover The Yardbirds, John Mayall, Cream I saw it on BBC2 and I hope he had a sales boost after the showing like these docs usually give there subjects.
Why are we hearing from Jimmy's baby mama when she was only with Eric for the very early days? LOTS of omissions They all seem so competitive. Perhaps he doesnt want other guitarists of their own generation to seem on his level.
Theres room for so many artists. In fact more than ever now. This was great for hero worship but is as good a linear life bio as any other artist. Even if i find myself not loving him too much. He has my respect for the music Layla will be around long after Eric leaves us. Very long Winning Grammys for a song about your kid dying is also sad. Glad hes hard so many do overs!
He does seem happy and thats good. So there! No clue how this gets such a low rating. Great job documenting the life of legend Clapton. Learned this if his childhood that I was not aware of.
Loved it! Interestingly, the director has chosen not to use any talking heads, so the interviews on the soundtrack serve to underscore incredibly private images of Clapton's life, which lead the viewer into an intimate view of the 60s and 70s that's rare been shown on screen.
The film focuses on Clapton's life as a man driven by music rather than on his music itself, which I suppose may disappoint some hardcore musos, as there's little in the way of geeky guitar player info.
Yet, as a guitar player myself, this seems an infinitely wiser choice, as it opens the story up to anyone who's passionate about English rock music or blues more generally, rather than catering merely to fans who want to learn more about his guitar technique or which amps and effects he used. A painfully honest portrayal of one of the world's greatest rock stars - beautifully made. I have been a huge fan of Eric's since I was 10!
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