Product Details

• Actors: Wood Harris, Billy Zane, Dorian Harewood, Christian Potenza, Vivica A. Fox
• Directors: Leon Ichaso
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: June 4, 2002
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000059HFA
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,311 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #17 in

  Video > Music Video & Concerts > Artists > Hendrix, Jimi

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Most television movies about real-life rock & roll heroes are a deadening mix of biographical bullet-points and sensational recreations of outré behavior. Rarely does the essence of a pop artist, great or otherwise, come into focus within the spuriously tragic atmosphere of the kind of TV bio-pic that has made fools of the likes of the Beach Boys and John Lennon. Happily, that's not the case with Leon Ichaso's Hendrix, a remarkably sensitive film, originally broadcast on cable, that refuses to exploit guitar legend Jimi Hendrix's mythic appetites nor reduce his prodigious genius to bite-size drama. It is, instead, a portrait of the artist as a field of incongruous energy, sprawling everywhere and nowhere at once, remote from his roots and pained by the disruptive, implacable force of his awesome talent. Wood Harris (Remember the Titans) is wonderful as Hendrix, masterfully capturing the rock god's legendary shyness, unabashed sexual adventurism, and constant redefinition of his purpose and sound. Keeping him on a short tether is Hendrix's management team, which insists he keep up a grueling schedule for the money and throws obstacles onto the path of his creative freedom. Cuban director Ichaso (Sugar Hill) makes clever use out of a fictional, black-and-white interview Hendrix supposedly gave a journalist on the day he died. In it he talks about everything that comes to mind: playing guitar for African American singers on the old rhythm & blues circuit, the thrill of his triumphs during the London blues scene in 1967, and his efforts to mollify advocates of black militarism without becoming involved in it. Terrific support work by Billy Zane as Hendrix's would-be puppeteer, Christian Potenza as former Animals bassist- turned-rock-manager Chas Chandler, and Dorian Harewood as Al Hendrix. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Typical TV Movie, April 8, 2001

By	C. S. Junker "soul_survivor" (Burien, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Hendrix (DVD)

This made-for-cable movie is an honest attempt to boil down Jimi Hendrix's life and music down to less than two hours. Unfortunately the producers were unable to obtain the rights to any of Jimi's songs, so the musical score is entirely made of up his covers (Hey Joe, All Along the Watchtower, Wild Thing, etc.) plus some unattributed jamming. You get the typical 60s montages (JFK, Malcom X, the Beatles, Dylan, etc.) along with the cookie-cutter dialogue and vastly oversimplified story.

Despite some good performances, the script doesn't really offer the scope to examine why Hendrix's music was so revolutionary, or the problems that led to his early death.

There's not much fire here, either, as the film suffers from wooden pacing and is never especially absorbing.

The documentary film "Jimi Hendrix", also available on DVD, is a far better way to gain an appreciation of this artist.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is an abomination - negative 5 stars, July 27, 2004

By	Chet Fakir (DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hendrix (DVD)

This trainwreck is better than Oliver Stones excreble Doors movie, at least in terms of the facts, but thats the only thing positive I can say about it. Its not an entertaining view by any stretch of the imagination and the flaws, of which there are many, are glaring and so egregious they spoil the movie. I'll touch on a couple of the most criminal. First off the actor playing Hendrix simply does not have the acting skills or physical resemblance to make a believable Hendrix. He's not a horrible actor, just in no way convincing as Jimi. Perhaps they should have cast somebody who had even a remote clue as how to play a guitar. Likewise the guys playing Noel and Mitch are in no way convincing. In fact that criticism holds true for everyone in the movie except perhaps for Billy Zanes' portrayal of Mike Jeffrey. Many of the character portrayals are at best laughable. Second and most importantly NONE of the music in the film was written or played by Hendrix. Since the filmakers couldn't get the rights to Hendrix's music they could use only those songs Jimi covered, such as Hey Joe and they couldn't use Hendrix's performances either. Instead they used some studio band to play the covers and bad Hendrix-like songs/jams instead. I'm sorry but watching the actors badly pretend to play BAD Hendrix-like songs performed by some studio hacks creates more pain than should be inflicted on any movie goer. This film does a diservice to Hendrix's memory and legacy. Avoid it at all costs.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hendrix?, March 29, 2007

By	C. Wardell "coop" (New york) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hendrix (DVD)

I really thought this movie sucked, so much so that I couldn't watch the whole thing. I have been a Hendrix fan for a long time, and he is my biggest influence and musical idol. So naturally I was dissapointed when the actor playing Hendrix was not even playing the guitar; not to mention the studio musician they used for the guitar work was channeling texas blues, maybe SRV. It didn't even sound like Hendrix. And as has been mentioned, they didn't get the rights to any actual Hendrix songs, so the soundtrack didn't include any of Jimi's original music(how absurd is that?).
Personally the movie offended me; this movie is useless to anyone who already knows anything about Jimi. And worse, to someone who does not know anything about Jimi, the movie portrays him as a corny goofball who stumbles into stardom. I mean you can listen to the dialogue by the lead actor and you can tell which individual interviews he studied to prepare for the role; yet when he delivers these lines, he sounds like such a loser. When Hendrix spoke, he was certainly a little out there sometimes, but he was cool. He spoke the language of the 60's. This actor definitely lost something in the translation.
I would recommend that you not see this movie; for the same price you could purchase something valuable, like the documentary "Jimi Hendrix" (1973?). This actually has some really good clips of live concert footage. Honestly, I would recommend that anyone who wants to learn more about Jimi should just buy as much of his music as you can afford and listen to it. That is what Jimi Hendrix was about; creating revolutionary music. If you want to get into the story of his life, which was quite sad, read a biography or something.
"Hendrix" does not focus nearly enough on Jimi's music (clearly, they didn't get the rights to!) and instead tries to make a drama of his lifestory, and seems to do that very poorly too. Zero Stars