Customer Reviews

Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw a story on NPR about this new documentary, Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan. Not only was I surprised to hear it reviewed on NPR (complete with audio clips), I was eager to see a movie that depicted the rise of one of my favorite rap groups.

However, I was sadly disappointed. The movie gets off to a real slow start, and it almost seems like the director is making the movie just to use up stock footage he had from his early days with the Wu-Tang Clan. He has videos of behind-the-scenes stuff in the studio, and clips from the nightlife scene, but they don't really do anything to contribute to the story or the narrative thread of the movie.

Much of the commentary by interviewees is hard to understand, and Subtitles are not an option. The difficulty in understanding the language is a combination of bad audio and unclear ennunciation on the part of the speakers.

We don't get to see a lot of performances. Most of the performance footage shown is from a concert they did in Hawaii. When I think of the Wu, I think of them in NYC, Chicago, D.C. -- on stage in a packed, dark club with a frenzied crowd. Instead, we see the Clan performing on a sunny, open air stage, dressed in Hawaiian t-shirts and sunhats(!), and performing for an all-white audience. This is not the Wu that one normally thinks of, not the gritty urban rap supergroup that we all know and love. Seeing ODB prancing around in a hat that my grandma would wear to a day at the beach just takes away something.

This movie leaves out all the stuff that happened after the group's rise but before ODB (Ol Dirty Bastard) died. It then just abruptly ends. There is no mention of the Wu's ascension to the mainstream, their clothing lines and savvy business ventures, the way they gave back to their Staten Island community by supporting youth groups (and even opening up a Wu-Tang ice cream parlor!), or any of the solo projects that went on, besides a hint of Method Man's stuff and then of course ODB. There is way too much attention paid toward a party for ODB when he was released from prison at some non-descript family restaurant. Again, it was like the director thought, "Wow, I have this home video from ODB's prison release party. Between this and my early footage, I should make a movie!" Aside from that and the Hawaii footage, there isn't a whole lot going on other than commentary from a few people and mostly from Papa Wu, who is a rambling, incomprehensible, and mostly uninteresting interviewee.

The chronology of the movie is pretty much the director speaking of going back to Staten Island, where it all started; the rise of the Clan, brief interviews with them intercut with the Hawaiian concert; the imprisonment and death of ODB; and a few final comments.

The few bright spots were some fun moments with ODB and the other members, particularly where ODB freestlyes while drunk. For the most part though, we don't really get a chance to get a sense of the individual group members.

I just watched this movie this past weekend, and I was so disappointed and ready to move on that I haven't even checked out the special features. Considering that the director of this movie also directed their video for Da Mystery of Chessboxin', I'm hoping that that video as well as others may be included. That, at least, would be one saving grace of this otherwise unremarkable DVD documentary.

Someone should do a more comprehensive documentary that does justice to the greatness that the Wu-Tang Clan once was and still is today.

Valdez Bravo

First let me say I love Wu Tang.

Now the review: in a word terrible. Another couple of words, average and amateurish.

When I opened this dvd I was pretty psyched to watch it. Half an hour later I was still watching it, although a little disappointed. But I kept at it. I was sure there must be something good coming up - after all this is the story of the Wu. Newsflash - nothing exciting happens.

The only really credible sources in the dvd are divine and Poppa wu, who have interesting tid bits to add here and there.
Beyond that the others in the movie are a loud records executive and people who once lived next door to a guy who once saw gza in the street or something to that effect.

All in all this dvd was a big disappointment.

Peace out

after all this time, it's good to finally get some insight on the origins of the wu in depth. good stuff

A must see for all wu fans. I was blown away by all the classic footage of the wu tang rise.

This documentary is on point. Directed by GeeBee & if you don't know who that is, you should definitely watch this & peep game. It's fun to watch all the old footage of the Clan. The dedication for Ol' Dirty is dope & heartfelt. Plus, you get a few videos on the bonus features; Protect Ya Neck & Method Man (bootleg version)...if I remember correctly. A definite must-have in any Hip Hop head's collection.

Like most things lately from the WU, or Wu related...fairly shoddy product....I was hoping for an in depth documentary experience, and some rare footage...plenty of rare footage from the early days....but production values drop off early and even with decent interview candidates,Divinie Diggs being particularly vociferous, this was overall a very disapointing product...especialyl considering the sense that the maker is quite a fan. Maybe that was the problem.....needed to be a bit more objective, and the focus on ODB as being the sole reason for the 'downfall' of the group was a shallow analysis.....hopefully something better will come out late.r...not awful by any means, considering the dearth of similar product,, but definitely dissapointing.

I'm glad I bought this DVD. There's decent concert footage of the WU and some details that you might not be know about their story. The scenes discussing ODB were particularly moving and informative.

According to Papa WU, Dirty actually set himself on fire while he was incarcerated so that he could be moved from general pop. to the mental ward.

The intereviews were good and the quality of the DVD wasn't bad at all.

Overall a good edition to my DVD library

WORTH GETTING IF U LUV THE WU BUT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER KIND OF LEFT U WANTING MORE ESPECIALLY ON HOW THEY CAME UP AND WHATS GOING ON NOW WITH THE GROUP

There is a lot of time spent on some of the issues with the death of Ol' Dirty [........], as well as other problems.
For me, once the documentary ended I was ready for more, as there is still far more details and such that this could have gone into if the creators really wanted to try and pull it off.

I saw this documentary by Gee Bee at the 2007 H20 Int'l Film Festival in NYC. It was pretty interesting to hear the problems that most members of Wu-tang had w/RZA's brother, Divine. The beginning of their career, Divine was the group's manager, and a lot of them claimed that they weren't paid fairly. When you watch the documentary, it is up to u the viewer to decide who was right or wrong. Did they have a Lawyer review their contracts? Did they have an Accountant? Gee Bee informed me that BET deleted a couple of the scenes. He plans to release the Director's Cut(the original version) in the near future. I love Wu-tang, and I hope they can mend their problems and tour together. [...]