Cheap If I Should Fall from Grace - The Shane MacGowan Story (DVD) (Sarah Share) Price

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Customer Reviews of If I Should Fall from Grace - The Shane MacGowan Story

A Must for Shane's Fans - gets behind the art
OK, let's start with the gossip. Shane has this reputation as Ireland's greatest alcoholic artist since Brendan Beehan. When the film started i thought 'damn, can't understand a word the guy's saying! he's drunk all the time!' then you realize A)his teeth are all screwed up and B)he has a heavy accent so even stone cold sober you probably can't understand half of what he says till you're used to it! <
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>As for the GREAT DEBATE - did he quit the Pogues or was he thrown out? - who cares? every divorce has two conflicting stories. And besides, the Pogues reunited this year for a tour. <
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>Now to the meat. While no documentary can function as a definitive picture of an individual, this one gives a us a solid view of shane's early years and family life. I remember some people slagging him off as 'not really Irish' because he grew up in London as a teenager. That's a ridiculous statement and the proof of it is that you can't find Londoners sitting around the kitchen table of the family cottage in Co. Tipperary with three generations all hugging and talking and laughing. The scenes of Shane back home are truly touching and blow away the public personna of the wreckless alcoholic. <
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>Just watching Shane as he ambles through his day, writes a song at home, poses for pictures with fans, etc. is worth the price of admission because there is absolutely NO pretense with this guy. What you see is what you get. What you get isn't always pretty, but it's honest. <
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>Good insights into who and what the Pogues were from guitarist Phil Chevron, nice comments from Shane's dad and altogether worthwhile. And what a crazy laugh the guy has! The good news is he HASN'T fallen from Grace with God.

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Mixed reviews of this history
If I Should Fall From Grace, The Shane MacGowan Story provides a rare glimpse into the phenomenon that was Shane MacGowan and The Pogues. Shane is presented here in raw form, with all of the real effects of the heavy alcohol and drug use showing unabashedly their deadly effects on the human body. If nothing else, this DVD shows what the real effects of the rock and roll lifestyle are in a long term prognosis. Either you clean up at some point or you pass the point of no return. MacGowan has long passed the point of no return. The talented and charismatic song writer and performer is reduced to the latter glory of a mumbling rambling caricature. He has become at best one of the boys on the "Old Main Drag" and has no recourse but to accept his fate. <
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>MacGowan receives a recognizable welcome wherever he goes, a sort of Irish hero, but when the camera pulls back, reality shows that he is an anti-hero. The locals who are fawning all over him are turning him into a myth. The myth becomes obvious when MacGowan's post-Pogues clips are shown. MacGowan is not the fantastic songwritier so many claim him to be. He may have been so at one point, but he is no longer. And his replacement backup band, The Popes come off as amateur players unable to give a single lick a moment of life. What few glimpses of the Pogues we get from live footage and videos, by comparison, underline what a massive force this 9 piece team really was. Remove one player, as the Pogues did for the last two albums, and the edge is lost but talent remains. Remove eight players, as what happened with MacGowan, and the magic completely disappears. This footage underscores the power and magic that was the Pogues and how the breakup of the band came too late to save MacGowan. <
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>This DVD provides rare footage of early Pogues and even earlier footage of The Nipps; also included is footage from Elvis Costello's producing sessions of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. Interviews include Philip Chevron of the later Pogues line-up, The Pogue's tour manager, and Nick Cave, who is a close friend of MacGown and a groundbreaking songwriter in his own right. But realize that this DVD is about MacGowan. Pogues fans will not get enough of the Pogues that they want. And there is this constant push from everyone around MacGowan to make him bigger than he really was. Add to that the fact that the voices of 10 years of Pogues band members are mysteriously missing. The Shane MacGowan story has huge holes without the direct contributions of the rest of the Pogues' former line-up. Save your money on this one. Rent it if you need to see some Pogues history. Or rent it if you need to do a character study of a broken man. Otherwise, pass on this and get any one of the Pogues albums. Pick one, any one, pre- or post-MacGowan. You can't go wrong. There hasn't been a single Irish band since the Pogues to compete with the fluidity and the raw energy. This band was a once in a century phenomenon, and glorifying one member of the band over the rest will not change that fact. <
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great film
I have never changed my mind about a person so many times. I have watched it at least ten times and always see something different and always feel something different. <
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>Nick Cave extra stuff is a bore, but the film is mesmerizing. <
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>This is honest and therefore difficult stuff. Did our loving the Pogues egg him on to be the sot he is? <
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>Brilliantly made film, buy it.