Hollywood Reviews and Movie Trivia

A documentary on a legend, "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man", captures the time, the man, and scores a B...

Leonard Cohen, born in 1934, came to prominence in the 1060's. The 60's were a time of change in the U.S. I'm a boomer and lived through, and was a part of, that change. Change was all around us. In our dress, politics, art, and music. There was Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Leonard Cohen.

A factor for documentaries is presenting facts and commentary in such a way that those who have no idea of the subject matter, will want to stay with it. Using early childhood photos, stock interview footage of Cohen, comments from contemporary performers influenced by Cohen's work, and full length performances of some of Cohen's more poignant compositions, made this documentary very watchable. It's all tied together by an autographical contemporary audio/visual narration by Leonard Cohen!

Leonard Cohen, as the documentary makes clear, didn't just wake up with a song in his head and put it on paper. He worked at composing as Bono states, sometimes as long as a year on a song. Early on his songs and poetry was based on an observation of events taking place in his life. After taking10 years to study, in seclusion, with Zen Master Rashi, and becoming a monk, his writings and music developed into effecting change on those observations.

Some of the full-length classics that the artists performed include "Beautiful Losers" and Phil Spector's collaboration "Death of a Ladies man". This documentary's unique presentation re-introduced, and in some cases, introduced the audience to Leonard Cohen and his music. If one was not aware of some of the artists/performers who participated, the delivery of the songs in full length, were introduced to that performer as he or she spoke of Cohen's influence and performed Cohen's songs. How fitting in the Cohen philosophy that we would learn more about Leonard Cohen, and be introduced to another generation of artist through Cohen's body of work!

The documentary ends with Leonard Cohen, in contemporary time, reflecting on his life and ends with his singing his classic "Tower of Sorrow", which shifts the focus from his life, to ours. That's the magic of Leonard Cohen's music...

Grade: B