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The Michael Jackson Movie Controversy · The imuRgency Room

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  The Michael Jackson movie was a mess, and so am I.
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  I mean, clearly I tried to give Michael Jackson trade, but like
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  I'm giving like Count Dracula's sparkly gay cousin.
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  Hey guys, what's up? Some urgency and welcome.
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  Welcome back to my channel. And I want to talk about the new
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  Michael Jackson movie that just came out because I went and saw
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  it this weekend and a few interesting things happened.
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  And before I tell you what those are, I do have to preface by
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  saying that like, I was going in completely blind.
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  I had no idea of the controversies that were going on
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  with this movie. I also did not know much of
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  Michael Jackson's lore or drama or controversies or just his
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  general story outside of the fact that like I heard some
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  things about like him touching kids and of course the general
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  music and like the through in music video.
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  Like I am a local. If not, and honestly, I think
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  local might be overstating it. Like I don't think I'm local.
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  I think I might be foreigner. Like I might I might just be
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  visitor vacationer, not even for pleasure, but like for a work
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  trip for like 1 day. Like I dip my toe in and I dip
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  my toe out. I don't know much.
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  And I say that to say that like this review and these thoughts
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  on this movie are really fresh, very clean, honest and naive.
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  Like I went into this movie a complete blank slate as someone
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  that like does not know much of anything about the lore.
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  So I wanted to talk about what my thoughts were coming out of
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  that with that perspective. And with that, I like the movie.
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  I thought it was pretty cool. But then the second interesting
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  thing happened and that I went on the Internet and I saw the
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  discourse around the movie and learned about some of the real
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  issues with the movie's production, the storylines, and
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  more so as to why the movie that came out came out the way that
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  it did in a way that kind of standardized guys over
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  everything that I later learned about Michael Jackson.
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  And I kind of wanted to talk about that because I think this
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  is a interesting perspective as someone that, again, wasn't
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  super into the Michael Jackson lore.
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  Because I feel like for once, I represent a community of people
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  that can be swayed by the media that we're consuming because I
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  had no other touch point or other reference over Michael
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  Jackson. So basically me and everyone
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  else that had seen the movie without any prior knowledge to
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  the Michael Jackson lore would walk away with a certain
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  impression of Michael Jackson and the quality and production
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  of the movie just based on the film.
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  And who is more likely to be that group of people?
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  It's younger people because we didn't really grow up with
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  Michael Jackson alive and actively making music.
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  So in this video, I wanted to talk about how this movie went
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  about presenting Michael Jackson, the drummer behind the
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  production, as well as the controversies around what was
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  kept in the movie versus what was visibly absent or removed
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  and getting into what. So like I said, I entered this
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  movie basically a clean slate. And one thing that I definitely
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  did notice about the movie was its pacing and specifically how
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  they portrayed Michael. They spent a lot of time in this
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  movie playing up the relation between Michael and his father
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  and the beef that they had. And portrayed Michael as the
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  sort of victim of his success and circumstance.
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  Showing that he without a doubt have this God-given talent to
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  sing and perform and had that star power quality.
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  Who was ultimately being held back by his family, namely his
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  dad who wanted to continue exploiting him and making money
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  off of them. Which as far as I learned
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  definitely did have. But like his father was terrible
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  to him. And in the movie they show
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  things like physical and psychological, but their dynamic
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  takes up the majority of the movie.
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  Like this movie starts off with the founding of the Jackson 5
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  when they're all kids and ends off somewhere in the 80s where
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  Michael essentially stands up to his father and chooses to go
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  solo. And I think the ending scene is
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  his first solo tour. Like him going out on his first
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  solo tour like freshly light skinned.
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  Like this is right when his vitiligo took over and he
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  started using the cream to make him like the Michael Jackson
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  that most people know him as. Which I found interesting as
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  someone that wasn't super into the Michael Loic.
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  And I knew there was a time where he was invisibly black and
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  then a time where the vitiligo took over and there were
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  allegations of him like bleaching his skin and like
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  using these different creams to even out his skin tone and make
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  him look how he looked for the latter half of his career.
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  I just didn't know there was such a stark before and after
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  and the after seemed to be once he went solo completely.
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  But one thing that really shocked me about this movie was
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  that the movie did not tell the whole story at all.
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  Like it literally was from childhood to right before the
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  peak of his career, or maybe some would even say like the
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  peak of his career, which is fine and dandy, but that's
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  omitting a whole 20 years of his career.
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  That then was filled with controversy, even more hits and
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  arguably some of the more juicy stuff that people would want to
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  go and pay to see a documentary for.
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  Because when you make a movie like Michael, you want to see
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  like the whole life of Michael and not necessarily the making
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  of Michael, because that's not what the movie was advertised to
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  me as. Like that's at least not what I
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  thought. Like I thought like we'd get
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  like a full Life and Times of Michael.
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  And also I'd say like, make sure just rename it to the making of
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  Michael. That's what it gives.
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  And I like like the alliteration.
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  They're like, yeah, see. But it's clear that like through
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  like this making of Michael that they still had a very pro
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  Michael lens, which makes sense because I think his family's
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  estate played a big part in this, addressing his
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  insecurities of like looking perfect in front of a public
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  stage and kind of like his low racial self esteem that he's had
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  with his features as the plot follows him through.
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  I think at least two different nose shops.
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  The first one was explicit and I think the second one was more
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  like low key because you just see like another bandage on his
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  nose and his nose shrinks throughout the movie.
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  You also see the loosening of his curl pattern as the movie
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  progresses. Like it's things like this where
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  it's like not explicitly said, but like still shown.
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  So they have like the little nods there.
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  And they also touched on like his little quirks and oddities
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  with his personality, with him wanting to have all these
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  different animals at his place. And his hyperfixation on like
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  youth and kids. Things like his hyperfixation on
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  Peter Pan Disney, being around kids, hanging out with sick kids
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  in the hospital, which could be addressing some of the
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  controversies that he had later in his life.
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  Or could also be a commentary around like the Arrested
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  Development that happens oftentimes with child stars and
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  celebrities where oftentimes they mentally get stuck at the
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  age that they become famous at. And since Michael became famous
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  as a kid, that's where his mind's at.
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  And with all that said, as a casual viewer, as a casual
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  watcher, I enjoyed the movie. It was good.
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  There was some left to be desired as far as like the
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  topics that were covered and how far into his career that we saw.
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  But if I had simply lifted at that and like, not gone to the
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  Internet to, like, look more into it, I've been like, okay,
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  that was a cool biopic. I guess.
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  Not that very many biopics are actually good, but like, it was
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  OK. And I might have considered
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  myself like a casual Michael fan.
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  Like, the songs were good, Like, the performances were good.
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  And I really didn't have anything negative to say about
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  Michael. Like, I didn't understand why
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  people were mad. And then again, I looked on the
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  Internet and I learned. And what I learned made me think
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  about this whole thing differently.
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  Because I think the reasoning behind why the movie was what it
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  was is what moves us into the controversial side of this
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  conversation. Because it seems like they did
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  all this intentionally and that that was the end result, that
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  they wanted people that didn't really know much about Michael
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  to come to. Because looking more into this
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  is becoming clear that the story of Michael in his career was
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  definitely heavily sanitized in this movie to leave people
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  looking at him in a favorable light.
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  In a quote from Vanity Fair, the original intention of the film,
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  according to King and Fukua, was to present a full, unbiased
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  portrait of Michael Jackson, flaws and all, despite the heavy
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  involvement in the Jackson estate, which is notorious for
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  attempting to keep Jackson's image as clean as it can.
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  And I really like this Vanity Fair article because it breaks
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  down the timeline of like, when the Michael movie was at its
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  inception and what the initial goals of it were to what ended
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  up coming out. And in this quote specifically,
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  they're talking about, like when they initially pitched this idea
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  and we're going forward with this idea, they were trying to
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  go with this, like, hyper authentic, like flaws and all,
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  accurate representation of Michael Jackson, his career and
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  the things that he did. And that was the movie that they
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  were making up until 2024. And what happened in 2024, you
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  may ask? Well, attorneys for the Jackson
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  estate discovered a clause and a legal agreement from a case
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  involving a 13 year old Jordan Chandler, who accused Jackson of
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  sexual abuse in 1993. The clause prevents any
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  depictions or mentions of Chandler and any dramatization
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  of Jackson's life. And this caused the movie to
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  essentially go back to the drawing board because I think
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  they're going to include that in the movie's final act.
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  Because after this was found out, the third act of the movie
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  was completely rewritten and reshot after the fact.
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  And rewrites and reshoots are nothing new to like Hollywood or
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  like the process of movie making.
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  But it is interesting to note that Jackson Estate footed the
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  bill for all of these reshoots and had us end up with the
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  ending that we did get where things were all nice and clean
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  and ended on a high note, leaving Jackson to look amazing
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  again, omitting some of the real raw and honestly vulnerable
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  things that happened later in his career towards the more
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  controversial parts of his life. And I honestly don't know how I
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  feel about that. Like, I feel like we should
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  definitely get the full story if we're going to do a biopic.
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  Like if you're going to tell the story of Michael Jackson, then
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  tell the story of Michael Jackson and don't just give us
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  the ass 5 version for the sake of like preserving the legacy of
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  someone. Like we deserve to know the full
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  truth and the full truth and full recollection of history
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  deserves to live on with that person.
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  Like we can't just idolize all the great things that the
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  greats, the most iconic people have done.
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  We need a real representation of how they lived.
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  And I think that's the case for everybody because that's a more
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  human aspect. That's a more accurate biopic,
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  no matter how amazing and talented they are, are not just
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  a collection of their highlight reels.
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  Like there is real struggle. There is real controversialness.
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  There are real things that make a person a person, whether
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  they're right or not. And if the point of not
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  including more sensitive things was for the sake of like,
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  representation for being accurate, If people want to deny
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  some of the controversies, then like, that doesn't matter
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  because the movie is already kind of inaccurate because it
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  omits some very important people in Michael's life, like, namely,
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  Janet Jackson. Janet Jackson is not mentioned
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  or featured once in that entire movie about Michael Jackson's
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  early life and rise to fame. And when I was watching the
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  movie, I was thinking, I'm like, where's Janet?
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  Because I know more about Janet Jackson than I do Michael
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  Jackson. I'm like, all right, I know
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  they're related. And I know they were like,
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  where? Where's Janet?
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  And in addition to people being cut, like it came out like the
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  week before the movie came out, they're like Cat Graham, who was
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  playing Diana Ross in the movie, had her scenes cut for legal
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  issues. Like, the whole world out is a
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  mess. Like you're cutting seemingly
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  major plot points out of the movie a week where the movie
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  airs, you're not telling important parts of the story and
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  you're heavily sanitizing the narrative.
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  Like I understand why things look really bad and really
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  controversial because they might just be like this is a clean
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  washing of Michael's legacy. And the reason why I care about
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  this in general is because this movie is going to be a first
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  touch point for a lot of people around Michael Jackson and the
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  lore of Michael Jackson. Because the man has not been
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  alive since 2009 and there are now 2 generations if not 2 1/2
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  generations that were not alive during the same time that he
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  was. So when people are learning
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  about him for the first time or really getting to see him and
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  learn about him for real, for real for the first time, they're
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  not getting the full story and they're not getting the full
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  truth. And it does not seem like anyone
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  is happy about this because you have people from the Jackson
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  family coming out being like, I, I don't support this.
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  Like Paris Jackson for one. In September of last year, she
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  said that I read one of the first drafts for the script and
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  gave my notes about what was dishonest slash didn't sit right
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  with me. And when they didn't address it,
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  I moved on with my life. You got other people in the
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  movie and playing the roles in the movie and then the life of
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  Michael with how they want to be portrayed.
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  Like the whole thing is just a general mess and just like not
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  the point of the movie or why the movie was made.
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  Like it just kind of gives like when a family member passes away
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  and it's like up to the family to put together the funeral.
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  And like you have everyone from the family trying to do their
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  own thing and try to make it their own way when that just is
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  not the point of, for one, the funeral.
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  And like, what the person would have wanted and what the general
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  consensus of everyone at the funeral really wants.
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  Like, you know, weird analogy, but like, nothing seemed to go
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  to plan. And I just generally think that
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  it's irresponsible, in my opinion, to make a full feature
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  film biopic about someone without telling the full story.
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  And all of this, again, just makes me wonder, like, who is
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  this for if seemingly everyone involved is unhappy and the true
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  fans of Michael Jackson are also seemingly unhappy because the
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  movie's not getting great reviews?
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  Like, who is this for? Is it for the person that
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  doesn't know anything about Michael Jackson?
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  Maybe because, again, when I first saw it, I thought it was
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  cool. I had a certain perception of
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  Michael Jackson. I had a certain perception of
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  how he came up, but is that necessarily the accurate
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  representation? And you may say, like, if you
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  want to know so bad, you can research it yourself, which,
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  yeah, I can and I will. But like, will the average
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  person do that? I don't think so.