To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale (2005) (V)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Jörg Bundschuh

Release Date:

13 June 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Cast

J.J. Cale	...	Himself
Eric Clapton	...	Himself
Rocky Frisco	...	Himself
David Fulgham	...	Himself
Ginger Havlat	...	Herself
Mike Kappus	...	Himself
Jimmy Karstein	...	Himself
Bill Kenner	...	Himself
Christine Lakeland	...	Herself
Michael W. Lasota	...	Himself
Jimmy Markham	...	Himself
Jeff Martinson	...	Himself
Paul McManus	...	Himself
Dudley Murphy	...	Himself
Destiny Pivonka	...	Herself
Bill Raffensperger	...	Himself
Walt Richmond	...	Himself
Don White	...	Himself
John D. Williams	...	Himself

Runtime:

Germany:167 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | Stereo

Filming Locations:

Boulder, Colorado, USA

Company:

Kick Film

Not worth rushing to but relaxing and quite interesting if you get into it

Unlike the main review for this title on this site (from Rocky Frisco himself) I am not part of this film and came to it as just an ordinary viewer. In fact above and beyond that I came to it almost completely cold because all that I knew was that I had quite liked the music that I'd heard on the trailer and also that the film was being screened on BBC4 – which is normally a home for interesting and intelligent documentaries etc. I'm not suggesting that somehow Frisco's comments may have been slightly slanted by being in the film but just to say that I was coming to it from a totally different place.

It is probably also worth mentioning that the film I saw was 90 minutes long and not the 167 minutes that IMDb lists it as – so again maybe others have seen a different version of this and comments may or may not apply. Befitting the music and the man, the documentary is pretty laid back and doesn't overwhelm with any one thing but generally just meanders with enough to hold the interest. Considering he himself seems happy away from any form of limelight, the crew did a good job of getting nice chats out of Cale; nothing too shocking or memorable but just a man being himself and being enjoyable to spend a bit of time with. Likewise with the music; we are given sufficient performances to get a feel for his style and talent but not so much that it serves as a concert film.

Of course for some viewers this will be perhaps annoying because they perhaps wanted more music, more of Cale or more of both. Such as it is though the film was relaxed and slightly interesting. Not one that I would recommend rushing to but if you like the sound of the music and can relax into it then Cale is a laid back guy that is easy to hang with for a time, while the cool tracks play across the background.