This documentary is for the absolute beginners. If you don't know anything about Ella Fitzgerald, but would like to, if you are not familiar with her most famous works like the "Songbook" albums or "Ella in Berlin", if you are in need of a general introduction, then this documentary is for you. It covers those purposes just fine.
However, if you have previous knowledge about the subject, if you have ever read a book about her for example, this documentary is not going to give you much. No new ground is covered, and because of the 89 minute duration, a career that spanned over 50 years is covered in a very rushed manner. You get the highlights, and some background about the difficulty black entertainers faced during those decades, but the documentary does not have the time to concentrate on any one thing for long enough to paint a bigger picture. Some of Ella's best work gets ignored. For instance her collaborations with Louis Armstrong are referenced to only by the documentary once showing you a photograph of the two of them together. Same goes for Oscar Peterson.
The director Leslie Woodhead has made documentaries for about 50 years. I've seen some of his earlier works, and he seems to work better with political subjects. With this one, he is fighting a battle he can't win. Ella is one of the all-time greats, and the only way one could have possibly honored her career thoroughly enough in the form of a documentary film, would have been one of those 4 hour Scorsese docs, like the ones Scorsese made about Dylan or George Harrison. This one is clearly made by people whose lives were touched by Ella's music, but the end result is still little more than an introduction.
However, if you have previous knowledge about the subject, if you have ever read a book about her for example, this documentary is not going to give you much. No new ground is covered, and because of the 89 minute duration, a career that spanned over 50 years is covered in a very rushed manner. You get the highlights, and some background about the difficulty black entertainers faced during those decades, but the documentary does not have the time to concentrate on any one thing for long enough to paint a bigger picture. Some of Ella's best work gets ignored. For instance her collaborations with Louis Armstrong are referenced to only by the documentary once showing you a photograph of the two of them together. Same goes for Oscar Peterson.
The director Leslie Woodhead has made documentaries for about 50 years. I've seen some of his earlier works, and he seems to work better with political subjects. With this one, he is fighting a battle he can't win. Ella is one of the all-time greats, and the only way one could have possibly honored her career thoroughly enough in the form of a documentary film, would have been one of those 4 hour Scorsese docs, like the ones Scorsese made about Dylan or George Harrison. This one is clearly made by people whose lives were touched by Ella's music, but the end result is still little more than an introduction.