Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out

This is a pretty interesting documentary, in the early 80s if you ever saw Stewart Copeland with a camera and wondered what he was doing, this is it. It's basically home movies Copeland took when he was with The Police. It's interesting hearing what he has to say and to actually see some behind the scenes. Musically it's very nice but at times the audio is weak, that's due to the fact that a good audio system wasn't available but you get to hear some great live versions of some hits.There are some really funny moments an since it is a documentary, a few times I was reminded of This is Spinal Tap, which isn't a bad thing. We get to kind of know the band members and by the end I felt this film was a pleasing experience, showing us what it's like being a member of a rock group.

In 1979 Message in a Bottle hit No. 1 in the UK. The Police were rich. Andy and Sting went out and bought Mood Taurus foot pedals, Stew daddy bought a 8mm video camera.

The pictures from that camera are the basis for this glorious tribute to the band that inspired me over 40 years ago to learn to play guitar, bass, keyboards, hell play and understand music.

The liner notes in my DVD say Stewart put this together only for the the extended band originally, Andy, Stingo, Danny, Jeff, Tam et al.

Stewart's derangements of the songs is a total delight and foreshadows many of his later projects.

And anyone who loves live music must love all The Police.

If there is 1 minor downside, for us fanatics, the chronology is a little suspect.

But the biggest band from the best seat in the house.

Cannot go wrong.

RIP Ian Copeland and Kim Turner.

This is very nearly scuppered by Copeland's present-day, gee-whizz narrative, which is surprisingly square and self-regarding. You can't imagine Mick or Keith, or Debbie, or Chrissie (Hynde) doing anything like it and makes the whole project totally uncool. It's like being round your mate's house and being followed by an overenthusiastic American dad, you keep hoping he'll disappear so you can raid the fridge for beers and watch Chuck's new Jenna Jameson flick.

Eventually Copeland shuts up and the footage takes on a real quirky charm, the blonds larking about like moptop Beatles in negative, though you sometimes wonder if bands were always like that or if having a camera were the equivalent of larking about for a facebook picture today.

Some good music and Copeland is interesting about the bad effects of fame towards the end. It doesn't outstay its welcome at just 70 mins.

In 'Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out', Stewart Copeland presents a behind-the-scenes, and very unique, look at The Police, from their inception to the very end.

The premise is Stewart buys an 8mm camera and begins filming his band from the very, very beginning. In many ways, this film brings you into the perspective of being in a band going from nearly nothing to being the biggest band on the planet, all in under 5 years. The film is shot on 8mm, so it has a grainy, sort of distorted style at times. However, this film is really beautiful. Copeland definitely has an eye for a shot, and mixed amongst the band messing around, playing live, or signing autographs for fans, are beautiful interspersed shots of various locations The Police sauntered through during their days.

This movie may not be for everyone. At around 1:20 in length, it is a short, very entertaining look at one of the greatest rock bands of the 1980s. If you are a fan of The Police, you will absolutely love this film. If not, I believe you'll appreciate how this film is very different than other music documentaries. This really is a very good to outstanding film about music. The fact that it was filmed by a member of the band, and he has a great eye for film, is wholly unique. I highly recommend this film.

Stewart Copeland may have not been the best person to make a documentary on his own band, but then again he has the inside scoop. He has all of the 8mm footage that he shot during the time period, so it makes sense that he would come back around years later to look back on the time that he was with one of the biggest bands in the world. If someone else had made it there would have been distance, more of a documentary perspective (maybe, say, like Tom DiCillo's When You're Strange). I think Copeland's not-quite-there ability as a storyteller kind of hampers the quality of the film, there is still enough goodie footage that it makes for some captivating viewing.

If there is an overall problem it's just the looseness of it. There's little conflict revealed in what is going on with the Police when they're really hitting it huge until Copeland tells us in his narration. It's the kind of breezy over-dubbing that takes the band at face-value. He does paint a better picture than one might get reading a book about the band, and it's not in-depth. What it does do is provide a window at a time and place, some of the frenzy, the energy of the music. It almost would have been better to let the footage speak for itself. Most of Copeland's observations could be ascertained from what's on screen- the huge crowds and massive fans, the overwhelming quality of the far-out places they travel to to shoot music videos, their rise from small-time to big-time venues- but at least what's on screen is there, and there are some good behind the scenes moments (my favorite is when we see Copeland shooting the music video crew shooting the Police video for Do-Do-Do-De-Da-Da-Da).