PopcornTreeCt

Did anyone get a chance to see the documentary? I just came back from seeing it tonight. I'm a big fan of rock docs and this is the best one I've seen. Just about answered every question I ever had about the band. Can't recommend it enough.

astrochimp

I'm looking forward to seeing it. Love PJ, and Crowe for that matter.

Pillowhead

It's OnDemand right now in some markets. Awesome doc!

Metrodub

Saw this on Saturday and enjoyed every minute of it. The only complaint that I have is that so much time was spent on the first ten years that the second ten were glossed over and, at times, overlooked. If, as the band states in the film, Roskilde is the divider for the two decades, they should have spent a little more time on the incident. I was at the first show post-Roskilde, in VA Beach, and it was quite apparent that the band was still shaken up. The emotion that was poured into the "It's OK" tag during "Daughter," was palpable throughout. I have only begun reading the book, which I am sure will go into greater detail about the incident.

Maybe the DVD/BD set, with extended versions, will go into greater detail.

Mabuse

I believe this will be airing on PBS soon.

PopcornTreeCt

I hope there will be an extended version. I feel the same that it was mostly about the beginnings of the band. I was pleasantly surprised by how much time they devoted to Kurt Cobain's passing but I would've liked to have heard more about other bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains was barely even mentioned.

I've only seem once and it was a couple years back here in Tampa. Great show.

Obi-Wanma

Will I be able to follow this if I haven't seen the first 19 Peal Jam movies?

Metrodub

The single disc version includes 26 extra minutes. There is also a three disc version available through the Ten Club, that includes a lot more:

DISC ONE FULL-LENGTH VERSION OF "PEARL JAM TWENTY" ALONG WITH BONUS FOOTAGE
DISC TWO "THE KIDS ARE TWENTY" VERSION OF THE FILM AND BONUS FOOTAGE
DISC THREE- "THE FANS ARE ALRIGHT" OVER 80 MINUTES OF EXTRAS FOCUSING ON THE FANS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BAND

Throwing Copper

I really enjoyed this. It certainly could've been longer than 2 hours (it's not like this thing is supposed to make a bunch of money in theaters)

I could do without a third disc on BD about the fans. Could care less.

Crowe did a great job with this. It had to focus on the first 10 years for obvious reasons.

Michael Corvin

For anyone that wants to see this, it's on tonight on PBS @10pm. Set those DVRs.

GuessWho

Just watched it. Very, very well done.

Mike86

I was tempted to watch the PBS showing but the Blu-ray should be showing up soon. Although Ten Club did send out an email that the manufacturer of the disc was running late and they won't receive them until the 26th ..

Michael Corvin

Watched it yesterday. It's crafted very well, which is a given since it's Cameron Crowe, but overall it was pretty average. Normally you walk away from a documentary feeling something, anything. This ended and I thought to myself... alright. At the very least it should want you to pop some Pearl Jam in to jam to... but nah, nothing. Despite being well made, that's a failure that falls on the director.

Don't get me wrong, some of it was interesting but it just wasn't very "filling." As mentioned the beginning was far more interesting and makes me wonder if a Seattle grunge origins doc would have been a better route to take. Once that part ended, everything else seemed glossed over. A few examples; Kurt hates us, Kurt likes us, we wouldn't be the same without Kurt...moving on... 9 people died at the festival, it changed us as a band, shot of Eddie shedding a tear...moving on... "the drummer is really the heart of the band," we've had a lot of 'em...moving on... and so on.

Makes me wonder if the longer cut goes into more detail or just uses the extra runtime to gloss over things not already in the doc.

Ky-Fi

Never a big fan of their music, although I respected them as artists. I just came across this doc on PBS yesterday, and realy got caught up in it. Very engrossing, even if you're not a fan of them.

Mabuse

Sorry, this was TERRIBLE. I'm not a huge Pearl Jam fan, just sort of an average fair weather kind of fan, but I was a teen and college student during their ascent and I thought the construction of this doc was so sloppy. When you consider that their rise occured so fast I think the most important thing a doc about the band could do is keep a tight cronology regarding each step from being a basement rock band to being at the forefront of a musical movement. Instead there was absolutely no continuity of information. At one moment they leap forward to briefly talking about No Code before even discussing Vitology. At another moment someone comments "The second time we were on Saturday Night Live I can't even remember that we played Daughter", and I'm saying "what about the first time you were on SNL?" There's a moment in the first 20-30 minutes where they jump all the way ahead to discussing Creed and the similarity of the vocals, and they show an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch. And they kept cutting to performances from the mid 2000's when discussing their '90s music. It was just really poorly constructed. It should have been a chronical instead it was like it was put in a blender.

Who was it made for? Someone who's not a fan or doesn't know the band would be confused by the jumbled story told here, while someone who is a fan, even just a casual fan like me, will be frustrated by the confused chronology.

Look at The Filth and the Fury sometime. There's a film where even if you didn't know a thing about the Sex Pistols (or even if you don't like the Sex Pistols) you'd walk away knowing:
1. A comprehensive story of the band and its members
2. A comprehensive history of the making and unmaking of the band which was fleeting, chaotic, clouded with fiction and ego, and yet it's presented in a way where it all makes sense
3. A real feeling for the power of the music and the scene

Twenty failed at all of this. The best I can say for it is that it has great archival footage.