REVIEW: We take a pre-release look at Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown To Off The Wall

First let's address the herd of elephants in the room. To some he's a pariah whose musical achievements have been null and voided by the crimes he's alleged to have committed. To others, including The Weeknd, Pharrell Williams, Valerie Simpson, Stevie Wonder, Kobe Bryant, Mark Ronson, John Legend, Questlove and L.A. Reid who all appear in Spike Lee's labour of love documentary, Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown To Off The Wall, he's still a pop genius.
People have similarly conflicted views about Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Bill Wyman, Allen Ginsberg and Jerry Lee Lewis, but no one can deny they've made great art.
As the title suggests, Lee's 1hr 32min film, which also has Katherine, Joe, Jackie and Marlon Jackson in the credits, spans from 1969 when Berry Gordy poached them from their hometown label, Steelyard Records, until 1979 when he released his gazillion-selling solo debut.
With the first sex abuse claims not surfacing until 1993, there aren't as many hard questions to ask or avoid as there would be if this were a full career retrospective. Of course, if there was ever an A-List filmmaker that doesn't mind courting controversy, it's Lee whose last documentary was essentially a rehabilitation of Mike Tyson.
It's the aforementioned Berry Gordy who's interviewed first following a rapid-fire splicing together of '70s Hollywood Palace, Ed Sullivan Show and Soul Train appearances, which is a reminder of 1). How gobsmackingly talented Michael was and 2). His childhood effectively ending when he turned eleven.
"The most intense time of life for me was the changing from Motown to CBS," Jackson says mournfully in a '90s interview. "I was in a whole other world; gosh, I didn't know what was happening. There was so much tension..."
Fans will love the forensic examination of how Off The Wall was made, with assorted band members, Columbia Records execs and studio personnel all emitting Ready-Brek glows as they discuss the magic which occurred whenever Michael stepped up to the mic.
Surprisingly given Lee's track record, the examining of Jackson in a wider cultural, racial and social context is tacked on to the end almost as an afterthought. There's no suggestion of his father, Joe, having a darkside that was detrimental to his son's well-being or reference to Michael's alarmingly morphing face. Whatever personal relationships he had are glossed over, and Lee also fails to properly tease out that telling, "There was so much tension..." quote.
However heartfelt it may be, there are times when the celebrity fandom becomes cloying, and you'd love someone to go off message and, even in a benign way, address his obvious eccentricities.
What is beyond reproach, though, is the insight into the Jackson creative process; the scope of the archive material, and editing of the dozens of interviews into a fast-moving, coherent narrative.
Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown To Off The Wall will delight fans;
infuriate his critics who've been queuing up to accuse Lee of whitewashing, and remind those occupying the middle-ground just how awesome and game-changing a performer he was.

February 26 sees the rerelease of Off The Wall as a CD/DVD and CD/Blu Ray package that includes the Michael Jackson's Journey From Motown To Off The Wall documentary.