The Beach Boys, el documental

Greetings again from the darkness. Casual fans of The Beach Boys music are attracted to the light-hearted and fun songs that are always good for a burst of feel-good energy. More attuned fans remain in awe of the intricate vocal harmonies ... rarely matched by other bands. Co-directors Frank Marshall and Thom Zimney have successfully presented the story of The Beach Boys without either over-the-top gushing or digging too deeply into the dirt.

By going all the way back to the childhood of the Wilson brothers, the film details how singing in the backseat of the family car began the transformation into a supergroup that changed pop music forever. Oldest brother Brian has always been accepted as the musical 'genius', while Carl was inspired to pick up a guitar after hearing Chuck Berry, and rebel Dennis played the drums almost out of necessity. Cousin Mike Love wrote many of the lyrics for Brian's music and became the band's lead singer, while good friend (and Brian's football teammate) Al Jardine's exceptional voice was a natural fit. We learn it was Al's mother who fronted the boys $300 to rent instruments after hearing them sing together (smart lady). We also learn that Murry Wilson (the boys' father) sold his business to manage the group towards gigs and their first record deal.

It's really that history - the foundation of the band - that is the most interesting aspect of the film. For the most part, it tracks chronologically through the album releases and tours, while emphasizing the importance of the band bringing beach culture to the masses. Hearing about their musical influences: The Four Freshman, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and Phil Spector, allows us to understand exactly how things progressed so quickly.

The filmmakers (with impressive music doc and music video backgrounds) mention but opt not to dwell on the darker aspects of the band's history. The commercial failure of "Pet Sounds" (now considered a masterpiece) played a significant role in Brian's emotional fade. Father Murry's inexplicable decision to sell off the band's publishing rights prevented any of them from reaching the financial status they deserved. As was commonplace for the time, drugs were detrimental to individual band members as well as the band's productivity. Deciding to pull out of the Monterrey Pop Festival (no real explanation given) resulted in the band becoming irrelevant for a few years. Mike Love sued the band for songwriting credits, creating a huge rift. These points, along with Dennis' happenstance involvement with Charles Manson, are all mentioned yet given no real depth ... which is fine for a documentary working so hard to stay positive.

As a conclusion, Capital Records' release of the double-album "Endless Summer" injected new life and popularity into the band (getting them past that earlier 'rivalry' with The Beatles), and the finale is a shot of a recent reunion with surviving band members Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston at Paradise Cove ... with no insight into what was discussed.

The film begins streaming on DISNEY+ on May 24, 2024.

After finding out a new Beach Boys documentary was going to be released this year I naturally got quite excited and looked forward to enjoying it. "The Beach Boys" is a pretty compelling documentary on the legendary band. Featuring interviews of the band members, their families, associates and fans including footage of home videos, live performances and the times the film chronicles a memorable and dramatic story of a trio of siblings who formed a band with friends and relatives and, seeing the potential their times and surroundings promised as a rich source of inspiration went on to fame and fortune with trials and tragedy serving as a dark counterbalance.

Beginning with a shaky start on an abrupt introduction to the Wilson household the doc charts the band's formation and their tapping of the popular surf craze in Southern California during the early - 1960s. With bassist, vocalist and main songwriter Brian Wilson emerging as a major songwriting and production talent the boys came up with a string of great songs that topped the charts which have since become classics and standards of Rock and Pop Music. The pressure of fame, drugs, competition from the other side of the pond led by four young and talented men from Liverpool and changing times brought the group's winning streak to a halt. A compilation album of their hits from their peak years hit #1 leading to a revival of the group's fortunes and they've been coasting on that success since.

From the start the flaws of the documentary are apparent. As mentioned above the film starts too immediately with the formation of the band without giving a necessary background to the band, their place and the times. The Beach Boys is one of the most influential bands in music history but only a scanty number of prominent figures are featured in the film to justify the band's important and enduring legacy. Don Was, Lindsey Buckingham and Janelle Monae (!) are the only notable figures included. Finally the film is too short with it ending in the '70s without including Brian Wilson's controversial relationship with his therapist at the time, Dennis and Carl Wilson's passing and the other major comeback they had with the huge hit "Kokomo". There's no final summary and conclusion to the band's inestimable legacy although it's nice to see the surviving members get together at the end of the film. This is one tribute that should have been at least another hour long.

Flawed but watchable, "The Beach Boys" is a good artifact of a great band, a great time and great music which is what it all boils down to. When snippets of the band's great tunes buoyed from the speakers I felt that instant automatic rush and high I always feel when I listen to their masterpieces. Watch this release and celebrate the power of art and music to uplift life and make it truly worth living.

Anybody expecting a Peter Jackson Get Back style documentary will be disappointed.

Visually this is very poor. Old photos and films have all been seen before in countless other documentaries on the Beach Boys and generally, apart from some recent interviews, there is nothing new at all. In fact there is so much that is not in-cluded that should have been.

It would have been interesting if the early days and their first four albums (1962-1963) were covered in some depth.

The same applies to the Wild Honey/Friends/20-20/Sunflower period. These hardly get a mention or the fact that some material from the abandoned Smile album was included on these albums.

Any compilation of hits by the Beach Boys is inevitably going to focus on the early days and the "Californian Dream", and as such, more time should have been spent on the surf/hot rod/girl music of that period.

The shelving of Smile made no mention of a well aired opinion that after hearing Sgt. Pepper, Brian Wilson felt his Smile project was not suitable as a Beach Boys album. He expressed this view in the documentary but then they released Smiley Smile which was even less representative of their music culture.

The last album mentioned was Holland, but the Beach Boys made 10 studio albums after that and these do not include Brian Wilson finally releasing a version of Smile in 2004.

After the confusing Carl and the Passions album (not mentioned), they made Surf's Up, an important album that barely gets a mention. The same with Holland.

No mention is made of the deaths of Dennis and Carl, the true state of Brian's mental health and the fact he reportedly spent three years in his room sleeping, smoking and taking drugs is not covered at all. Neither is the piano in a sandbox or how he was treated and manipulated by a psychologist in the mid-1970s.

Overall, a missed opportunity. I am left with the impression that is was made on the cheap and relies on the Beach Boys name to sell the documentary.

When you consider the Beatles got six hours out of their group life-span in their "Anthology" TV series of the mid 90's and they weren't in existence above ten years, it seems a bit strange to have the plus 60 years working career of the Beach Boys condensed to under two hours.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this surf through their career, although it effectively ends at 1974 when the release of their oldies hits collection "Endless Summer" put them back at the top of the US charts after being in the wilderness for so long. I totally get that subsequent hits like the awful "Lady Lynda" and "Kokomo" don't begin to compare with anything on "Endless Summer" but to just write off the last 50 years or so, ignoring one or two decent records like "The Beach Boys Love You", "15 Big Ones" or they are more recent reunion album, seems to me to do them something of a disservice. There's also no mention of Brian's return to recording which included at least one fine album "Love and Mercy" and his own imagining of the "Smile" album or about Dennis Wilson's lovely solo album "Pacific Ocean Blue". I also felt the omission of mentioning the passing of Dennis and Carl, apart from a subtitle commemoration over the end credits.

Anyway, let's quit with the moaning and hit the beach, because unquestionably some of the best pop music ever made came from the band and in particular the creative genius of Brian Wilson. Much is made of the sense of competition he felt with the Beatles but you have to remember that there were four of them with three strong writers plus George Martin as their producer, while Wilson was more or less left to do everything on his own. Throw in poor promotion on the part of their record label for their classic album "Pet Sounds", mismanagement by the Wilsons' own father which cost them millions in royalties and of course Brian's well-documented problems with drugs and you can see that the band certainly had to ride some big breakers in their time.

Inevitably much of the narrative centres around Brian but I do think that the contribution of the remaining group members was unfairly downplayed. Even after Brian effectively withdrew from the band after the "Smile" fiasco, they made some great records before big brother hooked up with them again. I didn't even hear the likes of "Do It Again" (a UK no..1), or their early 70's classic "Sail on Sailor" on the soundtrack, not do I recall hearing "Heroes and Villains", surely one of the most important songs in their library, never mind the stories about how it was recorded and "failed" on release.

All the surviving members contribute to the story and are supplemented by vintage footage of Dennis and Carl. Programmes like this always feature fan-boys and girls offering their adoration and this one's no different with Lindsey Buckingham and Ryan Tedder chorusing their approval.

It ends touchingly with the remaining members reuniting at the location over 60 years on from the cover shot of their "Surfin'" album, with Brian and Mike happily letting bygones be bygones in the wake of their rather uncivil lawsuit case.

All of the members come out of it well in their advanced ages, although for me Brian will never look fully recovered again and Mike Love acts much less like a prat than he usually does.

A fascinating family story then which however rather seems to skim the surface rather than go for the deep dive I'd much rather have seen.

Because The Beach Boys are such a long-tenured musical institution and feature the requisite history (good and bad) to go along with that longevity, one could do a 5-part doc and probably still leave some topics on the cutting room floor. What this Disney+ doc accomplishes in just under two hours, however, is an excellent summation of the group that primarily focuses on the family aspect and the timelessness of the music they created. Plus, it is a positive-focused doc--albeit one that doesn't completely shy away from some of the more controversial material.

In terms of general chronology, "The Beach Boys" focuses on the group's creation through roughly the late-1970s--plus a sort of "where are they now" coda that is extremely moving. As mentioned, the material largely revolves around two themes:

-Family: The Beach Boys are extremely unique in that they were mainly populated by three brothers (Brian, Carl, & Dennis Wilson), a cousin (Mike Love), and a close friend (Al Jardine). Very few other music groups can boast such a tight-knit family bond--highly credited with keeping the ship afloat during the rough patches.

-Music: The group created harmonies that have proved to be timeless as new generations keep discovering them. While Brian may have been the composing genius behind the scenes and Mike the perfect "front man", this doc makes it clear that every Beach Boy (even the "fill-ins" along the way) was vital to the overall sound and success of the group.

Is this a positive and upbeat doc befitting of its Disney roots? Of course--and that's almost certainly the right approach to take with "America's Band"! But director Frank Marshall also doesn't completely shy away from the more sensitive topics: the influence of Murry Wilson, Brian's turbulent mid-70s period, and Mike's legal suit for songwriting credit among them. But such material simply is not dwelled upon.

All things considered, "The Beach Boys" seems like the perfect doc for its length, subject, and audience. Deeper-dives can easily be done via large tomes or specific docs/movies on other Beach Boys topics--but this doc is an excellent summation of why their music is so magical and where it all came from.