Moog

This film calls itself a documentary but it documents nothing. Look I play keys and have a Moog. I love the old modular recordings with W. Carlos and D. Hyman and of course all the stuff that was done with the Minimoog. I wanted to learn more about how Moog came about, the competition, how the company went out of business, what he did from the late 70's when he left Moog to when he started Big Briar and the new Moog Music in the late 90's, etc. It also would've been cool to have interviews with some iconic Moog players, like Bernie Worrell, Chick Corea, Dick Hyman, Wendy Carlos, Wakeman, Emerson and the like.

Instead it looks like we get a director who just ran his camera for a hour or so at Moog's factory, Moog's victory garden, and backstage at a Moogfest concert picking up banter between Moog, WOO, and Wakeman, a reminiscing with Emerson and a few whacked out bay area groups making weird noises with there Moogs.

Even though it runs about an hour, I had to break it up into two viewing sessions because it was so boring. What sucks is that Moog is an interesting guy, the history of his company is a great story and the iconic Moog artists all mostly colorful characters. This director had a goldmine on his hands and could've made a fantastic, compelling, awesome, movie where you are entertained and actually learned something. Instead, he squandered his opportunity and made a real snoozer of a film.

Someone from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences needs to confiscate this director's camera. They must have a hyperactive hall monitor over there who'd be willing to do it for mankind. I mean this doesn't need to be The King of Kong or a long drawn out Ken Burns doc, just somewhere in between.

If you love synths and Moogs, this is of some interest as it shows Moog as a down to earth nice guy and it is worth a viewing. If you aren't to interested in the subject though don't even bother, it is a boring stinker.

Although I'm not a massive fan of electronic music but I have sufficient interest in the genre to check out this documentary on the inventor of the electronic synthesizer, Robert Moog. Watching this film was probably not the best way to try and find out more about the man, the instrument and its impact. As many others on this internet site have already pointed out, director Hans Fjellestad does a really average job of doing anything in this film.

The one thing he does appear to be good at selling himself to potential subjects because the film does have a reasonably good array of people on hand to discuss what they do with it and particularly Fjellestad has Moog pretty much on tap throughout the film. It looks like the plan has been to point the camera at whoever is talking, film it and work out the detail in the edit. Sometimes that works and of course with reality shows and the like that is pretty much all you can do but in the vast majority of cases it is a recipe for disaster. So it is here in a film that lacks structure to the point that if Moog wants to ramble endlessly while pottering round his garden then that makes the cut but hardly anytime can be found for many artists that one would associate with the synthesizer. OK, maybe rights to the music or access to the artists was an issue due to the low budget but this is not much of an excuse.

Astonishingly the film is barely over an hour long and it is testament to how poor it is that it feels like it never ends. God help us if we ever see an extended cut of this because imagine the footage that they didn't feel worthy of making it into this version! Anyway, I stuck with it but ultimately there is almost nothing of value here; my mind was open to learning more about the impact this instrument had had but it falls down in this regard with a lack of structure and aim that must be laid right at the doors of the director and producers. A totally missed opportunity.

I feel a little bad giving this a 6, only because the film quality was very good for 16mm and I did like the cinematography, but I guess I was expecting a more traditional approach to the Moog story; not only the views and lifestyle of Bob Moog. I then realized that this was entirely the idea behind this documentary, and the director did not want to compile a history of the Moog synth, but had he added in some extra footage and talked about the many different synthesizers that Moog produced through the years, this would have been a much fuller documentary. All in all though, it was nice to have a real up close interview with the creator.

I didn't care for the experimental music, even though experimental music was largely influenced by the Moog. I find that type of music to be scattered and annoying. I also refuse to listen to the classical approach to the Moog. What Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson do on the moog are what impresses me. All the other stuff just didn't seem in place. Still, this DVD is a nice addition to the collection and as a Moog lover, an enjoyable reference overall.

The film was reasonably well filmed and reasonably edited and it's great that there is now a film out there about a synth pioneer.

However my first thoughts on watching this film are: It repeats itself far too many times. It only needed to mention that Moog synths were first used for experimental music and adverts once. It only needed to show Bob Moog with his garden once! And there only needed to be one section on his philosophies on life and synthesisers.

There were massive sections of the Moog story missing. What about the first fall of Moog Music in the early 80s and the Moog Liberation (the first guitar synth - only problem was it was too heavy to hold!) He only touched on his feelings about digital synthesisers. What about the 80s and the DX7 and Moog synths falling massively out of favour. What about the comeback in the 90s - initially selling his analogue circuit designs to other companies, who produced synths like the MIDI Moog and the SE ATC1. What about his FX pedals?

Finally the soundtrack left much to be desired. All the live performances were badly recorded, the synths were far too loud compared to the backing. I know the synth was the instrument being demonstrated, but I found it uncomfortable to listen to. The content of the music was nearly all progressive rock musicians and various lesser known modern electro acts (bar stereo-lab and DJ spooky). He only mentioned Walter/Wendy Carlos in passing, he/she was the most important thing to happen to him and there was no interview or audio clip!! What about electropop, which was founded on the early affordable synths like the Moog Prodigy? These are just the first 2 genres that spring to mind that were missing - I could go on! So all in all - it's great that there is now a film about this fascinating guy. But...Hans Fjellestad should have got all the raw materials together before doing it. Get interviews with ALL the relevant people and use a soundtrack that is more diverse.

A documentary about Robert Moog, one of the most important figures in electronic music? Yes, please, sign me up. Alas, this premise goes awry from the outset. This mishmash of a documentary feels like a collection of outtakes from a better work. I don't need to see Robert Moog talking about pepper plants and Money Mark diddling around on a synthesizer.

MOOG demonstrates that sometimes it's best to not rely on the subject of the documentary as the subject matter expert of the film. Robert Moog is not the most well-spoken advocate and historian of his life's work. Likewise, showing the electronic guts of his machines doesn't do much to explain how they work or why Moog's work is important to the music world.

When utilizing archive footage, MOOG works. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between leaving MOOG a mumbling, muttering mess for its interminable seventy-two minutes. Moog and electronica deserve better.