Carlos

Have you ever heard of Carlos Santana, the musician widely known as a guitarist and singer? The new documentary, Carlos, combines old and new footage to tell his story as he navigates many elements of his life, not just his career. With so much excellent footage and informative narration, Carlos is a must-see for everyone, especially the musically inclined.

Carlos follows legendary guitarist Carlos Santana as he starts off playing ukulele with his family and ends up producing music that we know today. From leaving his job, sacrificing the major support system of his family to pursue his passion, to performing at Woodstock with hundreds of thousands of people in the audience, to the band eventually breaking up, the story of Carlos Santana is explored. While the primary focus of this film is on Santana's career and the obstacles he faced there, it also touches on how his decisions and his career have affected his family life.

The structure of Carlos is part of what makes this film so informative and easy to follow. The documentary follows his life in chronological order, and includes a variety of footage that helps tell his story clearly. For the early parts of his life Carlos Santana narrates as photographs and videos of his beginnings with family and performances are shown on screen. Newer interviews define more current parts of his life. For fans of Carlos's music or anyone interested in creating music, the behind-the-scenes footage of his music is being produced is sure to be an attention-grabber. Hearing Carlos's own thoughts about events of his life makes the film very interesting, as they provide a depth and understanding to the actions he took and why he took them. While the structure provides a lot of information, it occasionally leads to losing focus or being overwhelmed. However, Santana's humorous narration as well as the editing of new and old footage prevents being disinterested for very long.

The theme of Carlos is to never give up. Pursuing your dreams and your interests is so important, and dreams really can come true if you put your mind to them and work hard. Santana also reminds us of the importance of keeping in touch with loved ones and maintaining positive relationships no matter what your personal goals are. The film does contain some profanity and other mature content.

I give Carlos 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 12 to 18, plus adults. You can watch Carlos in theaters beginning September 29, 2023. By Kyla C., KIDS FIRST!

Feeling of inner peace. I looked at the people leaving the theatre - everyone was smiling. A smile, a ray of light, a feeling of warmth. Peace Carlos Santana has achieved and I was unaware what it must have cost him - it came as a shock. How does one overcome most tragic circumstances and rise? What a soul and what an example, his talent the wave on which he rides. He's not what he does, he says; and yet the music is what got him through, that unique blend between Latin and the Blues, which he had from the get-go. Blues, the Healer. My only complaint is that the film didn't feature his stellar collaboration with John Lee Hooker.

This covers the life and career of Carlos Santana through archive footage and talking (not really interview) mainly by Carlos as well as his current wife and sisters.

Almost the first half of this film (38 out of 88 minutes) goes by until the first Santana album is released. I found that section incredibly interesting as it gets into the how and why he got to that point. The next section is interesting but it doesn't really get into the how and why of the progression of the band, musicians or his music. Then it gets a bit boring with too much emphasis on his spirituality. Plus he sometimes speaks in Spanish but there are no subtitles for it so I had no idea at all what he was saying there.

This was an excellent documentary until it wasn't.

Legendary people are few and far between but Carlos Santana is more than worthy of the title! I have been into this guy's music since I was a young kid; through my DJ' years to where I am today.

Although I did find this documentary to have some interesting moments I, have to admit that I think it was a bit scrappy. It jumped about a lot and a lot of the used previously unseen footage was fairly dull and only of interest , most likely, to the superfans. He has a good outlook on what he wants to do but came over to me as finding it hard to know who he is; maybe that is why in some of his younger days footage he comes across as a total dick! I don't think I would ever watch it again as it just wasn't of a very high standard.

Growing up in Chicago, IL and being Mexican "Santana" is almost always a guarantee you'll hear him growing up. I've seen him probably close to 10 times and this Documentary gave you a look inside his mindset and his music and achievements and traumas. I never leave reviews here , however a part of this movie really moved me to tears. "and I'm not afraid" guitar solo was moving. If everyone could forgive and just leave the past behind and have more compassion the world, your neighbors, your family the universe would just be better off. This is coming from someone who isn't that spiritual but this movie really made me think about my own life , my soul and how I can be a better human being. All the success in the world and money and he could be so mean and cruel and bitter. Overall the Documentary was great and contained a ton of rare footage!