Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars is a documentary film which premiered in 2017.
The topic is the life and career of the English musician Eric Clapton, who is often described as one of the best guitar players in the world.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Lili Fini Zanuck
** Writers: Stephen “Scooter” Weintraub & Larry Yelen
** Run time: 135 minutes
Eric Clapton was born in Ripley (England) in 1945. His career as a famous and professional musician began in 1963 when he played lead guitar with the Yardbirds.
When this band moved towards pop music, he left and found a new home with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers.
Since then, he has played with other musicians and he has had his own band. For a while, he was the front man of Derek and the Dominos.
In this film, we follow his life and career from his childhood in Surrey in the 1950s until the present day. Apart from one or two flashbacks to earlier times, the film follows a straight chronological line from the 1950s until today.
When the story moves to a new chapter, an on-screen message tells us the time and the place, so we always know where we are.
This portrait of Eric seems to be honest and balanced:
It covers not only about the high points of his life – the great music he has created – it also covers the low points: the difficulties and the terrible tragedies he has faced and survived.
One of the low points was a serious racist outburst during a 1976 concert in Birmingham (UK).
Clapton has apologized for this episode on several occasions. He does it again in this film.
An apology is good. It is better than no apology. But it would have been better, if this racist outburst had never happened.
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
** 62 percent = Meta
** 69 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
** 75 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
** 74 percent = IMDb
The topic is interesting, but the ratings are not impressive, as you can see. They correspond to a point somewhere between three and four stars on Amazon.
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 1,000 ratings of this product; more than 200 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.7 stars which corresponds to a rating of 94 percent.
If you ask me, the rating on Meta is too low, while the rating on Amazon is too high. If you ask me, the rating on IMDb is more appropriate.
Why?
I like this film, but I cannot go all the way to the top, because there are two significant flaws:
# 1. The structure of the film is unfortunate.
More than 90 minutes, more than half of the total, are devoted to the early years (1963-1971), less than a decade, while only 30 minutes are devoted to the later years (1971-2017), more than four decades.
The closer we get to the end of the film, the faster the story is moving; suddenly, we are in the 21st century and the story is over.
# 2. The format is unfortunate.
Several people talk about Eric’s life and career, but we never see them as they are talking about him. We only hear their voices.
This is a strange decision. Why are we not allowed to see the faces of the people who are talking?
In one or two cases, there may be a good reason for this: perhaps the director is using an old audio-tape where there is no video.
But this excuse cannot be valid when we are talking about interviews which were conducted recently and for this film.
As stated above, I like this film and I want to give it a good rating, but as you can see, there are some flaws which cannot be ignored; which cannot be overlooked.
I have to remove one star because of these flaws. This product deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
PS # 1. The title Life in 12 Bars is never explained in the film. What does it mean?
It is not a reference to Eric’s former problems with alcohol and drugs.
It is a reference to the traditional pattern in blues music. If we start in C, one round of 12 bars can look like this:
** 4 bars = CCCC
** 4 bars = FFCC
** 4 bars = GGCC
But often it looks like this:
** 4 bars = CFCC
** 4 bars = FFCC
** 4 bars = GFCC
There are many variations of this pattern.
PS # 2. The racist outburst which happened during a 1976 concert in Birmingham (UK) resurfaced during the Covid-19 Pandemic (2020-2022). Why? Because Clapton came out as a supporter of anti-vaxxers.
During the pandemic, Clapton toured the US, giving concerts in so-called Red states controlled by the Republicans.
During this tour, he had a back stage meeting with Texas governor Greg Abbott who is a known as a strong opponent of women’s right to abortion.
The back stage meeting was preserved for posterity when a picture was taken. The picture shows a smiling governor next to a smiling Clapton.
REFERENCES
David Browne, “Eric Clapton is not just spouting vaccine nonsense – he’s bankrolling it,” Rolling Stone, 10 October 2021
Jeff Slate, “Eric Clapton’s Covid vaccine conspiracies mark a sad final act,” NBC News, 16 October 2021
Drew Wardle, “The exploration of Eric Clapton’s abhorrent racist outburst,” Far Out Magazine, 8 November 2021
Geoff Edgers, “What Happened to Clapton?” Washington Post, 11 November 2021
*****
The famous guitar player
Eric Clapton
(born 1945)
*****
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