Jimi All Is By Your Side Analysis

The 2013 biopic written and directed by John Ridley, Jimi: All Is By Your Side, diverges in many ways from the cliched and highly stereotypical musical biopics. Ridley’s film highlights key events from 1966 to 1967, the year before ‘the greatest guitarist,’ Jimi Hendrix, rose to fame. The film differentiates from many of the typical conventions that are seen in musical biopics, especially those over rock and pop musicians. For the most part, biopics while not always boring, tend to be highly predictable, always following the basics cliches that fail to depict the musicians in new or enlightening ways . As fans or admirers we typically idolize the musicians, holding them on a pedestal that causes us to focus more on their virtues and perfections rather than their failures. The traditional biopic reinforces these beliefs, only depicting performer’s success as to continue upholding them as inspiration. As a society, we hold these ‘celebrities’ to such high regards that movie producers are afraid of showing their down fallings or anything that doesn’t make them seem saintly, or highlighted by virtue. As the typical biopics attempt to summarize a figure’s success in under two hours, it is difficult to get any true meaning …show more content…
Having failed to secure the rights to any music from Hendrix’s estate, the film instead emphasizes the covers of other 60’s classics such as “Wild Thing” and “Stg. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” In many scenes, like that when Hendrix is playing at the club in London, the film focuses specifically on the strumming of the guitar strings, instead of the actual music that is being played. In these cases, as Lemire states, “We see Hendrix playing but we hear the actual noise of his fingers on the strings rather than the song