SUM OF THE PARTS

Surprisingly I'm only the third reviewer for this anticipated GENESIS documentary. I saw it on Finnish TV 1½ times (I stopped the second watching and went to sleep at the point when Phil Collins takes the central role). I had a look at the ratings in amazon.com, also there you see very critical reception but some five-star ratings as well. I sympathize my friend's (frankly overrated) five-star rating for the newspaper's TV page, because this film includes some rare old clips very precious for long-time fans, and it's a special case in itself to see Banks, Gabriel, Rutherford, Collins and Hackett together looking back at the band's history. You can sense many little but revealing things about the personal chemistry and all that.

The formation of the band in Charterhouse school... The departure of Anthony Phillips... The arrival of Collins and Hackett... The increase of stylistic uniqueness and stage theatrics with each subsequent album classic... Each archival picture, whether still or live, is pure gold. There were even some gig clips from the Trespass days, wow! But in retrospect, it must be admitted that the Gabriel era is indeed handled very quickly. Also the quartet era for which I have a deep fondness too.

The big flaws come from that on. Gosh how much time is given to Phil Collins' pop career and the smash hit side of Genesis. It wasn't even news for me to hear especially Tony Banks being much prouder of the commercial success than the prog past. BTW he seems to be the nastiest person of the five, the hardest one to co-operate with. I appreciate that Peter Gabriel's solo career is dealt with respect (though again the representation is pretty much hit oriented). But it's a terrible crime how ignored Steve Hackett's solo career is in this documentary. Nor he's given much room in conversations either. It's certainly not only because of being a quieter person, for I've heard that he didn't like the film. Understandably so. Of course also Anthony Phillips' career would have deserved some attention. Ray Wilson is not even mentioned, which makes another gap in the Genesis history.

Summa summarum. No matter how disappointing it turns out to be, I think this documentary is a (one- time) must for a Genesis fan for all the little jewels it contains, even if they're just a small minority compared to the dealing of the era that for us progheads don't mean that much.