What makes it different from others?

Best movie ever!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Barbara Kopple's 1998 documentary on filmmaker Woody Allen's 1996 tour of Europe with his New Orleans Jazz Band (reputedly eighteen concerts, and seven countries, in twenty-three days), Wild Man Blues, is one of the most pointless, dull, and utterly inert documentaries I've ever seen. I've long been a fan of Allen's films, and even his worst films (see The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion) are a cut or three above their typical Hollywood counterparts. And Kopple is a noted documentarian of quality- see Harlan County, USA. But, this film is nothing but a manifest ploy to rehabilitate the man's image after his 1991 scandal of splitting up with actress Mia Farrow and shacking up with her daughter.Documentaries are supposed to enlighten and give insight into their subject matter. This film does not, even at a bloated hour and forty-five minutes in length. This could have been cut to an hour, with ease, had most of the execrable jazz been cut. It's not that the music is so bad as the fact that Allen and his compatriots are so utterly meager. Without Allen, the rest of the musicians could never have gotten a gig at a bar mitzvah.But, the real problem with Wild Man Blues is that Allen is never allowed to display his wit and intellect. There are a few good Vaudevillean one liners (a lady says to Allen, 'You are so intelligent;' and he replies, 'Well, yes. It is a burden, though, sometimes. With this much intelligence comes great responsibility. You know. It's lonely at the top.'), but mostly endless scenes of Allen blowing on his clarinet, making nice with Soon-Yi in their chi-chi hotel digs, hobnobbing with sycophantic mayors of European cities who give him the keys to their respective cities, and a number of oddball scenes that serve no purpose in the narrative- such as a French fan who disbelieves Allen has any prowess as a musician, only to- after the show, become a true convert. I mean, did the filmmaker- Kopple, really believe the viewer would be surprised or enlightened that the man had changed his opinion? There are about two minutes devoted to the scandal, an equal amount of time on Allen discussing his films, but absolutely nada on Allen's career in stand up comedy, early television, much less his day to day life before and during celebrity. So, again, what was the point for this film, save to burnish Allen's reputation as a human being?Perhaps that is good enough to carry a film if it provides a modicum of the other qualities previously mentioned. But, Wild Man Blues does not. Even for Allen fans who define the original intent of the term as fanatic, this film is something of coitus sans ejaculation. Nowhere do we get a glimpse of Allen unguarded; do we really believe that he and Soon-Yi in white robes, eating a gourmet Spanish breakfast, is a revelation of any sort? Of course, that question would be better addressed to director Kopple, who made a highly regarded Oscar winning1976 documentary called Harlan County U.S.A., about a miner's strike- as well as many others, but in this film seems to be on cruise control.At best, Wild Man Blues is a competent little film- a travelogue with a celebrity, but not one which will leave a lasting impression to the uninterested observer, even if it does, occasionally appeal to the architecture lover out there. There are no great techniques nor style explored- the way an Errol Morris or Ken Burns documentary is manifestly theirs. Thus, this film is recommended only for Allen fans who desire to have the man's whole oeuvre- as director, writer, actor, or what not. And, yes, I am one of those people. But, for the rest of you, go watch Another Woman or Stardust Memories. Trust me on that!

Wild Man Blues (named after a terrific Louis Armstrong song) shows Woody Allen during his trip to Europe and abroad for a tour with his Jazz band. So the question you might be asking is, how much is shown? How candid does filmmaker Barbara Kopple go into the behind-the-scenes and off-the-stage stuff in the film? One could say not enough, but then how personal can one get with a cinematic heavyweight like Allen? True, it's not always just him that carries the interest in the film; his New Orleans Jazz band (the same, more or less, that gave that hilariously cool score for his film Sleeper) is toe-tapping fun, especially if you like this sort of music (I got into it a little more after watching the Ken Burns documentary), with Eddie Davis the banjo player and director of the group a real treat. It may be odd to say, but despite Woody's talent at the clarinet, it sometimes doesn't bring as much attention for one as does the 'talky' scenes.And some of these, of course, have the young Soon-Yi Prevlin in tow. This was of course a few years after the whole hoopla went over about the break-up and all. It's curious to see how their relationship goes in the film, what is and what isn't shown, and this is I think when Kopple gets the most personal, even if it's a little uncomfortably so. Indeed, this is an Allen that is not really like the one he portrays in film after film- it does have the moments of humor, and his neuroses are in full view of the lens. But by giving it this extra view, it shows him as much more of a relatable person, or maybe not (the film does show him in Europe as being far more celebrity-like than here). In all, it works best as an objective view of the subject matter, of a director who also happens to be a good musician who enjoys playing what he calls "crude...esoteric music" of old. It is, at least for the Woody admirer, entirely watchable.

A suspiciously pleasant portrayal is made of Allen in this documentary, which has absolutely nothing to say aside from "Woody Allen can play the clarinet fairly well" and "He also can crack wise." A very select collection of interviews try to establish him as still having a significant fan base, but there's a reason his movies don't do to well these days.Coming from the extremely skilled and seemingly quite compassionate Oscar-winner Barbara Kopple, maker of such credits to the documentary medium as HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A., this is an extreme disappointment, and I have to wonder how she decided to waste her time on this.

I really love this movie. Woody Allen appears as a very nice man. Other comments are very right, referring to his movie Stardust Memories. I think it's a little bit sad that all these people wants to see him because he's a famous actor and director, and not because of the music he and his partners seems to love so much. That happens to be my favorite kind of jazz (Jelly Roll Morton! Yeah!) and the band are doin' it in a very attractive way. This movie should be just about music.