An American documentary; A thorough and fascinating insight into Frank Sinatra's career trajectory but also the affect he had on others. The boy from Hoboken, New Jersey was not only the most popular musical entertainer of the 20th Century but by his own resourcefulness, drive and determination he was a man of immense influence on the political world. The film gives a fair balance of a man who had flaws and does not shy away from detailing the missteps, failings, and personal flaws.
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fearthebowlink20 May 2015This documentary was absolutely fabulous. Sinatra has always been my favorite, as his music is what I was raised on. I can openly admit though, that I only knew bits and pieces about his life before watching the documentary. I feel so informed after having watched hours about the man's life, and I greatly appreciate that the documentary included high points as well as low points. To know a person, you have to know all aspects of his/her personality, and I think that this documentary did a wonderful job of trying to cover so much material in only a few hours.
I would definitely recommend watching this documentary if you want to learn a little bit more about Ol' Blue Eyes and the fantastic work that he accomplished in his lifetime! -
The big question about this tele-biography was whether it would be a balanced overview of Frank Sinatra and his career, or just a fawning snow job.
Now in me, you have a person who has, I think, a somewhat balanced view of Sinatra. I neither love nor hate him. I have all of his Reprise studio recordings and many of his Capitol albums the good, the bad, and the ugly. And make no mistake, for a while in the early Reprise years many of Sinatra's recordings are probably the best versions of those songs – both in terms of his vocals and the arrangements – ever recorded. His concept albums for Capitol were groundbreaking. On the other hand, during the Reprise years you have recordings such as "Everybody's Twistin'" and "Life's A Trippy Thing". And, since Frank was totally in control during the Reprise years, there was no one else to blame. I look at his performance in "The Joker's Wild" and can't think of many actors who have ever turned in a better performance. And then there were some of the later films when he just didn't seem to care much. He was a flop on early television, but his 1960s specials were "cherce". So, I can admire much of what Frank Sinatra accomplished. He made a difference in popular music. But when it comes to the kind of man he was, well...my 100th birthday gift is to not finish that sentence.
Some of what is said in the program doesn't seem to match with accounts which have been presented in the past. For example, in talking about the Capitol years they indicate Sinatra was in total control. Really? Then why quit Capitol to form Reprise, which at the time he said gave him artistic freedom? Where is the story of "dropping" Peter Lawford for the Kennedy incident? Dropping Joey Bishop? Having a long-term falling out with Dean Martin? Oh, conveniently omitted. The whole mob issue is brought up, but sort of dismissed as the mob did it and the Kennedy's did it, but Sinatra and his friends did everything out of the goodness of their hearts. And, in my view, far too much credit is given to Sinatra and friends for the election of John Kennedy.
I didn't have high hopes for this television broadcast when I learned that it was produced by Frank Sinatra Enterprises. Much of the story here is told by Frank himself (in old interviews) and Nancy Sinatra and Frank Jr. After all, Frank thought he was wonderful, Nancy always fawned over her father, and, while Frank Jr. is a bit more balanced, it's almost always pretty positive. Even when the criticism during the war years is brought up (for example), it's within the context of how unfair some people were being to Sinatra. So, make no mistake, this is no penetrating, balanced biography. It should have been entitled "A Love Letter To Frank Sinatra".
That's not to say it doesn't have something worthwhile of your time. You'll see film here you will probably never see again. It's comprehensive, if not objective. It's almost as if Sinatra was the only singer, the only actor, the only nightclub performer. He was big, but he was not alone. There was Cole, Crosby, Como, and many more. Frankly, the program couldn't have been more positive toward Sinatra if Sinatra had written it himself.
Well, happy birthday, Mr. Sinatra. Your bio reminded me of all the reasons I admired so much of your work...and some of the reasons I didn't really like you as a person. I guess that's a very special way of appreciating you -- it's not easy to dislike someone personally, but buy almost all of their albums, watch all of their television specials, and go see most of their movies. Yup, you were very a very talented man. -
RNMorton23 April 2015I didn't like Sinatra as a kid of the sixties, he was my parents' star. I never appreciated his style of acting, it seemed too damn smug. I never understood the folks my age who would listen to Sinatra for hours. I always thought The Chairman was vaguely scary. All that said, this is just about the best damn documentary I have ever seen. Framed by songs from Frank's first "retirement" in 1971, it combines voice-overs by friends and family with fantastic film clips and pictures from the 60'a and 70's and beyond. For somebody who lived through this era, even if you never liked the guy this is a great walk down memory lane. And love, like or hate him, Frank led one driven, distinctive and fascinating life from beginning to end. Very highly recommended.
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mapika22 June 2020....Frank Sinatra was a genuine artist, and his work will endure as long as man and women can hear and ponder and feel.. In the end that's all that truly matters."- Pete Hamill.
Right.
This is the best and most honest and complex documentary about Frank Sinatra I've seen so far. He had his flaws, like every human being, but he tried and did his best. -
rjccmb16 August 2020Amazingly beautiful, heartfelt, honest, and beyond Special. First I've Always LOVED Frank Sinatra, what a man, what a talent, a hard worker with a dream who loved his family, friends, audience. I'm beyond in love with this documentary. You will be too!
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Part of the reason Frank Sinatra is an American icon, embedded in American pop culture, is because he was the pioneer for a lot of celebrity actions and activities we now see as commonplace or even conventional. For one, Sinatra was one of the first singers with an enormous fanbase, especially with young teen girls, who would croon over him like he'd croon over the microphone for one of his songs. In addition, Sinatra was a persistent social activist, a tabloid figure following his relationship with actress Ava Gardner, a singer turned movie star, a figure the public eye intensely watched and judged based on his private actions, and a mob-connected individual.
All of these attributes alone are chronicled in the first two hours of Alex Gibney's four hour documentary Sinatra: All or Nothing at All, which airs over the course of Easter weekend on HBO. Gibney has effectively painted a grandiose film that, in two hours, meticulously details Sinatra's childhood and rise to fame, while painting the portrait of a man who's fame and wealth plummeted in one of the first cases of worldwide stardom in the United States.
Sinatra was born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey to a mother who acted as the neighborhood caregiver, taking in and helping raise children from all over the neighborhood. Sinatra began to enjoy the sound and culture of music, saving enough money to buy a microphone at a young age so he wouldn't have to project and embrace ridicule for using a megaphone, and went on to be a part of the "Hoboken Four," a group that would perform at variety shows before entertaining local nightclubs.
Eventually, however, Sinatra broke from the Hoboken Four and embraced a solo career as a crooner, singing glacially paced tunes that showed that songs could be sung in a slow manner and still be viewed as effective ballads. In just over a year, Sinatra had become a hit with teen girls, who started fan clubs expressing support for the singer. He then gravitated to being a huge success amongst those of all ages. One music critic states that while films birthed celebrities, Depression-era America couldn't afford movie tickets and resorted to radio for free entertainment, which is how most became acquainted with Sinatra's sound and style. While resting comfortably on top of the world, Sinatra eventually began to falter due to heavy drinking and his relationship with movie star Ava Gardner, which was heavily documented right before the public eye. This is the beginning of what looks to be an immense downfall if it wasn't for managerial interference and Sinatra's determination to get back on track.
Furthermore, following a sharp decline in popularity, Sinatra worked to reinvent his image for the public. The 1950's saw individual wealth grow astronomically, with teenagers finally being able to "afford their own subculture," as one social critic brilliantly puts it, and people gaining the expendable income to use for entertainment like movies and records. It was then that Sinatra saw a rebirth of interest and appeal that was never seen before; not only did Sinatra create the epitome of a global superstar, but he also showed one of the most incredible comebacks in showbiz history.
Inevitably, Sinatra faced his downfall in the late 1960's, with slumping album sales, even his renowned concept works, and, by that time, singers would either get older and fade out or make a fool of themselves. Sinatra clearly didn't have his heart in his work anymore, and following a retirement concert in 1971 where he played eleven defining songs of his life and career, stepped off the stage and proceeded to move on, closing one of music's most fascinating and profound chapters.
Sinatra: All or Nothing at All does a beautiful job at cleanly showing this history in a manner that's unambiguous and straight-forward. Gibney structures the film nicely, infusing Sinatra's personality into the film seamlessly and leaving the weight on him and numerous other primary accounts of his fame to tell his story. Even at four hours, cannot expand on every idea and notion Sinatra was about. Gibney never gets lost in the glamor, keeping things grounded in humanity and development and, in turn, undoubtedly creates one of the year's strongest documentaries.
NOTE: This review is heavily edited; go to the Critic Reviews section and find my name to read the more elaborate and detailed one. -
MovieHoliks22 April 2015I just saw this off HBO GO the other day, and thoroughly enjoyed. It goes through Sinatra's entire life and career- from his humble beginnings with immigrant parents; to his fame and fortune, and countless affairs; plus tie-ins with the mob, relationships with presidents, etc... So much is covered here, they had to do this as a two-part, over four-hour documentary. But no matter; the time just flies by. The music is great; the performances are mesmerizing, and this doc. is quite a lot of fun actually. Look for interviews with Mia Farrow (damn!-was she cute), producer Robert Evans, Frank Sinatra Jr. (who refers to his father as Sinatra in professional references), Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, the list goes on and on...
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rmax30482311 April 2015Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, at a time when Hoboken was the punch line of a joke, full of working men's saloons with sawdust floors, ethnically diverse -- blacks, Italians, Irish, and Jews. (Now it's a gentrified Yuppie paradise.) He worked his way up to lead singer with some big bands of the period -- Tommy Dorsey and Harry James -- before striking out on his own. He was picked up by MGM and made a few musicals for them. During the war years, he was a phenomenon of vernacular culture. We haven't seen anything like it recently, not since the Beatles and, before them, Elvis Presley. The skinny Sinatra and his bow ties were parodied in cartoons of the time, but it drove the adolescent girls wild.
After the war his career slumped, as careers will, and he took to boozing it up. His movies were flops. Until "From Here to Eternity" which brought him back to the top, chairman of the board, and he turned into the epitome of swinghood. Pals with Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, and others, his lingo entered the lexicon: "Ain't that a kick in the head?", "What a gas!", "Ring-a-ding-ding." And he more or less stayed there for the rest of his life.
The documentary is pretty comprehensive. We hear from his friends, his arrangers, and his ex wives. On the audio clips, his voice sounds more Hoboken than it does in his movies or public appearances. He speaks at a quicker pace and curses freely. There are extensive clips from a TV interview with Walter Cronkite. Taken together, they present an image of a down-to-earth singer with a humanitarian streak. He was anti-racist and anti-anti-Semitic. He did more than accept Jews. He ADMIRED them a great deal.
At 240 minutes, one is tempted to say there is nothing left to learn about the man. Except that there is. He was everything the film tells us he was, but he was also a man of immense ego. The film tells us that, yes, he palled around with Sam Giancanna but it doesn't tell us who Sam Giancanna was besides a good golfing buddy. The guy was a big-time mobster and murderer at a time when the Mafia had clout enough to sort of lean an election in John F. Kennedy's favor.
The word "bodyguard" appears nowhere, yet after becoming a powerful figure Sinatra was ordinarily accompanied by a couple of men the size of small mountains,. There are numerous anecdotes of people who fell afoul of Sinatra for virtually no reason. In his book, "Games People Play," Eric Berne describes an incident in which he found himself at some kind of girly show next to Sinatra's table. He leaned over and jokingly remarked, "I see you're as much a lecher as I am." Moments later, one of the mountain men approached Berne and asked if he would like to have to face rearranged. Peter Lawford received an angry night-time phone call accusing him of dating one of Sinatra's girls, which wasn't true, but it was no use for Crawford to deny it. He was out of the Rat Pack forever.
There is no clip of him being called before a congressional investigating committee and snarling back at them, "I am not a second-class citizen!" I was surprised that there wasn't more material on Sinatra's early years with the big bands. He evidently got along fine with Harry James but Dorsey treated him like a tool. And Sinatra's extra-marital love life isn't brought up -- Juliet Prowse and the rest. It must have been like a merry-go-round with a giant calliope pumping away in the background.
Personally, I always admired his voice, at least until he began to croak with age and was unable to hit the right note. I don't blame him for the condition, but he seemed not to recognize that he could no longer sing. I was never in his thrall but I learned something from listening to the orchestral arrangements behind his voice. It takes more talent to write and play music than it does to sing pop songs.
On the whole, I think the film does for Sinatra's personality what Sinatra's mob connections did for JFK. But, one thing -- it's never dull. -
Very well done, excellent archival footage. Never realized a lot more to this man. Makes you miss America when
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Lejink13 September 2015This series of four hourly programmes took us through the long and varied life of Francis Albert Sinatra, combining archive footage with contemporary voice-overs to give a full cradle-to-grave account of one of the twentieth century's greatest singers. I enjoyed the ride albeit with a number of major caveats.
Undoubtedly the kid from Hoboken was a complex character, a loved and devoted father to his children, who was a man's man happy to lead the Rat Pack and also a serial womaniser (Sinatra's Greatest Misses, you could say), a conscientious, charitable fund-raiser who never lived down his connections to the mob, a challenger of racial segregation who told on-stage off-colour (no pun intended) jokes at the expense of his friend Sammy Davis Jr and a registered Democrat and supporter of John F Kennedy who later flipped and became friends with the later disgraced Richard Nixon and his Vice President Spiro Agnew. In and out of style and popularity, he ended up being a towering personality in the entertainment industry making some of the greatest records of his time as well as some, though not as many, terrific movies.
The series takes a chronological look at the man's life and times, using as its reference point his first, of many, as it turned out, retirement concerts, filmed in 1971 when he clearly was still at the height of his powers, although the idea of interspersing the songs into the narrative to effectively tell his story lost its way somewhat. I could also have done without the endless eulogising of thankfully off-screen so-called experts making ever grander claims of him, far better to let the viewer judge by what they see than be egged on by their endless hyperbole.
I would also have preferred a bit more focus on his hit and miss movie career, with no reference at all to his superb performances in, for example "The Man With The Golden Arm", the classic "The Manchurian Candidate" (which is only present in a clever-clever link to the JFK assassination), his hit musicals "Guys and Dolls", "Pal Joey" or "High Society" or even his series of superior hard-edged detective thrillers of the late 60's like "The Detective" and "Tony Rome" these latter made when his old buddy Dean Martin was half-heartedly and self-demeaningly camping it up in his Matt Helm films. In fact there's surprisingly little coverage at all of his relationships with Martin and the rest of his Rat Pack buddies at all, (Shirley MacLaine doesn't get a look-in) and you'd have thought the well-known clip of his role in bringing Dean and Jerry Lewis together after years of estrangement might have been worthy of inclusion.
Much is made of course of his relationships with his women, particularly Ava Gardner who gave him a taste of his own mistreating medicine and the youthful Mia Farrow who soon resisted his latter-day controlling tendencies while his poorly-treated first wife Nancy is a running presence in the story particularly through the references to his children. There's also no allusion at all to his daughter Nancy's pop success in the 60's or much time given to his last wife Barbara Marx or indeed his death, funeral and artistic legacy.
I'm no Sinatra completist but I also noticed some major omissions in the songs which otherwise pepper the soundtrack, like "Three Coins In The Fountain", "All The Way", "My Kind Of Town" and his surprise mid-60's number 1's "Strangers In The Night" (which he hated) and his duet with Nancy "Something Stupid".
In the end, I came to the conclusion that this man's life was too big for this show's allocated time, indeed it could have run to twice the length and been much more detailed, cohesive and interesting accordingly. Undoubtedly though, Frank Sinatra is a difficult man to pin down or categorise and I think in this series, the prey eludes his hunters. What is beyond doubt is the greatness of his singing as shown in several concert and TV clips although the funniest thing you'll ever see him in is his unintentionally hilarious team-up in powder-blue Austin Powers chiffon with the then hit group the 5th Dimension in a groovy late 60's TV clip.
In conclusion then I found this a muddled, inconclusive life of Frank, very good in parts, weak in others, a bit like the man himself I suppose, but I believe in truth he deserved a better biographical tribute than this in the final summing-up. -
morrison-dylan-fan29 January 2021With Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005-also reviewed) being my 8th favourite film of all time, I was really interested in seeing this two-part title from director Alex Gibney when it first screened on the BBC ,but I sadly missed it. After viewing the superb doc Shadow of Truth (2016-also reviewed) I was thrilled when Netflix recommended this to me,which I watched in the wee small hours.
View on the film:
Not featuring a single talking head/new on-camera interview, director Alex Gibney fills the four hour-stadium runtime with superb archive footage,bringing Sinatra's classic tunes alive with never before seen footage and photos spanning Frank's growing up in poverty, his wide-eyed dreams to become a star,and a loved-up romance with Nancy Barbato.
Bringing new context to the footage, Gibney plays Sinatra's involvement in the Civil Rights movement and the peak of Frank and The Rat Pack's with insightful voice-over interviews with family members, former record producers and partners, who reveal the man behind the star-studded image.
Despite the large runtime, Gibney leaves the impression of some subjects only being partially delved into,such as Frank's ties to the mob, and highlighting the impact that the passing of his dad had on Sinatra, but no mention of the tragic passing of his mum Dolly, (she died in a plane crash in 1977) in what is otherwise a excellent doc which proves that Ol' Blue Eyes did it his way. -
Delby_Welby14 August 2020I love well-narrated documentaries on people's lives with real historical footage being a fantastic bonus. This has some good footage but I found myself 'missing' some pieces of his life story and wishing someone would just tell us what happened, rather than listening to a jumble of interviews with Frank recounting stories of his life. There was a sense of trying very hard to build a cohesive biography based on snippets of interviews. Not bad but could have been better.
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l_rawjalaurence10 September 2015SINATRA - ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL cannot be viewed as anything less than a highly comprehensive biography of the legendary actor/singer. Through four hour-long episodes, director Alex Gibney traces his life from his humble origins in Hoboken, New Jersey, to his radio and film stardom, his abrupt decline in the early Fifties, and his return to enduring stardom once he had signed for Capitol Records and started collaborating with the conductor Nelson Riddle.
Although liberally illustrated with reminiscences from members of his family, coupled with archive recordings of "Ol' Blue Eyes" being interviewed on television on radio, and readings of printed autobiographies by Ava Gardner, there are no talking heads appearing on screen. Instead, director Gibney uses archive footage, photographs and specially-shot material, with the reminiscences in sound only. This gives the documentary a unique narrative fluidity that Gibney sustains throughout the lengthy running-time.
The central conceit was a good one - using Sinatra's retirement concert in 1971 as a basis, where he sang a series of standards that chronicled his life up to then - Gibney traced the singer's life through the songs. Each one of them were heard once a particular period of his life had concluded. Hence we heard "My Way" right at he end when Sinatra had decided to "finally" retire, having ostensibly fulfilled everything he wanted. The fact that he made a comeback three years later was beside the point.
Yet still we are left unsatisfied as to where the director's point of view actually lies. There are certain aspects of Sinatra's life that are either sketchily told or omitted altogether; we hear nothing of his nefarious antics in the early Sixties where JFK and Marilyn Monroe were concerned. Nor do we really discover much about his Mafia connections, except to learn that he enjoyed hob-nobbing with those in power. At one point the documentary refers to his ventures as an entrepreneur, as he founded his own airline (among other things), but that strand is subsequently ignored. We do not know how successful the singer was as a business person.
Although the program justifiably makes much of Sinatra's god-given talent as a singer, he nonetheless comes across as a distinctly unsavory personality. He treated two of his four wives extremely badly - only Ava Gardner could really stand up to him; and he seems to have assumed that any woman he encountered would want to go to bed with him. An inveterate social climber, he spent much time and energy helping JFK win his presidential campaign of 1960; but when the Kennedys dropped him - on account of his connections with Mafia boss Sam Giancana - Sinatra transferred his loyalties to the Republican cause. In later life he came out as a supporter of Nixon and Reagan. He obviously did not like to be crossed; there were several instances of him replying to someone with a mouthful of abuse.
The interviewees worked hard to foreground his qualities - his enduring commitment to the cause of anti-racism, his generosity with underprivileged children - but we still got the sense that he was not undertaking them out of altruism. So long as he obtained a good press as a result, then he was prepared to continue.
Perhaps it's best sometimes that we do not know the intimate details of an icon's personality, as it tends to knock them down from the imaginative pedestal on which we place them. -
Michael_Elliott23 February 2018Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (2015)
**** (out of 4)
Highly ambitious documentary that takes a look at the rise of Frank Sinatra from his way out of New Jersey to the rise in the charts and eventually conqurering Hollywood, Las Vegas and anything else that he wanted to.
Not too many people could have their life story take up four hours but that's exactly what we get here with SINATRA: ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL, which is certainly the perfect title for this. The documentary covers the life of Sinatra as we get to hear his story in his own words. Hours and hours worth of interview footage was used to come up with the story structure here, which is also done according to the eleven songs that the singer would do at his 1971 retirement concert.
There's no question that this is a highly entertaining documentary that works on many levels. The greatest thing about it is that there are some terrific video footage of various concerts, radio specials, television specials and other items. There's no doubt that a lot of this footage hasn't been seen before and that's the greatest thing this documentary offers. Plus, you've also got the interview footage with Sinatra, which is great fun and especially since it is used to tell his own story.
Several others are also interviewed and we get to hear their voices including Sinatra's children, his first wife and even Mia Farrow. The various high points of his life are discussed including him breaking onto the radio, taking Hollywood by storm and winning an Oscar, his continued rise on the music charts, his various women, The Rat Pack and his connection to JFK. His mob association is also discussed throughout the four hours.
I will say that there were some problems with the film including the fact that the last twenty-five plus years of his life are discussed during an "encore" that only lasts around ten or so minutes. It's really too bad they just didn't extend the running time to take a look at his later years since it's doubtful another documentary is going to come along like this one. I'd also argue that the documentary took it rarther light on Sinatra and really didn't dig into any of the darker stuff around him.
With all of that said, at four hours the film really does seem to be too short, which says a lot about the film as well as the man himself. -
glenn-karimjee28 June 2020What a great trip into this mans life, as a 31 y/o I'm sad to never have witnessed what this man brought to a stage. But what a life he had, too bad he couldnt keep his hands of the birds, because his wife was one of a kind. Even through his misses and betrayals she was always on his side, and even though he cheated her he would always be there for her.
But, how great he was, his ties to the mafia were almost marginalised. After reading some books of known mob bosses its clearly his ties were bigger and perhaps more friendlier than this documentary portrayed it. In The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano is written how the 1946 Havana convention was also an opportunity to celebrate the career of a young Sinatra. And how they got him off a contract with Tommy, also the whole Kennedy campain was corrupted by promises of the Kennedy family toward mobsters.
Also the relationship with his daughter would've been nice, in the end they made a song together which didnt made it to the show. It would've been nice to hear how this came to work!
But eventually it was a nice 4 hour trip in a complex life of an eternal star! -
PalmBeachG16 July 2022Great biography of Frank Sinatra as he goes for it all - Rise and fall and rise again. It is also so much more than than a Sinatra biography as you learn so much historical information about the era including info on Hollywood stars, the times of World War II and Korea, the popular times of Las Vegas, the Mob, recording studios, song writing, traditional Italian values, and more. Very interesting.
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credly12 December 2020I watched this last night in honor of Frank's birthday today and was just amazed at the time and attention to detail of this two-parter. Director Alex Gibney and his team are to be lauded for their excellent job. i also give a special mention to Gina Gershon reading the words of Ava Gardner for bringing the pure sexiness of 'the one that got away' from Frank to the film. 9.5/10!!
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harybobjoebob10 October 2020This is a very long documentary but worth it. I love Frank Sinatra's music, and he's such an interesting guy anyone could watch this, even if you don't like his music somehow
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Prismark1030 April 2017Director Alex Gibney has made a big documentary of this worldwide singing star from his humble beginnings in Hoboken.
The documentary is recounted by archive narration from family and friends, interviews from Frank Sinatra as well as extensive use of his songs. The film is mainly archive footage, press cuttings and a few reconstructed scenes.
Gibney has opted not to have any talking heads and specially shot interviews.
The documentary displays a complex personality, generous, kind who did lot of work with underprivileged children and he fought against racism. One of the first major performers to publicly treat another black performer (Sammy Davis Jr) as an equal.
Yet at times Sinatra could be mean, nasty tempered. This is shown by his treatment of his wives, the casually ruthless way he divorced Mia Farrow. The documentary deals with his links with organised crime and his burgeoning relationship with John F Kennedy.
However as he got older and the counterculture started in the late 1960s, Sinatra changed party allegiances, supporting Ronald Reagan for Governor of California and Nixon for President. Maybe Sinatra had the need to be accepted and liked, he was eventually rejected by the Kennedys over his links with the mafia.
Still what Sinatra had as a singer which he mastered in the 1950s was his phrasing and his sorrow filled songs with Capitol Records. -
Scarecrow-8810 April 2015Expansive, lengthy, epic documentary of Frank Sinatra is an obvious loving if at times honest (in a way that doesn't dismiss or demean him) portrait of an iconic music and cultural celebrity. His affair with Ava Gardner while married with children, his relationship with the mob, his Rat Pack era, coming up against ups and downs in the music industry, fight to get cast in To Here from Eternity and the subsequent success because of it (I wish "Some Came Calling" had gotten some love, though), his relationship with JFK, his being accused of supporting communism, his antagonistic relationship with the scathing press, his romance with the much younger Mia Farrow, dealing with the changing times of the mid-to-late 60s and early 70s, declining music sales towards the beginning and certainly the end of his music career, the retirement and return from retirement, and his vocal support of civil rights (although his and Dean Martin's treatment of Sammy Davis, Jr. as a buffoon and/or object of comedy with racist jokes is critically held accountable by Harry Belafonte) are all covered. Various figures in his life (and admirers) add narrative voice to the images of Sinatra's life and career. If you are a fan or just interested in the life of Sinatra, then this documentary, All or Nothing at All, could very well be exactly what the doctor ordered. Performances and use of his songs/music are a constant so if you are not one of those who enjoys his vocal arrangements and crooning, then this is definitely something you might want to avoid. But if you are curious about the life and career of Ole Blue Eyes, this documentary will teach you aplenty.
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topperj131 August 2020Learned a lot about his life. The producers apparently made a conscious effort not to identify the people making the personal comments and narrations. Combined with the fact they had voice actors playing the parts of famous actors, it was anyone's guess who was talking. It could have been presented in half the time and still be worthwhile.
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khealy-5008526 August 2020SPOILER ALERTS I didn't know much about Sinatra going in to watching this. The typical stuff: a few songs, The Rat Pack, Kennedy friendship, kidnapping of Jr., marriage to Mia, that near the end he was kind of a jerk to paparazzi (don't blame him!), Nancy Jr and her boots, and that he was from Hoboken. I was really disappointed at how much the timeline jumped around, it wasn't confusing just annoying to me for example it talks about him endorsing Regan and then talks about how he endorsed Nixon, it did this all over the movie practically ! I also didn't like how the people interviewed about him are never shown. It would've been nice to touch on his kids singing careers just a tad and his relationship with their jobs in the business. After I watched it I read his Wikipedia and found out how his mother died and they didn't talk about that at all or even Franks death or final days. I did learn a lot about his life but was left feeling some pieces were missing for a 4 hour series.
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ersbel3 January 2021Fans will buy anything. Including this mini-series. The information is old. The script is built like a hagiography. The documentation itself is shallow at its best.
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gsandra-2687618 January 2021I wish I hadn't watched this documentary because I've always thought that Sinatra was a fantastic talent, but this film reveals him to be a nasty, manipulative, self-serving person. Hearing his words of disrespect about every talented person he encountered -- every extraordinary singer or band leader of the time -- diminished my opinion of the man.
He wasn't "the best singer of his time," he was one of many, especially Bing Crosby or Peggy Lee. The bands who backed him up were extraordinary. The music and lyrics of the songs he got hold of (not written by him) were some of the best songs ever -- certainly better than the hyper-sound-manipulated songs of today.
My recommendation is that you just listen to Sinatra's music. Getting to know him (through this illuminating documentary) will disappoint you. The music is wonderful; the man was not.