Movie Review: God Bless Ozzy Osbourne ...

I must admit, I didn't hold out much hope for God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, produced by his son Jack Osbourne, I thought like many people it would end up just another self-promotional piece with not much substance. I also thought, like most people that there is really nothing else to be said about Ozzy. This movie however is a surprise and for those people still intent on throwing crap at Ozzy at every chance they get, you may have to re-think your opinion on the man after seeing this. All the negative stuff you read about Ozzy is still mostly correct. He or should I say his wife did turn him into a laughing-stock with the The Osbourne's reality series and Sharon Osbourne has made some awful career decisions for her husband over the last 30 years. Speaking personally, I am not even a Ozzy solo fan at all. I think the Blizzard of Oz album is one of the most overrated metal albums ever recorded and to be honest, in my opinion I think he has only ever made one really good solo record in his entire career, that being Diary of a Madman.

So I watched this movie for the first time with a very biased and opinionated outlook but the truth is, this movie is a totally engaging look at one of heavy metal's most famous and celebrated frontmen. Yes, we all know his voice is shot these days and his albums are nothing on his time in Black Sabbath but put all that aside and watch this movie with a open-mind and should find it very entertaining. The film begins with Ozzy performing for a very wild South American crowd. The camera follows his life around from dressing room to the stage and it gets very upfront and personal. The movie shifts to the fans throughout the years before taking a look at Ozzy's 60th birthday celebration in Las Vegas. From there it covers most of his career, I say most because there is some people who are left out of the movie completely that played major roles in his career. Poor old Bob Daisley again gets the shove even though he wrote most of Ozzy's lyrics on the first two solo records and people like Jake E Lee are ignored as well so the movie is very selective in that way. That in itself is a big point off in the rating of this movie for me. I know they had to crammed a lot into 90 minutes but still, there is a hell of a lot that is left out of the film that I feel should have got at least a mention.

There are interviews with his Sabbath band mates, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward but not enough in my view and there is some background on his upbringing. "A lot of kids turned to crime, but I wasn't very good at it," reveals Ozzy which is interspersed with footage of bombed out Birmingham buildings. One of the film's big scores is Paul McCartney who makes the quote that darkness "hadn't been dealt with until Black Sabbath started dealing with it". The interview with Mc Cartney proves to be one of the films most important features and one of the most interesting. There is one section of the film where Ozzy tells how his father made crosses for the band, something I never knew about and he also goes into some detail over his passing. You get to see not much in the way of rare footage, I think most hardcore Sabbath/Ozzy fans would have seen all of what this film has to offer but there is some interesting commentary to go along with it. Then of course there is drugs and the death of Randy Rhodes along with other topics that have been discussed a million times before, the biting the head of a dove, how he almost killed his wife and so on.

The film is hardly perfect and considering everything he has been though, it is a bit short at 90 minutes but this a heartfelt, warm and honest look at his life and career. Of course I am only reviewing it here because of the Black Sabbath connection but it is a well-made and interesting film anyway.  I still cringe at some of the tunes (from the 80's especially) and the song selection for this movie could have been better but the music is not really the focus here, it is about the man himself and on that level it is worth seeing. Love him or hate him, there is no denying his career have been a fascinating one and I thought that there was nothing more to be said about Ozzy, well I was wrong....8/10