Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

To look at Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and be much too critical of it, and this is now four months since David Bowie left his corporeal form (has it been that long already?) is difficult. I know I can certainly nitpick certain things, mostly in the streak of the 'auteur'; given that this is DA Pennebaker, who also brought us basically the definitive Dylan doc from the era a decade before this, Don't Look Back, and the precursor to Woodstock in Monterey Pop, this isn't quite as superlative as those films as far as the Cinema Verite fly-on-the-wall approach. There's some behind the scenes stuff, but it's not terribly involving (aside from seeing Bowie's make-up put on to make him Ziggy) as the conversations seem muted and uninteresting (yes, even with Ringo backstage which seems a feat).BUT, and this is the big but here, I know deep down I don't care, at least as far as why I wanted to watch this again. And somehow, of all things, watching his life performance here of 'Space Oddity' finally made me cry. I don't know whether it would've brought me to tears (not for too long, just enough, and some of it was due to feeling a connection with the audience as a couple of people shown by Pennebaker's camera were also in tears), but it was in that moment it hit me: we won't get this again, not quite in this style, not quite in this style, not shot on such rough film and in such an atmosphere.Of course there are still provocateurs in rock/pop (Marilyn Manson on the heavier side, Lady Gaga on the more space-driven and sexual, if it can somehow get more sexual than Bowie), but Bowie was his own sound much as Tarantino was and is his own filmmaker: taking from various sources (rock, blues, glam from T-Rex, the avant-garde rock of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop to an extent) and making it his own giant and unmistakbale SOUND in full caps. And don't forget this is David Bowie as Ziggy friggin Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - including the practically incomparable guitarist Mick Ronson on guitar playing like he's ten years ahead of the fashion and heavy metal stars only still in his own class - and playing off of all the works he'd done up through the masterpiece Aladdin Sane.Here you get to see him perform many of his big hits (along with Oddity you get 'Changes' and 'Suffragette City' and his own rendition of 'All the Young Dudes' which he wrote), and Pennebaker and his crew are at times breathless to keep up and yet have enough cameras and sense to also get the crowd. The audience is a key part of this, even as at times it's hard to see all of them and the lights make it into its own stylized piece of filmmaking; they're often seen only briefly, and yet what we see is enough and, again, I think this helps to connect the audience watching the film further with the band. But for all the hits (and some covers, like 'White Light White Heat' and 'Let's Spend the Night Together'), the stand-outs here are the songs that people who only know Bowie from classic rock radio won't know as well.By the time that Bowie and the Spiders get to 'Time', which is more indebted to German lounge singing of the early 20th century (Threepenny Opera anyone?), the softer but incredibly incisive 'My Death', and a wild, possibly overlong but who the hell cares rendition of his most metal-ish song 'The Width of a Circle', he's on fire as a performer and totally in control of how he can command a stage and an audience. In other words it may not be the perfect rock documentary, hence why it's not the full top-star rating. But as far as performances by mega-stars in their prime, this is a keeper (and ironic that this was his "final" performance, of course just the beginning of the many many Bowies). And yet the tears I had briefly watching this and coming to grips after months of feeling numb to his loss were I think the fact that he'd still be iconic if all he left was this.

I have absolutely no idea what movie the vast majority of commenters were watching... For a start, Pennebaker's style of documentary is grainy and gritty through *choice* not "amateurism". It's called REALISM. I first saw "Ziggy" in a movie theatre in Germany and was completely blown away by its energy and freshness. I think it's a sad state of affairs that modern audiences are so dulled by CGI and DVD extras, that they can't appreciate a mind-blowing piece of cinema verite like this. This movie captures all of the sweat, hysteria and sheer balls of Bowie's final performance as Ziggy Stardust, and it's incredible.

This is the last concert the figure Ziggy Stardust would ever do and is very great. In a morbit, dangerous and heavy way Bowie made a great event from it. Is the mixture from darkness, powerness and loosing feeling who makes it so great. The facination of this androgyn type who is the dead and crying living and the lost of life in the same moment have very much suspense. Is exiting to see the heroic movement face to face with death. Ziggy was the heaviest creature Bowie ever was been. Mr. Newton is no more the man who sold the world because he falls on in. The space metaphysik from Bowie - who is written since today (earthling) is her on his highest point!!! Ziggy had no chance to live longer because it was to dangerous for the cracked actor himself! A great but heavy concert!

David Bowie, on stage at London's Hammersmith Odeon circa 1973, performing under the guise of his alter-ego, the androgynous space alien Ziggy Stardust. Bowie now claims Ziggy was not his bow to transvestism but rather his way of bucking the system; that's all well and good, but seeing D.B. in space-drag may make you think otherwise. He looks frequently ridiculous in these dated get-ups, and director D.A. Pennebaker gives Bowie no mystery or ambiance (he shoots straight-on without frills, probably the obstacle of a tiny budget). Why remaster something of the 'point and shoot' movie variety? Well, it's the 30th Anniversary of the album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust", so they exhumed this from the mothballs to capitalize on the hype. The music here is indeed exciting, maybe even titillating, but it should provide for a much grander experience strictly on your headphones. ** from ****