Gano GrillsWu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan

I saw a story on NPR about this new documentary, Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan. Not only was I surprised to hear it reviewed on NPR (complete with audio clips), I was eager to see a movie that depicted the rise of one of my favorite rap groups.However, I was sadly disappointed. The movie gets off to a real slow start, and it almost seems like the director is making the movie just to use up stock footage he had from his early days with the Wu-Tang Clan. He has videos of behind-the-scenes stuff in the studio, and clips from the nightlife scene, but they don't really do anything to contribute to the story or the narrative thread of the movie.Much of the commentary by interviewees is hard to understand, and Subtitles are not an option. The difficulty in understanding the language is a combination of bad audio and unclear ennunciation on the part of the speakers.We don't get to see a lot of performances. Most of the performance footage shown is from a concert they did in Hawaii. When I think of the Wu, I think of them in NYC, Chicago, D.C. -- on stage in a packed, dark club with a frenzied crowd. Instead, we see the Clan performing on a sunny, open air stage, dressed in Hawaiian t-shirts and sunhats(!), and performing for an all-white audience. This is not the Wu that one normally thinks of, not the gritty urban rap supergroup that we all know and love. Seeing ODB prancing around in a hat that my grandma would wear to a day at the beach just takes away something.This movie leaves out all the stuff that happened after the group's rise but before ODB (Ol Dirty Bastard) died. It then just abruptly ends. There is no mention of the Wu's ascension to the mainstream, their clothing lines and savvy business ventures, the way they gave back to their Staten Island community by supporting youth groups (and even opening up a Wu-Tang ice cream parlor!), or any of the solo projects that went on, besides a hint of Method Man's stuff and then of course ODB. There is way too much attention paid toward a party for ODB when he was released from prison at some non-descript family restaurant. Again, it was like the director thought, "Wow, I have this home video from ODB's prison release party. Between this and my early footage, I should make a movie!" Aside from that and the Hawaii footage, there isn't a whole lot going on other than commentary from a few people and mostly from Papa Wu, who is a rambling, incomprehensible, and mostly uninteresting interviewee.The chronology of the movie is pretty much the director speaking of going back to Staten Island, where it all started; the rise of the Clan, brief interviews with them intercut with the Hawaiian concert; the imprisonment and death of ODB; and a few final comments.The few bright spots were some fun moments with ODB and the other members, particularly where ODB freestlyes while drunk. For the most part though, we don't really get a chance to get a sense of the individual group members.I just watched this movie this past weekend, and I was so disappointed and ready to move on that I haven't even checked out the special features. Considering that the director of this movie also directed their video for Da Mystery of Chessboxin', I'm hoping that that video as well as others may be included. That, at least, would be one saving grace of this otherwise unremarkable DVD documentary.Someone should do a more comprehensive documentary that does justice to the greatness that the Wu-Tang Clan once was and still is today.Valdez Bravo

Like most things lately from the WU, or Wu related...fairly shoddy product....I was hoping for an in depth documentary experience, and some rare footage...plenty of rare footage from the early days....but production values drop off early and even with decent interview candidates,Divinie Diggs being particularly vociferous, this was overall a very disapointing product...especialyl considering the sense that the maker is quite a fan. Maybe that was the problem.....needed to be a bit more objective, and the focus on ODB as being the sole reason for the 'downfall' of the group was a shallow analysis.....hopefully something better will come out late.r...not awful by any means, considering the dearth of similar product,, but definitely dissapointing.

I'm glad I bought this DVD. There's decent concert footage of the WU and some details that you might not be know about their story. The scenes discussing ODB were particularly moving and informative.According to Papa WU, Dirty actually set himself on fire while he was incarcerated so that he could be moved from general pop. to the mental ward.The intereviews were good and the quality of the DVD wasn't bad at all.Overall a good edition to my DVD library

There is a lot of time spent on some of the issues with the death of Ol' Dirty [........], as well as other problems.For me, once the documentary ended I was ready for more, as there is still far more details and such that this could have gone into if the creators really wanted to try and pull it off.

WORTH GETTING IF U LUV THE WU BUT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER KIND OF LEFT U WANTING MORE ESPECIALLY ON HOW THEY CAME UP AND WHATS GOING ON NOW WITH THE GROUP

Interesting and dope , WU is the best

A must see for all wu fans. I was blown away by all the classic footage of the wu tang rise.

Great material. I received as expected...

No. Did not meet my expectations as its a U.S. Region and won't play on my UK player. The clue is the address ........

Man merkt der Doku an, dass sie von einem Freund und Fan stammt. Wer top Bildmaterial erwartet... wartet lange. Dafür gibt es vieles, was man so nicht unbedingt kennt ( was im youtube Zeitalter gar nicht mal so ohne ist). Hier gibt es viel unveröffentliche Sachen, wie z.B. das Essen nach der (Haft) Entlassung von ODB und weitere Privataufnahmen. Für Fans ganz klar - ein Muss. Für H&M Wu-Tang Käufer natürlich langweilig.

A must buy for the wu tang clan fan in your life.

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