Sunset Strip

Watching this documentary in 2022, post pandemic hysteria, post hyperinflation, post RvW, post EA & J6, post George Floyd & BLM, post Elliott Page, post Weinstein, post Matrix, post JDvAH, post *everything*...is a trip.

2012, the year this documentary was filmed, feels like a hundred years ago. The heydays of the previous century feel virtually ancient.

But man, what an era! And it's captured so explicitly. This is a must watch. Oh, the scenes you will see when you take a cruise down the Sunset Strip!

Interesting documentary (and an overdue one) chronicling the history of the infamous Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, extending from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood to its western border with Beverly Hills. Lots of celebrities pop up to tell their own personal histories of life on the Strip, but the textbook facts are more interesting. Beginning with silent star Alla Nazimova's hotel, the decadent, sex-saturated Garden of Allah, the Strip quickly became the haven for Hollywood's elite (and their imitators) who wanted to party their nights away. Smelling easy money and opportunity, gangsters and gamblers invaded in the 1940s, but the rise in popularity of night-life in Las Vegas seemed to zap the spirit of the Strip. With the Big Band sound on the way out, teenagers ruled the territory throughout the 1960s, with rock and roll evolving into protest music, which then brought in the riot police. The film is a nice mix of stills, recent interviews, vintage home-movie footage and movie clips--but nothing here really sticks in the memory (with the possible exception of Peter Fonda's recollection of being arrested and calling for help from passing actor Bob Denver of TV's "Gilligan's Island"!). The 2006 closing of Tower Records music store (a Strip-staple) could well be the death knell for a generation of partyers, yet time inevitably brings a wave of new faces and personalities to the scene...and the Strip lives on. ** from ****

Fun from start to finish, and a history lesson as well. It does not get much better than this as far as biographical documentaries go. Pop culture in the Unite States has for a long time centered on the happening of the Sunset Strip, and now we have a chance to hear what it was like, from the people who lived it. Stories from speakeasies, night clubs, hotels, brothels, and comedy clubs make for great laughs and insight.

I really enjoyed hearing about the change in musical genres, and how it affeceted the people who frequented the strip from decade to decade, especially the change from the 1950'2 to 1960's. It was also quite interesting to hear first hand about the drug use, and death of certain stars. A must see for sure.

I've always been fascinated by Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip. I remember leafing through magazines and dreaming about walking up and down the strip, catching great music and meeting some interesting people. I haven't been able to make it out there yet, but this doc is the next best thing. The film covers the Sunset Strip from its inception as a no man's land between the studios in Hollywood and Beverly Hill up until present day. Throughout you learn that the Sunset Strip has been instrumental in shaping from the speakeasies of the 20s, to the hair metal bands of the 80s. I had no idea how many famous and interesting people have been through this little strip of land.

You won't be bored at all watching this film. It is full of interesting nuggets about the Strip but it is so disjointed in its telling. Some of the important people in the history of the Strip tell some great old stories, but many of them have little relevant stories to tell. I have a certain nostalgic feeling for the Strip myself where I probably spent over a hundred nights in the 70's being a bad boy and seeing some remarkable music.

Rodney Binginheimer who should be able to tell great stories about the glam era on the Strip has surprisingly little to add. Mickey Rourke whom I admire as an actor and some tattoo artist guy have a lot of screen time but add little to the proceedings other than the viewer wanting to figure out if Rourke is still using after all these years or not. On the plus side you have some great comedians telling stories, STeve Jones from the Sex Pistols and Johnny Depp and some other nice story tellers, but there are just as many folks involved that probably should not have been. I am sorry, but Kelly Osbourne is just too young to be nostalgic about anything. It is a really disjointed film, but always interesting in spite of itself.