Movie Review: God Bless Ozzy Osbourne

Synopsis: Ozzy Osbourne's four decade track record as a culturally relevant artist is unprecedented and this documentary covers it all, featuring never before seen footage uncovered from the archives and interviews with Paul McCartney, Tommy Lee and others. God Bless Ozzy Osbourne is the first documentary to take viewers inside the complex mind of rock's great icon. Emerging from a working class family in war torn England, Osbourne and his neighborhood friends formed Black Sabbath and invented heavy metal. Plagued by self doubt, Osbourne the solo superstar went on a binge that lasted 40 years. God Bless Ozzy Osbourne will relive the highs of his triumphs as well as his journey to sobriety, which Ozzy regards as his greatest accomplishment.

I love Ozzy and have been a fan since I first heard Black Sabbath's debut as an 11-year-old just discovering hard rock. This documentary really covers a lot for the average fan, but for a die hard I think everything on here has been told before and there is still a lot of stuff that wasn't even touched upon. I don't believe there was a mention of the famous Alamo-whizzing incident and although they cover Randy Rhodes time with the band they didn't even mention Brad Gillis or Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde appears on camera but there no discussion about finding him or their time together despite their long partnership. Want some Tony Iommi? Look elsewhere. Ozzfest tales? They talk about Ozzfest for about 1 minute total.

He talks about the bat-biting and dove-chomping and Randy's plane crash and him choking Sharon but again all of these stories are well known to most of the fans. I was hoping for some new revelations.

And if you're looking for insider talk on some of the songs or records, look elsewhere (or nowhere that I know of actually). There's some live concert video (mostly with Robert Trujillo, Mike Bordin and Zakk Wylde) and songs are played throughout from all eras but there's really no discussion about the writing or meanings or anything. At one point Ozzy is watching some of his old videos and talking about them, but it's brief and all he really does is bitch about them and how stupid he looks. No insight, possibly because he just doesn't remember. I wish they could have either added a good 30 minutes to this and discussed his music and musicians or just dropped some tales of smearing feces on hotel walls and such and replaced that with useful info about the songs. I get it, drugs are bad. Figured it out on my own.

What this really tells is his rise to fame and then his lifelong struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. It's pretty heartbreaking to watch his children discuss his many failings as a father in elaborate detail. He's presented as out of control, unloving and absent... or just too intoxicated to participate in their lives when he was home. This could have been a total downer, especially when mixed with stories of trying to kill Sharon etc, but he's been sober for 5 years and it's great to see him excited about stuff like getting a driver's license.

If you get the DVD, there's just a few deleted scenes but not much really. I've got the Blu-ray and honestly I'd like to have seen maybe all of his videos or more old concert footage as extras, but that's just not to be.

This is a really entertaining movie though, very well made and definitely worth watching for any fan of Ozzy or Sabbath. I just wish it was more music-centric. Perhaps though if you'd rather hear a tale of snorting ants or lapping up somebody's whiz than what's behind the song "Mama I'm Coming Home" for instance, you'll like this a lot more than me.

7/10