Product Description

ROBERT MOOG HAS BEEN INVENTING AND BUILDING ELECTRONIC MUSICAL instruments for nearly half a century. MOOG, the film, takes us inside the mind of this legendary figure as he shares his ideas about creativity, design, interactivity, and spirituality. To this day, Moog continues to shape musical culture with some of the most inspiring instruments ever created.

MOOG features interviews and performances by Stereolab, Keith Emerson, Walter Sear, Gershon Kinsgley, Jean-Jacques Perrey & Luke Vibert, Rick Wakeman, DJ Spooky, Herb Deutsch, Bernie Worrell, Pamelia Kurstin, Tino Corp., Charlie Clouser, Money Mark, Mix Master Mike and others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20416 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-05-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 72 minutes

Amazon.com
A man who genuinely revolutionized late-20th Century music gets his due with Moog, writer-director Hans Fjellestad's absorbing documentary about Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesizer that bears his name. In his seventies when this 2004 film was made, Moog began working with electronic music in the late 1940s, when he designed and built theremins (the source of the wavy sci-fi sound heard on the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"). But it was the development of the Moog synthesizer, an analog instrument with electronic components, that put him on the map. Unsurprisingly, it was initially dismissed as a soulless novelty, a notion not helped by its use in silly commercial jingles; Moog himself was regarded as nothing less than a dangerous anarchist out to destroy music as we know it. That all changed when he added a keyboard to his machine and musicians of all stripes gradually began using it for more serious ends. Moog credits Walter (now Wendy) Carlos' Switched-On Bach as the first important milestone, and the list of major artists who have used it since then includes the Beatles (on Abbey Road), Stevie Wonder (a vital early proponent who for some reason goes completely unmentioned here), Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Rick Wakeman of Yes. The latter two perform briefly in the film, as do many others (P-Funk's Bernie Worrell, Sun Ra, Charlie Clouser of Nine Inch Nails), but Moog is the star here. Indeed, it's hard not to believe this genial, self-effacing man when he talks of the "spiritual connection" between his invention and the people who play it. --Sam Graham

Filmmaker
The father of all things electronica.

The New York Times
A compelling documentary portrait...A fascinating historical look at the technological side of the 60's revolution in pop music.

Customer Reviews

Great Overview and Insite into Moogs Private world.
I enjoyed this documentary. I've read a few of the other reviews and I guess I am confused as to what some of these viewers expected. This is not an engineering documentary on Moog synthesizers in any regard, What we have here is a very good overview of the Man himself. Bob Moog comes across as a very easy-natured person who was initially very interested in electrical engineering but was luckily diverted into musical audio technology. In this video you can see him interacting with musicians and learning how they use his instruments. He learned not just the electrical side but the artistic side of the musicians he listened to when developing ideas. This was constant. I am currently reading a very good documentary on Moog and this video complements it very well. Since Moogs Passing in August of 2005, this video will shed much light on his character and his life interests. Bob never gave the impression he wanted to be rich from the fruit of his labors, but wanted to stay inquisitive to all aspects of his life.

- Dave Carlin

Incomplete, but interesting
I enjoyed the movie very much and am glad I bought it, but at the same time was frustrated that it focused on so few of the people involved and such a small part of the whole story. I understand that the first-time director made this as a labor of love, but it wasn't clearly presented what the concept of the film was...instead, it was an attempt at a history, that ended up more as a personal portrait of the inventor.

The frustrating things that are omitted are critical history about the business errors that Bob made that nearly ruined him, his teaching career, the formation of Big Briar and the subsequent reclaimation of his trademark name for Moog synthesizers. Instead, you get Bob talking about his garden for a long time (which reminded me of "Being There".....people trying to read way too much into what plants he grows!)

As others have mentioned, the featured artists are a very odd mix, not representative of the musical pioneers that made the Moog synth a landmark instrument. It's cool to have Bernie Worrell, but where the heck are the mentions of influential artists like Stevie Wonder, Jan Hammer, Chick Corea, Klaus Shultz, Jean Michel jarre, Giorgio Moroder, etc, etc, etc. It's very odd to have extended performances of groups that aren't even using ANY Moog synths! And some of the Moogfest groups are OK, but not the influential groups that defined the vocabulary of the instrument.

It's too bad the filmaker didn't have a larger budget. Moog is such an important topic, that it's a shame that it wasn't more comprehensive. Perhaps Wendy Carlos and others will participate in a more complete picture of the history of this important instrument.

On the level of the film as a personal portrait, it largely succeeds. I was fortunate to know Bob a little bit from the industry and the film does a great job of capturing his spirit. It's now a particularly important film with Bob's passing, as it presents his mind and heart in a very special way that could have only been done while Bob was alive. So the decision to focus the limited resources the filmakers had on Bob's thought process turned out to be a very smart one indeed.

Well worth checking out, but just understand that it's not a very thorough history of Moog Music or of the synthesizer or of the artists that made it what it is today.

We're lucky to have it...
Nobody would fund this poor guy Hans Fjellestad... Wendy Carlos apparently even threatened legal action (for what he did or might do, I don't know). Apparently nobody else had the foresight to realize that Bob Moog wouldn't live forever. We're lucky to have this document on Bob's life, imperfect that it may be. Mr. Fjellestad was working on an extremely limited budget, so how much can you complain when it's clear nobody else was willing to share his dream, or at least help pay for it. Now it's too late to make anything like it again, at least with Bob himself in it. I for one own a copy, and am grateful for it.