Janis Joplin - The Way She Was

This is a very powerful, honest film about Janis-without all the hype and "legend" surrounding her nowadays. It shows Janis as she really was (I almost said "is") a young woman with an outrageous amount of energy, strength, and intelligence, trying and at the end succeeding to get her message across about life, love and yearning- yearning to know it all, do it all and have it all. She almost DID have it all in my opinion, impressively at the tender age of 27 when she left the world to beyond. She wanted so much more out of life than she could find, as her hopeless drug and alcohol addiction proved. She was blessed with so much intelligence and awareness (very rare in musical artists, especially NOW) that she did not know how to deal with what was constantly running around in her head- especially when she was alone. Heroin shuts off bad feelings with a feeling that everything is fine until it wears off. The same may be said about alcohol but in both cases when you are ADDICTED it becomes Russian roulette (take it from personal experience, ME). I had a friend who intentionally took his life via the needle. I really don't think Janis intended to take her life THAT VERY NIGHT, but she knew and wanted a short life and knew it was a matter of time before she died. Thus the "Good time Janis" image she created. Her demons of never finding one lover forever or contentment constantly haunted and motivated her. I believe her performances on stage were the only thing that gave her contentment, where she could release all that pent up feeling with such beautiful, stunning talent. I learned a lot from her, and think the sad story can be turned into hope, joy and true love for each other and the choices we make in life. She made quite an accomplishment for a 27 year old gal.

This DVD only plays on DVD players that can play Region 2 DVDs. I never saw or heard Janice Joplin when she was singing, but I heard about her. And now I know what I was missing. She was The Blues and she was Rock and Roll. And she was real!

The new Joplin non-fiction film is stronger on biography than this one but has, as I recall no complete musical numbers. This one has lots of uncut songs, and that's what Janis was all about.

I was not the only one who was unable to play this dvd!! I said it did not say that on the ad for the dvd! Check your ad!!! Very unhappy !!!

Sure enough this won't play on my American DVD player. No problem for the video converter on my PC. Lots of good stuff here.

All Janis "little girl blue" had to many interviews, forget the reviews that said DVD would not play mine was perfect

Dieser Film wurde Anfang der 90er einmal im TV ausgestrahlt, Tele5, glaube ich - die brachten tolle Filmsachen für den Videomitschnitt, die es immer noch nicht zu kaufen gibt (Ry Cooder in Vera Cruz, mit, eines seiner geilsten Konzerte) Nun gibt es ihn endlich auf DVD. Ein Film, der nicht allzu lange nach Janis Tod gemacht wurde, mit Interviewausschnitten und jeder Menge Musik, bei der nicht dazwischen gequatscht wird. Besser als jede DVD-Zusammenstellung über Janis. Wer sie liebt, wird diesen Film lieben.

Super !

I've been a Joplin fan since I first heard 'Cheap Thrills' but, alas, never got to see the lady live. This dvd however is the next best thing. The power of her voice is amazing - and as an all-round entertainer she's head and shoulders above any of her contempories. This dvd is an absolute joy to watch - and I don't mind admitting that when the end credits rolled to 'Bobby McGee' I had tears streaming down my cheeks at the thought that such a beautiful and talented lady was taken from from us aged just 27. Do yourself a favour and get this dvd to see a true class act in action. I'm nearly 68 and I can honestly say that I've never heard any artiste that comes anywhere near the much-missed and beautiful Janis Joplin! Adele - eat your heart out.

Another interesting Doc, on rock's first lady. Archive/interviews and live footage, abound....