The documentary uses a montage-style editing format to convey a biography of Bowie, utilizing film clips and interviews from throughout his career. The film starts with a 2002 quote of Bowie stating:
"At the turn of the 20th century, Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed that God is dead and that man had killed him."
"This created an arrogance with man that he himself was God. But as God, all he could seem to produce was disaster."
"That led to a terrifying confusion: for if we could not take the place of God, how could we fill the space we had created within ourselves?"
The film is divided into nearly two dozen "chapters" in the DVD release with the first hour covering Bowie starting in London up to his departure to West Berlin. The second part of the film discussed and presents Bowie's extensive interests in the arts while in West Berlin outside of the music industry, such as his interest in oil painting and acrylic painting, as well as his interest in writing within the literary arts. Many examples of Bowie's portrait work in oils are presented showing the use of a modern representational style of portraiture combined with an experimental color palette for brightly lit representations in nearly kaleidoscopic color preferences for facial expressions. In his third phase covered in the last part of the film, Bowie emerges from a two year hiatus where he remakes himself in the image of a suave musical artist often dressed in tailored Saville Row double breasted men's business suits.
The first hour of the film begins with a long film clip of Bowie performing a live version of a largely narrated version of "All the Young Dudes" before singing the choruses later made famous by Mott the Hoople's recording of the song. Bowie is picture in many clips from his glam rock years wearing heavily costumed outfits often experimenting with the signature transgender dressing associated with his early years. Bowie emerges from these pre-Berlin years as a significant rock-and-roll star on the London scene making an impact throughout much of Britain and the United States.
After moving to West Berlin, Bowie speaks in clips and interviews about the extensive impact which the aesthetics of German culture in West Berlin had upon his artistic sensibilities. Bowie is apparently deeply moved by the visual arts as he experiences them while in West Berlin, and this influences his own painting style in his own renderings of oil portraits and related efforts in his other oil paintings. The documentary's film style of montage also interlaces many film clips from over two dozen different films ranging from the silent era including the film Metropolis up to and including clips from the Stanley Kubrick-directed films Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Bowie's third phase is covered by showing him appearing in his tailored Savile Row double breasted business suits and appearing in duets with multiple established artists such as Tina Turner and others. He is depicted as having entered the height of his career and formed a new life style with his new wife Iman Abdulmajid. Bowie dies at the age of 69.
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