TV Review
There’s plenty of great stuff in this documentary to keep super fans happy – but you only need to know 80s banger Livin’ on a Prayer to get emotional as the ageing band break down before your very eyes
Fri 26 Apr 2024 06.00 CEST
The Bon Jovi Story: A Rock Journey through Decades
Every pop biography has the same dilemma: fans of the artist want to know all the details, while viewers with only a passing interest just want to get to the good stuff. You can tell which side of the line The Bon Jovi Story falls on by looking at the running time. Its four episodes are all well over an hour long.
By far the strongest installment is the opener, which can be watched in isolation as an evocative charge through the period leading up to the band’s formation and breakthrough. The best rockumentaries have the power to pitch us into a past moment we wish we could hang out in – the place and time here that crackles with fantastic potential is New Jersey in the back half of the 1970s.
A Rocking Era in New Jersey
In clubs such as the Fast Lane, the Upstage and the Stone Pony, singers including Southside Johnny and a rapidly rising Bruce Springsteen play blue-collar rock mixed with blue-eyed soul. Handsome, ambitious John Bongiovi and his nerdy pianist sidekick, David Bryan, are awestruck audience members by the age of 16, and are soon on stage with their covers band, the Atlantic City Eraway. Despite attending high school and enduring late-night gigs, these young musicians navigate the suburban, pre-Reagan America, where second- and third-generation immigrants maintain decent everyday lives, with some fun and a few dreams on top. The documentary immerses us in this era through newsreels, press clippings, reminiscences, and home movies.
The Rise and Global Success
By 1983, Bongiovi has met his musical soulmate, guitarist Richie Sambora, and together they form the band Bon Jovi, paying homage to (Eddie) Van Halen. The second episode of the documentary tracks the group as they release a series of reputation-building albums, followed by a third LP, Slippery When Wet, selling 14 million copies. With their torn t-shirts, leather jackets, outrageous hairdos, and a pop-metal sound reminiscent of Mötley Crüe with better tunes, or Springsteen without anxieties about the American Dream, Bon Jovi tours the world relentlessly, captivating millions. The band members, interviewed here in their sixties, still exude the exhilaration of those glory days.
Gone are the days when he could deliver a flawless performance … Bon Jovi.
Challenges and Musical Transitions
However, the documentary takes a downturn as it explores the band’s post-Slippery career, which increasingly fails to captivate. It becomes a catalogue of rock tropes: Bon Jovi burns out as the carefree 80s come to an end, records solo albums, regroups, dabbles in country music, engineer a stunning return to form, quietly replaces their bassist with a session musician due to substance abuse and inefficiency, fosters a more “mature” sound, and consequently falls out with Sambora over a missed studio session. As a result, highlights include the underwhelming 2002 album, Bounce, intended to help heal the nation post-9/11, and the 2020 album, named after the year of its release, a response to the challenges posed by Covid and Black Lives Matter. One particular song on the latter, regrettably named “American Reckoning,” draws mixed reactions.
A Reflection on Aging and Artistry
Throughout the documentary, it becomes apparent that Bon Jovi takes themselves rather seriously. However, the film highlights the inevitable tension between performer and listener in an art form that is transient. Viewers with a predilection for Bon Jovi’s signature bangers, such as “Bad Medicine” and “You Give Love a Bad Name,” may find it difficult to reconcile themselves with the footage shot in 2022, behind the scenes of the band’s latest US tour. Jon Bon Jovi, with his signature rock hairstyle now giving away his age, embodies the smooth CEO of the Bon Jovi enterprise. Yet, he struggles to perform with the same vocal prowess as days gone by. The thousands of past live shows, all encompassing that daring key change in Livin’ on a Prayer, have taken a toll. Despite vitamins, vocal exercises, humidifiers, and laser treatments, Jon Bon Jovi’s voice fails to reach its previous heights. In moments of emotional vulnerability during interviews, he reminisces about when his band members, crew, and the 60,000-strong audience members could rely on him for a flawless performance. Alas, that is no longer the case.
A Tribute to Lifelong Dedication
A surprisingly poignant moment of introspection on lost youth reinforces the lesson that unfolds through Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. It encompasses the notion that the three-minute, catchy tunes that often find their way to the radio are the product of someone’s life’s work. Indeed, within the documentary, all aspects of Bon Jovi’s existence are laid bare.
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story
is available to stream on Disney+ now.
