Review of Rush: Time Stand Still (2016) by Douglas M — 05 Nov 2016

I enjoyed the documentary when it was covering the band, tour stops, Road crew, celebrity stories, management stories and actual stuff on the band.

What I despised was seeing Rush fans projected as unhinged, socially awkward, creepy, and obsessed with 3 guys who wouldn't have dinner with them if they offered to pay. Neil has never wanted anything to do with fans, says he has hated touring since 1975 and hated R40.

There were so many scenes that made me squirm in my seat that I felt guilty even seeing this premiere in a movie theater with 30 other people. The fans I talked to said they were annoyed by "Jillian" a Rush fan since 1991 occupying such precious screen time when the real story should have been the band at each of the 35 venues and the fans in other markets.

The film has emotional moments like the fan from Scotland who was nearly killed in a car accident and treks to Los Angeles for his first and last Rush show with a kudos to the song Everyday Glory being his anthem in recovery. The father and son from Argentina. Both very worthy of being in this film.

But, the obsession with Jillian and the White House job she has, her friendship with President Obama, her being a coordinator for Rushcon a fan convention that takes place in Toronto every year with about 80 or 90 people. It even takes up another 15 mins on the Rushcon in Los Angeles for the final show. Enough.

The crazed breathless collector Ray needs counseling. Nice guy but again...if you want to do a documentary on Rush fans? Then do one. But this was about the final tour of Rush. Not let's see your tape collection from Indonesia in a brief case.

The film is titled Time Stand Still, taken from the 1987 hit song from Hold Your Fire...and yet...the song never appears in the film once.

What would have been more relevant than 40% of Jillian? How about interviews with Geddy's wife on her husband's road life coming to an end? Impact on their life having him gone from the family for so long for decades? Alex's wife, Neil's wife? Alex's sons? Geddy's son or daughter? Showing footage from all of the tours? Talking in depth about the set list and why they chose so many songs from Clockwork Angels and Snakes and Arrows and obscure tracks and zero emphasis on Hold Your Fire, Power Windows, Presto, Test For Echo?

No discussion about the elephant in the room...Geddy's rapidly declining voice. How he was handling things day to day? Alex golf outings? No discussions with Neil's drum tech Lorne or his bodyguard Michael who he writes about in his blog constantly?

Zero unseen photos or footage used of something from the vault in the 80s and 90s. Now for the home release they are adding in a dozen songs from an Auburn Hills show from 1990....that has been on YouTube for 10 years....as a complete show. Not even the complete Concert but excerpts on the blu ray. WTF?

It begs the question why are Exit Stage Left..., Grace Under Pressure Tour, A Show of Hands, Through The Camera Eye, and Chronicles not out on blu ray? Is the band this cheap to not issue a proper blu ray release of these shows with restored film and whatever leftover footage was cut from the later tours? Why not a full compilation disc of every video ever made? Why scam your fans into buying big box sets to get a clip here or a clip there?

Why not put the full unreleased 1992 Roll The Bones Tour Auburn Hills Palace show out instead of ripping off bootleg YouTube 1990 Presto tour video clips and saying it is unreleased?

In the film they go to Randy Johnson's house and show him getting honored in Arizona with his number retired and getting an R30 replica. But zero is mentioned that he photographed the tour and his photo is the cover of R40 itself?!? It's just like ok here is Randy Johnson after we hear from Jillian for 15 mins. At least address why he is in the film to begin with!

Bottom line is a documentary needs to be done on them individually and in depth. Another needs to be made that doesn't watch the clock. Rush needs a 4 hour documentary to fairly cover every era, every studio and live album, the others influenced by Rush who were never asked or were never shown in Beyond The Lighted Stage.

There is so much to say and cover that nobody has even come close to doing yet. Making 2 documentaries that run less than 2 hours each is completely unacceptable. There is an arsenal of history and information that must be documented properly without revisionist and fanboi obsession.

Hopefully Dale and Allan read this and realize that just because you did this that the story has been told.

It hasn't.