Movies
All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records
The documentary All Things Must Pass… is an interesting look at the Tower Records phenomena that saw growth from the 1960s to the early 2000s, then because of the high priced CD market and file-sharing services like Napster crashed and burned and was defunct by 2006. The town I lived in never had a Tower Records, but even so I’d heard of the company even if I had to settle buying my CDs at Sam Goody, Best Buy or Musicland.
The story in All Things Must Pass… seems to be pretty standard documentary fare; from humble beginnings a mighty corporation is built that earns huge sums of dough. But the whole thing is brought down because of some bad management, new competition and bad luck.
If there’s one thing I thought needed some work here it’s that the documentary seemed a bit unfocused. It goes from a history of Tower Records to what Tower Records meant to people around the globe to why Tower Records fell. Which is a lot to cover in 90 minutes. B-
The Reading List
- Lost HP Lovecraft work commissioned by Houdini escapes shackles of history
- The American Concordes that never flew Jon Bernthal: From Walking Dead to Plain Deadly
- Recalling Batman’s Star Turn at Shea Stadium in ’66
- Dune can’t capture the novel’s incalculable brilliance
On the Horizon
I’ve got columns in the works for a summer movie preview, the Dark Horse Aliens comic books, the X-Men movie franchise and the Independence Day films.
