DVD Review: Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan

dir: Gerard Barclay

The Wu-Tang Clan is in my top 5 musical groups of all time. I can't tell you why, I can't tell you exactly when, and I can't tell you for what reason, but about two years ago something in my head just clicked and told me, "This group will change the way you look at hip-hop music." I'd had Enter The Wu-Tang on my iTunes for some time, and most of it I'd listened to and liked, but none of it had really sunk in. I saw them on Rock the Bells 2007, co-headlining with Rage Against the Machine, both of whom had re-united for the tour, and I remember when they hit the stage there was a reverence. There was a level of respect between the members on stage and the percentage of the crowd that was into the music that I wish that I had for a group, and sure enough two years later, I have it for them.

With that in mind, I've spent my fair share of money on the Clan. I physically own 15 of their CD's, several from the group, several solo and a small handful of compilation albums, I have 2 t-shirts a hoody, a limited run poster on my wall, and I spent an entire afternoon in Barnes and Noble reading their first book The Wu-Manual (I didn't buy it because the cover was ripped nearly off). So for all I's and P's, I'm a big fan. So when BET went out and said they were airing a documentary to celebrate the group, I was ecstatic. It had been years since the Wu had received mainstream media attention, and with such a strong resumé since their last big commercial success, it was time. Unfortunately due to schedule conflicts (Damn you, Hofstra!) I didn't catch the doc on TV. So, thanks to the lovely people at Netflix, I finally got to watch the documentation of the Clan's career.

To sum it up, this documentary is not for Wu fans. It scratches the surface of their career, paying attention to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows of the CLAN, not of each of the 10 members. It can be more or less broken into five major segments:

1. The Rise
2. Enter the Wu-Tang/National Recognition
3. The fame/Wu-Tang Forever
4. Ol' Dirty Bastard's jailing and death
5. (a very brief look at) Modern Wu.

Now for those that don't know the music of the Clan, this may seem legitimate. But what the documentary skims over is just as, if not more important than some of the topics covered. Director Gerard Barclay chooses to omit the fact that two of the groups spawned solo albums, GZA's Liquid Swords and Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx influenced the hip hop game on comparable levels to their debut Enter the Wu-Tang. I read a review on the Internet Movie Database that said it was forgivable to skip over these because they weren't the entire Clan efforts. Well perhaps that's true, but all of the first round of Wu solo albums were produced by RZA, and all of them featured most of the Clan on several tracks, Raekwon's album "guest starring" Ghostface Killah on over half of the album. But even if these factors weren't involved in the solo albums, the documentary completely leaves out the groups other two albums, The W and Iron Flag the first of which was O.D.B.'s last album with the Clan.

And aside from the discography, the overall production of this documentary is highly flawed. The stock footage is shotty, and the audio is mostly overdubbed during live performances. Not to mention there are only two concerts used, one of which before Enter the Wu was released, the other after their massive success and release of Wu-Tang Forever. The interviews are very limited, mostly RZA and non-members such as Steve Rifkind of Loud Recrods. There are brief stock interviews of several members, and Raekwon, Cappadonna and affiliate Popa Wu are the only ones who were interviewed in 2008 for the documentary. This leaves out GZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, U-God, Inspektah Deck and Masta Killa, all of whom surely have stories of the Clan.

Another piece of the documentary that I found to be a bit frustrating was the amount of attention paid to O.D.B. I understand his passing was the moment the Clan re-grouped, but given the amount of time to cover the careers of all 10 members, Dirty's last days are treated as though he was the only important member of the group. There is enough material and footage of Ol' Dirty Bastard to make a documentary just on him, and it would be fascinating, but when I put in The Story of the Wu-Tang I expect to be given views on most of, if not all of the members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Director/Writer/Narrator Barclay also lacks motivation. When he speaks, it's as if he's reading a written script he's never heard before, lacking any emotion. His edits are weak, his stock footage of New York from the 1990's is non-existent, and his range as a director is incredibly low. I understand how he thought he was the right fit for the job, as he'd been the man behind the camera for a lot of memorable Wu-Tang moments, but his lack of any real filmmaking skill takes away that level of being the right fit.

In his last shots of the documentary, Barclay and his crew manage to spell Masta Killa's name wrong (Masta Killer) as well as the title of 8 Diagrams (calling it Diagram singular). He also summarizes the most famous members with their own frame, lumping the "lower-level" members all on one frame listing them, saying they "are recording new albums." However, it's fine for him to give himself a frame saying "I continue to direct". It's an insulting end to a lackluster documentary by an unqualified director.

I highly recommend the 2006 doc by Denis Hennelly and Casey Suchan Rock the Bells, the documentation of the Wu's first and last reunion before Dirty's death. It's an extremely deep and fascinating look into one concert that covers more about each Wu member than this entire waste of time did about the whole Clan.