Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (2015)

An Exercise In Nonsense

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This series of four hourly programmes took us through the long and varied life of Francis Albert Sinatra, combining archive footage with contemporary voice-overs to give a full cradle-to-grave account of one of the twentieth century's greatest singers. I enjoyed the ride albeit with a number of major caveats.Undoubtedly the kid from Hoboken was a complex character, a loved and devoted father to his children, who was a man's man happy to lead the Rat Pack and also a serial womaniser (Sinatra's Greatest Misses, you could say), a conscientious, charitable fund-raiser who never lived down his connections to the mob, a challenger of racial segregation who told on-stage off-colour (no pun intended) jokes at the expense of his friend Sammy Davis Jr and a registered Democrat and supporter of John F Kennedy who later flipped and became friends with the later disgraced Richard Nixon and his Vice President Spiro Agnew. In and out of style and popularity, he ended up being a towering personality in the entertainment industry making some of the greatest records of his time as well as some, though not as many, terrific movies. The series takes a chronological look at the man's life and times, using as its reference point his first, of many, as it turned out, retirement concerts, filmed in 1971 when he clearly was still at the height of his powers, although the idea of interspersing the songs into the narrative to effectively tell his story lost its way somewhat. I could also have done without the endless eulogising of thankfully off-screen so-called experts making ever grander claims of him, far better to let the viewer judge by what they see than be egged on by their endless hyperbole.I would also have preferred a bit more focus on his hit and miss movie career, with no reference at all to his superb performances in, for example "The Man With The Golden Arm", the classic "The Manchurian Candidate" (which is only present in a clever-clever link to the JFK assassination), his hit musicals "Guys and Dolls", "Pal Joey" or "High Society" or even his series of superior hard-edged detective thrillers of the late 60's like "The Detective" and "Tony Rome" these latter made when his old buddy Dean Martin was half-heartedly and self-demeaningly camping it up in his Matt Helm films. In fact there's surprisingly little coverage at all of his relationships with Martin and the rest of his Rat Pack buddies at all, (Shirley MacLaine doesn't get a look-in) and you'd have thought the well-known clip of his role in bring Dean and Jerry Lewis together after years of estrangement might have been worthy of inclusion.Much is made of course of his relationships with his women, particularly Ava Gardner who gave him a taste of his own mistreating medicine and the youthful Mia Farrow who soon resisted his latter-day controlling tendencies while his poorly-treated first wife Nancy is a running presence in the story particularly through the references to his children. There's also no allusion at all to his daughter Nancy's pop success in the 60's or much time given to his last wife Barbara Marx or indeed his death, funeral and artistic legacy.I'm no Sinatra completist but I also noticed some major omissions in the songs which otherwise pepper the soundtrack, like "Three Coins In The Fountain", "All The Way", "My Kind Of Town" and his surprise mid-60's number 1's "Strangers In The Night" (which he hated) and his duet with Nancy "Something Stupid". In the end, I came to the conclusion that this man's life was too big for this show's allocated time, indeed it could have run to twice the length and been much more detailed, cohesive and interesting accordingly. Undoubtedly though, Frank Sinatra is a difficult man to pin down or categorise and I think in this series, the prey eludes his hunters. What is beyond doubt is the greatness of his singing as shown in several concert and TV clips although the funniest thing you'll ever see him in is his unintentionally hilarious team-up in powder-blue Austin Powers chiffon with the then hit group the 5th Dimension in a groovy late 60's TV clip.In conclusion then I found this a muddled, inconclusive life of Frank, very good in parts, weak in others, a bit like the man himself I suppose, but I believe in truth he deserved a better biographical tribute than this in the final summing-up.

This documentary was absolutely fabulous. Sinatra has always been my favorite, as his music is what I was raised on. I can openly admit though, that I only knew bits and pieces about his life before watching the documentary. I feel so informed after having watched hours about the man's life, and I greatly appreciate that the documentary included high points as well as low points. To know a person, you have to know all aspects of his/her personality, and I think that this documentary did a wonderful job of trying to cover so much material in only a few hours.I would definitely recommend watching this documentary if you want to learn a little bit more about Ol' Blue Eyes and the fantastic work that he accomplished in his lifetime!

I didn't like Sinatra as a kid of the sixties, he was my parents' star. I never appreciated his style of acting, it seemed too damn smug. I never understood the folks my age who would listen to Sinatra for hours. I always thought The Chairman was vaguely scary. All that said, this is just about the best damn documentary I have ever seen. Framed by songs from Frank's first "retirement" in 1971, it combines voice-overs by friends and family with fantastic film clips and pictures from the 60'a and 70's and beyond. For somebody who lived through this era, even if you never liked the guy this is a great walk down memory lane. And love, like or hate him, Frank led one driven, distinctive and fascinating life from beginning to end. Very highly recommended.

Expansive, lengthy, epic documentary of Frank Sinatra is an obvious loving if at times honest (in a way that doesn't dismiss or demean him) portrait of an iconic music and cultural celebrity. His affair with Ava Gardner while married with children, his relationship with the mob, his Rat Pack era, coming up against ups and downs in the music industry, fight to get cast in To Here from Eternity and the subsequent success because of it (I wish "Some Came Calling" had gotten some love, though), his relationship with JFK, his being accused of supporting communism, his antagonistic relationship with the scathing press, his romance with the much younger Mia Farrow, dealing with the changing times of the mid-to-late 60s and early 70s, declining music sales towards the beginning and certainly the end of his music career, the retirement and return from retirement, and his vocal support of civil rights (although his and Dean Martin's treatment of Sammy Davis, Jr. as a buffoon and/or object of comedy with racist jokes is critically held accountable by Harry Belafonte) are all covered. Various figures in his life (and admirers) add narrative voice to the images of Sinatra's life and career. If you are a fan or just interested in the life of Sinatra, then this documentary, All or Nothing at All, could very well be exactly what the doctor ordered. Performances and use of his songs/music are a constant so if you are not one of those who enjoys his vocal arrangements and crooning, then this is definitely something you might want to avoid. But if you are curious about the life and career of Ole Blue Eyes, this documentary will teach you aplenty.