Michael: ‘Where God meant me to be’

AUTHOR MARK BEGO WEIGHS THE MOVIE’S MERITS

Among his dozens of biographies of music stars, Mark Bego has authored books with Martha Reeves, Mary Wilson and Freda Payne. Among his most popular are Michael! and On The Road With Michael. In other words, few are as qualified as he to consider the current movie smash, Michael, in this guest edition of West Grand Blog.

In 1984, I wrote two best-selling books on Michael Jackson, with nine million copies sold, and I was right in the middle of the whole exciting Jackson universe that entire year. I knew it was a one-in-a-lifetime streak of fame for the man whom the press called “Jacko.” That year everything was “Michael Jackson,” from his music, his videos, his sequined glove, and everything in between. However, since that time, I didn’t think it was something that could be repeated.

***Driven, humourous, loving, talented***

My book Michael! was released in the week that the singer caught his hair on fire filming the Pepsi-Cola commercial. The following week, my biography of him was on the New York Times best-seller list. The publisher, Pinnacle Books, decided that the only way I could follow it up was to go an all-expenses paid, three-month tour of the United States, attend 30 Jacksons “Victory Tour” concerts to write On The Road With Michael. For me, it turned into another million-selling book, and the rock & roll summer of my lifetime!

Meeting and writing my two books on Jackson literally “made” my career. Throughout the ensuing years, I continued writing dozens of books, and I avidly followed his career. Between that amazing year of 1984, and his tragic passing in 2009, the tale went from “Victory” right downhill to “lawsuits and controversy.” How on Earth could producers make a successful movie about this incredibly talented man, and yet skip all of the sensationalistic events of his last two decades? With the 2026 film Michael, a sea of producers, a great screenplay writer (John Logan), and a talented director (Antoine Fuqua) have turned Jackson’s life into the most incredible and highly entertaining film of the year.

“I love to create magic – to put something together that’s so unusual, so unexpected, that it blows people’s heads off. Something ahead of the times. Five steps ahead of what people are thinking. So people see it and say, ‘Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that!’” – Michael Jackson, quoted in Michael!

What this film has accomplished is to brilliantly follow the facts about Michael’s life to show his amazing and unique talent, while sufficiently demonstrating how he was abused by his forceful father/manager Joseph Jackson, and how he lived a child-like existence as a way to preserve his soul.

The film resists going down the road to show so many possible simultaneous side stories, and to keep the camera focused on Michael and his budding talent as a performer. That being said, his every eccentricity is touched upon, and used as entertaining touchstones to the plot, and not presented as creepy quirks. This was obviously done to make certain that the audiences leave the theatre humming hits like “Thriller” and “Beat It,” by making this brilliant movie end at a huge career high point: a triumphant solo Michael wowing cheering crowds in London in 1988.

Yes, we do see Bubbles the chimpanzee, Michael’s love of plastic surgery, and his obsession with turning himself into a living and breathing Peter Pan character. The film wisely focuses on the fun-loving child living inside the body of the world’s most famous man/boy. In one scene, Joseph Jackson is seen complaining about the idea that he owes Michael everything for the family’s success. As the words come out of his mouth, we see a live giraffe from Michael’s personal menagerie walk by the window. It is comic moments like this that buoy up the film, which could have easily become a psychological drama instead.

Not only is the pacing of this film perfect, but the viewer gets a fascinating look behind-the-scenes at the making of the “Thriller” video, the unforgettable “Victory” tour, and the life Michael lived at the famed Encino, California family compound/mansion. These events keep the action and the development of the characters at the perfect pace.

Since the industry standard of a “rock & roll” bio-film was recently set by the Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody, Michael takes several cues from it. Both cinematic extravaganzas feature controversial main characters: Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson. However, instead of making them into tragic cartoon characters, they are presented as driven, humorous, loving, and talented singers, and not as tabloid headlines. This Jackson biographical film follows this pattern perfectly.

I could go on and on about the performances in Michael. It was brilliantly cast, and the make-up on everyone is “dead ringer” amazing. Key figures in Michael’s story look exactly like the actual people who are depicted, especially his mother Katherine Jackson (Nia Long), producer Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson), John Branca (Miles Teller) and Berry Gordy, Jr. (Larenz Tate). As a complete surprise nod to Bohemian Rhapsody, we humorously see Mike Myers as record company president Walter Yetnikoff.

“On stage is the only time I open up. I say to myself, ‘This is it. This is home. This is where I’m supposed to be, where God meant me to be. I feel so free, so unlimited on stage. I feel like I can do anything.’” — Michael Jackson, quoted in Michael!

Needless to say, the actor who plays adult Michael Jackson is spot on. He ought to be, he is Michael’s real-life nephew, Jaafar Jackson, who is Jermaine Jackson’s son. He nails the role completely.

I had my doubts about this film when I went to see it, and I left the theatre blown-away by its successful telling of one of the most complicated life stories in musical history. I am again enthused about the music and the life of Michael Jackson. He was the man whose story originally put me on the book best-seller lists, and I will forever be grateful to him.

This highly entertaining new film is a sheer joy.