Under African Skies
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Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: Paul Simon’s Grammy-winning album Graceland – an irresistible and groundbreaking fusion of American and South African pop music — was an immediate hit when it was released in 1986. It also proved to be a lightning rod for controversy, after South African leaders protested that Simon had brokd broken the cultural boycott of the nation’s oppressively racist apartheid regime. In the documentary Under African Skies, premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Simon returns to South Africa, which formally ended apartheid in 1994 — 25 years after Graceland‘s release. Director Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory) follows Simon as he reunites with his South African collaborators, and revisits the controversy the album caused, while luminaries like Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Lorne Michaels, David Bryne and Sir Paul McCartney share their thoughts on what the album meant to them. (Radical Media)… Expand
  • Director: Joe Berlinger
  • Genre(s): Biography, History, Music, Documentary
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Runtime: 108 min
  • More Details and Credits »

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    May 12, 2012
    91
    The result is doubly satisfying: We get not only a trenchant political drama but a bang-up concert film as well.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: John DeFore
    May 8, 2012
    80
    A pure-bliss celebration of Paul Simon's landmark album Graceland coupled with an interesting if not unbiased look at the controversy surrounding its release.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    May 10, 2012
    80
    Director Joe Berlinger mixes archival footage, concert scenes, interviews and present-day reunions to meld a harmonious, fair-minded, energetic and enlightening portrait of one masterpiece's moment in time.
  4. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Eric Hynes
    May 8, 2012
    60
    Time and changing tides have been kind to Graceland (and to the local musicians who've since become internationally renowned), but an on-camera meeting between the songwriter and ANC leader Oliver Tambo finds their conflict between creative freedom and revolutionary solidarity fascinatingly unresolved.

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