User Reviews

I'd say overall the movie is OK. It is interesting seeing Bob Moog just walking around and speaking (kind of one of those mythologically huge names that you don't suspect ever actually lived).

With that said, I feel this movie could have been greatly improved. They only briefly touched on things such as Switched On Bach, and spent little time on anything outside of live performance. Furthermore, the guest appearances are all pretty small. Not so much as appearances as they are brief sightings (with the exception of Berrnie Worrel and Rick Wakeman who actually are "interviewed").

Basically this movie is Bob Moog waxing philosophical for an hour over a weak new age soundtrack. I wish there would have been more about the synths and less about Moog himself. I would also liked to have seen exclusives such as people playing rare synths etc. Also, there was no narrator, which I feel was greatly needed. With a narrator they would have been able to take some pressure off of Bob's dialog.

Final verdict: If you want raunchy godlike riffs and exclusive footage, don't watch. If you want to know a little more about the man behind the raunchy godlike riffs, watch it. I just wish better filmmakers had been given this project.

I enjoyed watching this homage to the synthesizer inventor and all round nice guy Bob Moog but spent hours afterward discussing ways this documentary could have been better. That's not to say there's all that much wrong with it except that it suffers from a genuine lack of archive footage. Bob was building his Synths from the early 60s, before that he was making Theremins. There's no footage of any of this. 'Why not use stills and rostrum?' was my immediate thought.

It was great to hear Moog Synths being played well. Rick Wakemen (who provides the film's one big laugh) made them sound good. In fact, just to hear people messing about on them was interesting. I wanted more of this and perhaps some insights into how they were used in the studio (the film concentrates mainly on live performance).

Perhaps just a bit too much time was spent allowing Bob to share his rather vague (and, sorry to say this, slightly boring) view of the universe. Not that the Doc as a whole is boring, it is not. It is very watchable and only 70 minutes long. Though I wanted something more from it, it did do what it set out to do without sagging.

Documentary about Robert Moog, his synthesizer and its effect on music, as well as the general concept of electronic music.

I liked it.

It wasn't overlong, it was an interesting topic and Moog himself came across as a really nice guy (sort of like Brian Wilson without the breakdown).

It also featured interviews, concert footage and music by various artists such as Stereolab, Keith Emerson, Money Mark, Rick Wakeman, Sun Ra, Tortoise etc.

If you're at all interested in electronic music, check it out.

Although I'm not a massive fan of electronic music but I have sufficient interest in the genre to check out this documentary on the inventor of the electronic synthesizer, Robert Moog. Watching this film was probably not the best way to try and find out more about the man, the instrument and its impact. As many others on this internet site have already pointed out, director Hans Fjellestad does a really average job of doing anything in this film.

The one thing he does appear to be good at selling himself to potential subjects because the film does have a reasonably good array of people on hand to discuss what they do with it and particularly Fjellestad has Moog pretty much on tap throughout the film. It looks like the plan has been to point the camera at whoever is talking, film it and work out the detail in the edit. Sometimes that works and of course with reality shows and the like that is pretty much all you can do but in the vast majority of cases it is a recipe for disaster. So it is here in a film that lacks structure to the point that if Moog wants to ramble endlessly while pottering round his garden then that makes the cut but hardly anytime can be found for many artists that one would associate with the synthesizer. OK, maybe rights to the music or access to the artists was an issue due to the low budget but this is not much of an excuse.

Astonishingly the film is barely over an hour long and it is testament to how poor it is that it feels like it never ends. God help us if we ever see an extended cut of this because imagine the footage that they didn't feel worthy of making it into this version! Anyway, I stuck with it but ultimately there is almost nothing of value here; my mind was open to learning more about the impact this instrument had had but it falls down in this regard with a lack of structure and aim that must be laid right at the doors of the director and producers. A totally missed opportunity.

I feel a little bad giving this a 6, only because the film quality was very good for 16mm and I did like the cinematography, but I guess I was expecting a more traditional approach to the Moog story; not only the views and lifestyle of Bob Moog. I then realized that this was entirely the idea behind this documentary, and the director did not want to compile a history of the Moog synth, but had he added in some extra footage and talked about the many different synthesizers that Moog produced through the years, this would have been a much fuller documentary. All in all though, it was nice to have a real up close interview with the creator.

I didn't care for the experimental music, even though experimental music was largely influenced by the Moog. I find that type of music to be scattered and annoying. I also refuse to listen to the classical approach to the Moog. What Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson do on the moog are what impresses me. All the other stuff just didn't seem in place. Still, this DVD is a nice addition to the collection and as a Moog lover, an enjoyable reference overall.

Others have said it in other comments and I have to agree with them. Moog was an extremely important man in the world of electronic music and he really deserved a better tribute than this rambling mess of clips. The film maker never gets to grips with the guy in any way, shape or form but what I find more frustrating than anything is his choice of music to represent the moments in history. Perhaps he was on such a low budget that he couldn't afford certain rights but when Bob Moog talks about 'Switched on Bach' as being a ground breaking album, changing the public perception of what electronic music could offer, there isn't one single note from the album played. There's not even the mention of the composer's name. How can you have a documentary about Moog and not even mention the name Walter Carlos ? Quite unbelievable. The 'Switched on Bach' moment is quickly passed over for some reason and rushes into a short Keith Emerson clip. I also seem to remember that Tangerine Dream are never mentioned or any of their music played. All in all there are so many holes in the production it limits both its appeal and historic interest. Shame really because it queers the pitch for someone else who may want to do the job properly.

The film was reasonably well filmed and reasonably edited and it's great that there is now a film out there about a synth pioneer.

However my first thoughts on watching this film are: It repeats itself far too many times. It only needed to mention that Moog synths were first used for experimental music and adverts once. It only needed to show Bob Moog with his garden once! And there only needed to be one section on his philosophies on life and synthesisers.

There were massive sections of the Moog story missing. What about the first fall of Moog Music in the early 80s and the Moog Liberation (the first guitar synth - only problem was it was too heavy to hold!) He only touched on his feelings about digital synthesisers. What about the 80s and the DX7 and Moog synths falling massively out of favour. What about the comeback in the 90s - initially selling his analogue circuit designs to other companies, who produced synths like the MIDI Moog and the SE ATC1. What about his FX pedals?

Finally the soundtrack left much to be desired. All the live performances were badly recorded, the synths were far too loud compared to the backing. I know the synth was the instrument being demonstrated, but I found it uncomfortable to listen to. The content of the music was nearly all progressive rock musicians and various lesser known modern electro acts (bar stereo-lab and DJ spooky). He only mentioned Walter/Wendy Carlos in passing, he/she was the most important thing to happen to him and there was no interview or audio clip!! What about electropop, which was founded on the early affordable synths like the Moog Prodigy? These are just the first 2 genres that spring to mind that were missing - I could go on! So all in all - it's great that there is now a film about this fascinating guy. But...Hans Fjellestad should have got all the raw materials together before doing it. Get interviews with ALL the relevant people and use a soundtrack that is more diverse.

The film is very true to the nature of Moog. If you were the kind of person to be tweaking analog synth, the part of you the draws connections between objects is usually more than a little different.

My old music school kept the 2nd synth he ever made. I'd heard a dozen 3rd hand stories from the keyboard and composition faculty. The Moog in this film fits perfectly with those stories, like a Shaker box. One jazz master and the chef composer would tell about him as a way to bring certain kinds of students 'in'. Seemingly disconnected or random is part of the deal, the other reviewers see it as a flaw, but it's a central theme.

This is not a documentary about the history of the Moog synth. It's a song about Moog. An excellent song.

A documentary about Robert Moog, one of the most important figures in electronic music? Yes, please, sign me up. Alas, this premise goes awry from the outset. This mishmash of a documentary feels like a collection of outtakes from a better work. I don't need to see Robert Moog talking about pepper plants and Money Mark diddling around on a synthesizer.

MOOG demonstrates that sometimes it's best to not rely on the subject of the documentary as the subject matter expert of the film. Robert Moog is not the most well-spoken advocate and historian of his life's work. Likewise, showing the electronic guts of his machines doesn't do much to explain how they work or why Moog's work is important to the music world.

When utilizing archive footage, MOOG works. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between leaving MOOG a mumbling, muttering mess for its interminable seventy-two minutes. Moog and electronica deserve better.

This film calls itself a documentary but it documents nothing. Look I play keys and have a Moog. I love the old modular recordings with W. Carlos and D. Hyman and of course all the stuff that was done with the Minimoog. I wanted to learn more about how Moog came about, the competition, how the company went out of business, what he did from the late 70's when he left Moog to when he started Big Briar and the new Moog Music in the late 90's, etc. It also would've been cool to have interviews with some iconic Moog players, like Bernie Worrell, Chick Corea, Dick Hyman, Wendy Carlos, Wakeman, Emerson and the like.

Instead it looks like we get a director who just ran his camera for a hour or so at Moog's factory, Moog's victory garden, and backstage at a Moogfest concert picking up banter between Moog, WOO, and Wakeman, a reminiscing with Emerson and a few whacked out bay area groups making weird noises with there Moogs.

Even though it runs about an hour, I had to break it up into two viewing sessions because it was so boring. What sucks is that Moog is an interesting guy, the history of his company is a great story and the iconic Moog artists all mostly colorful characters. This director had a goldmine on his hands and could've made a fantastic, compelling, awesome, movie where you are entertained and actually learned something. Instead, he squandered his opportunity and made a real snoozer of a film.

Someone from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences needs to confiscate this director's camera. They must have a hyperactive hall monitor over there who'd be willing to do it for mankind. I mean this doesn't need to be The King of Kong or a long drawn out Ken Burns doc, just somewhere in between.

If you love synths and Moogs, this is of some interest as it shows Moog as a down to earth nice guy and it is worth a viewing. If you aren't to interested in the subject though don't even bother, it is a boring stinker.

This is an unfortunately terrible documentary. It's boring and tedious, and does very little to tell me much about the instrument or its inventor. It seems like the director didn't really even bother to edit the film at all, presenting a collection of rambling, nonsensical "conversations" between Moog & various musicians, or semi-relevant ramblings with Moog by himself. It really is unfortunate, because he seems like an incredibly intriguing & intelligent person, but is presented in such an uninteresting way that seems to indicate that the director not only doesn't really care about him, but doesn't really care much about music in general. There are scenes where Moog is talking about the sounds the instrument can make, and the musician's options in terms of how they can manipulate the sounds, but the director doesn't bother to insert any "examples" during that scene, making it actually aggravating to watch. I found most of the various performances not really all that interesting to watch, either, as some of them barely showed the artist using the Moog (Stereolab) or focused more on other musicians in the performance (Money Mark's d.j.) I also really didn't learn much about Moog's life, or the real history & development of the instrument. It may have only been 70 minutes long, but i was barely able to sit through the whole thing. It really doesn't do the man justice in the least. If you want to see a great documentary about an inventor of an incredibly influential electronic instrument, watch THEREMIN. Not only is THEREMIN incredibly informative, but also rather touching. Truly a beautiful documentary.

I must say that this documentary is a rather poor tribute both to Robert Moog and the Moog synthesizer for a myriad of reasons. Perhaps you might watch this (as it is being aired this month, December, 2007 on The Movie Channel (HD) for the same reason that I did (and that is to see what this documentary had to say about the man and his instrument, philosophy and some of the history behind the Moog synthesizer's and company's development), however the total impact of this piece greatly suffers both from what was included in the film and what was left out.

Granted, it is obvious that this film was not intended to be a complete historical review of the Moog's development. The same applies to the music, musicians, interviews and other footage including Robert Moog's own comments about himself, his instrument, and those who used the instrument commercially or in performance. The soundtrack is also quite disappointing, especially in terms of what was chosen as representative examples of Moog performances over the years. I suppose you would have to be well-versed in the history of the synthesizer (as I am) to fully understand this.

I agree with other reviewers in that Walter/Wendy Carlos was only briefly mentioned during this documentary, especially when it applies to the Moog modular system (as recorded on Switched-On Bach, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, Switched-On Brandenburgs, Tron and others) which were perhaps the first and most influential recordings of the Moog synthesizer of all time. Also missing were such artists as: Isao Tomita, Dick Hyman, Herbie Hancock, Tony Banks (Genesis), and many more who recorded and performed with the Moog synthesizer during its early years. Instead, the focus of the piece centered around Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Bernie Worrell and some of the early partners and friends who worked with Moog towards its development (Herbert Deutsch and other contemporaries and personal friends of the late Dr. Moog). The interview with Wakeman and Worrell was taped in a noisy hallway and could have been more effective (at the very least) by being taped in a quieter setting.

The commercial use of the Moog synthesizer centered around a rather dated beer commercial. I was expecting perhaps an interview with Suzanne A. Ciani who was infinitely more prominent in this area. In other cases, the interview location (city) was titled, but not the name of the person speaking with Bob Moog and that was also disappointing.

I also agree that certain comments were repeated, especially Bob's comment on having a feel of what was going on within the Moog's circuitry when he played it. Since he also discussed the Theremin (which seemed to be a major portion of this documentary) it would have nice to included some commentary about Miklos Rozsa and the role the Theremin played as the only recognized synthesizer as an "orchestral instrument." I am referring to many film score recordings which featured the Theremin, such as Hitchcock's Spellbound and many others in the suspense and Sci-Fi genres. There was little discussion about the other Moog synthesizer models outside of the modular system and the MiniMoog (such as the PolyMoog, MemoryMoog, and others).

The in-between footage, music and performances were rather disappointing and disjointed. I think the director could have planned a better tribute to a wonderful person, inventor, instrument, social and historically-significant musical technology. I think to really do justice to both the man and his machine, you would have to present, at the very least, about a 2 to 3-hour-long documentary.

On the plus side, it was interesting to see the Moog in production and some of the performance and interview footage, but not all. Actually, much of the footage is somewhat comical in nature when you look back at how it was presented, back in the early days of synthesis.

I REALLY like the approach the filmmakers took to present the work of legendary electronic music pioneer Dr. Moog. The film features scenes of Dr. Moog interacting with various musical artists who view Moog as an influential figure in the history of electronic music.

The film is not a comprehensive history of electronic music nor does it serve as a chronological history of the development of the Moog synthesizer. There is no narration, rather the scenes feature candid conversation and interviews that serve more as a tribute to Moog than a documentary.

Critics called the film structureless. Maybe. I think that's a feature, not a bug.

This must rank among the worst documentaries ever made, and that's truly a shame. The subject could have been endlessly interesting, not because of the man himself, but because of the musical revolution he instigated. Sadly this doc largely leaves it up to Moog to tell the story, producing a diffuse, woefully inadequate film. The man is pleasant enough, and tells one or two amusing anecdotes, but he's terrible at explaining his inventions, and worse at contextualizing them. Interviews with the likes of Bernie Worrell and Money Mark are equally uninformative and uninteresting. Only Rick Wakeman was worth talking to. There's a lesson in here for doc makers-- you actually have to WRITE your film. You can't just slop together a bunch of interview footage, as is done here. (Oral history doesn't work unless the event revisited is familiar to all in most of its details.) This footage should have been placed into the hands of a good general-interest magazine writer and a decent film editor-- from this raw material they might have made a decent film. All in all, a really frustrating watch.

I was captivated by Moog synthesizers at age 12, when "Switched On Bach" was released. I've read many things by and about Bob Moog over the years, and was looking forward to seeing this documentary. But sadly, it's a missed opportunity. First of all, the video quality looks like an 8mm home movie from the 1970s, rather than a 2004 production. Secondly, it's very amateurishly done. For instance, when you have Bernie Worrell, Rick Wakeman, and Moog together to talk about synths, do you think you could possibly pull them into a quiet room, instead of holding a 10-minute interview in a busy hallway with so much background noise that the voices are hardly audible? There are interesting bits here, including archive footage of the Moog assembly line and Gershon "Popcorn" Kingsley with his Moog Quartet. But there's a lot of BAD synth music too, and poor visuals. If you're a die-hard Moog fan like myself, you'll put up with it. If you're not, skip it.

This is the kind of movie that makes this exercise of writing up every feature I see kind of redundant, because it's not much of a movie. (at 60 minutes it's not much of a feature either) Bob Moog invented, you know, the Moog synthesizer, which as the movie illustrates has been the source of lots of directions in music, some legendary (Bernie Worrell), lots fun (Stereolab), and lots of atrocities against the ear (Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson). The common thread between these musicians is nonexistent, and the movie doesn't even try - it just plods from point to point, with Bob in tow to look on like a proud papa. I think the reason there's no cross-cutting is that there's no content - some lawyer clearly wouldn't let them talk about Moog's battles with the company that bears his name (don't ask me for more detail), and all that's left is a sequence of short arbitrary rambles - still life with Gershon Kingsley, still life with DJ Spooky (who is a pompous ass), Moog picking bell peppers, et cetera, plus some wan recitations of the word 'spirituality.' The only breakout moment is when Worrell tells Wakeman that he thinks of a keyboard as a woman that he's having sex with and Wakeman responds, 'I tried that but I found that the songs became very short.' To which Worrell replies, 'Play slower!' THERE is a cultural frisson to die for.

If you are interested in the history of electronic music - This 70-minute bio-documentary looks at the pioneering, American inventor, Robert Moog who is credited with the creation of the modular synthesizer back in 1964.

Through stills and interviews (including those with Moog, himself) - This intriguing presentation gives you a good overview of the man whose marvelous invention has played a significant role in altering the direction of modern-day music, forever.

*Note* - In 2005 - Robert Moog (71 at the time) died of a brain tumor.