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Czech Republic · 2001
Director Jana Chytilová
Starring Mejla Hlavsa, Vratislav Brabenec, Josef Janíček, Jiří Kabeš
Genre Documentary
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Meet The Plastic People of the Universe, the avant-garde, jazz-rock, Sun Ra meets Velvet Underground, Czech revolutionaries. A tribute to the band that against all odds used the power of their music to help topple their oppressive government.
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For the non-Czech audience, the overview may be patchy. Viewers who know heroes aren't saints deserve more information about the band's internal rifts, the main thing that kept them nonfunctional after 1988. With history this juicy, the music gets upstaged -- it's a limitation of the medium.
The New York Times by Dave Kehr
In short, here is a VH1 "Behind the Music" special that has something a little more special behind it: music that didn't sell many records but helped change a nation.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
For the most part, the Plastics' music -- is not extraordinary. But as it's told here, their story is.
It's filled with great footage of what must have been a wild time behind the Iron Curtain, and the music itself speaks volumes.
The movie could have used more of the band's music and less talk.