It isn’t a concert film, though some stunning bits of live music show up at times. It isn’t a chronological biography, though bits of the band’s history are sprinkled throughout.
In The Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 is mostly focused on what the players have to say-and it’s compelling to hear them. Above all, the film aims to get behind the inscrutable leader, Robert Fripp, the cantankerous, disciplinarian who has struck fear into many hearts of bandmates over that half century.
There’s a reason Fripp is the only original man from the 1960s still standing: he’s a perfectionist, and since perfection doesn’t exist, he’s never happy and neither are the players.
Except for this: everyone in the band, past and present, feels that playing this music live, as a group, is a joyously transcendent event when it happens. You’ve never seen such unhappily fulfilled people in your life.
And they’re super smart and funny and semi-scared of the boss, but they are confident in their talents and abilities. Fripp likes to philosophize way up high in the clouds for an electric guitar player, but his eccentricities, and he has many, are part of the fun of watching this film.
By the way, I only knew one song of theirs before seeing the film- you don’t have to be a knowledgeable fan, just a music doc lover. But you might just become a fan, anyway.
In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 opens in theaters today and will come to On-Demand platforms on December 1st.