“The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” sets aside and honors Gibb brothers alongside their pop music era. As decades go by, this delightful documentary seeks to prove Bee Gees were more than just a hitmaker for disco nightclubs. Instead, Barry, Maurice, and Robin were musical dew divers, shapeshifting songwriters who transformed through every Era of music so that they could match and blend in with what was in style.
Using mostly archival footage mixed with some of the brother’s and their teammate’s vintage and modern-day interviews, director Frank Marshall draws the band’s ups and downs onto their chronology graph alongside 60s, 70s, and 80 popular music. Initially, the Bee Gees, who formed at a very young age, were a carbon copy of Beatles early albums. As their wailing harmonies began to take shape, the brothers’ star began to elevate.
Aside from explaining each member’s personality, the film presents an interesting view on how music is composed and how it sells. Barry remembers that while recording ‘Nights on Broadway’, a producer advised him to let loose. Barry also mentions that after doing so, he was able to reach the falsetto that he would later showcase in songs like ‘Stayin Alive’. Barry also admits that the song was initially titled ‘Lights on Broadway’. An executive from the label suggested they change the lyric so they sounded a bit more mature.
Things take a turn when the documentary reaches the disco period. Interviews with the dance music producer Vince Lawrence, and DJ Nicky Siano explain how disco was created in black and gay cultures, only to later be commercialized and discarded due to racist and homophobic sentiments. The movie suggests that after ‘Saturday Night Fever’, the Bee Gees were even more synonymous with the genre, and got caught in the turmoil. Most importantly, Marshall does not examine how the Bee Gees fit into the contextual legacy of white exploitation of Black music. The film for a few perplexing moments, unexpectedly switches into fawning biography, revealing Marshall’s blatant bias a bridge that tempts you to go to the dance floor.
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