Director Alex Gibney has made a big documentary of this worldwide singing star from his humble beginnings in Hoboken.
The documentary is recounted by archive narration from family and friends, interviews from Frank Sinatra as well as extensive use of his songs. The film is mainly archive footage, press cuttings and a few reconstructed scenes.
Gibney has opted not to have any talking heads and specially shot interviews.
The documentary displays a complex personality, generous, kind who did lot of work with underprivileged children and he fought against racism. One of the first major performers to publicly treat another black performer (Sammy Davis Jr) as an equal.
Yet at times Sinatra could be mean, nasty tempered. This is shown by his treatment of his wives, the casually ruthless way he divorced Mia Farrow. The documentary deals with his links with organised crime and his burgeoning relationship with John F Kennedy.
However as he got older and the counterculture started in the late 1960s, Sinatra changed party allegiances, supporting Ronald Reagan for Governor of California and Nixon for President. Maybe Sinatra had the need to be accepted and liked, he was eventually rejected by the Kennedys over his links with the mafia.
Still what Sinatra had as a singer which he mastered in the 1950s was his phrasing and his sorrow filled songs with Capitol Records.
The documentary is recounted by archive narration from family and friends, interviews from Frank Sinatra as well as extensive use of his songs. The film is mainly archive footage, press cuttings and a few reconstructed scenes.
Gibney has opted not to have any talking heads and specially shot interviews.
The documentary displays a complex personality, generous, kind who did lot of work with underprivileged children and he fought against racism. One of the first major performers to publicly treat another black performer (Sammy Davis Jr) as an equal.
Yet at times Sinatra could be mean, nasty tempered. This is shown by his treatment of his wives, the casually ruthless way he divorced Mia Farrow. The documentary deals with his links with organised crime and his burgeoning relationship with John F Kennedy.
However as he got older and the counterculture started in the late 1960s, Sinatra changed party allegiances, supporting Ronald Reagan for Governor of California and Nixon for President. Maybe Sinatra had the need to be accepted and liked, he was eventually rejected by the Kennedys over his links with the mafia.
Still what Sinatra had as a singer which he mastered in the 1950s was his phrasing and his sorrow filled songs with Capitol Records.