Movie Review: Scorpions, Forever And A Day

By Jeffery X Martin

Somewhere around the halfway point of this rockumentary, I came to an odd realization. Here I am, a man who lived through the Eighties, watched the rise and fall of Hair Metal, and yet I have taken the band, Scorpions, completely for granted. After all, has there ever been a world where “Rock You Like a Hurricane” hasn’t existed?

Of course, there has, and that’s a strange thing to comprehend. It’s even harder to wrap my head around the fact that the Scorpions have been rocking for over 50 years. They are the unlikely survivors. The Scorpions reached incredible heights of popularity in every country but their own. A German metal band that sang all their songs in English. These guys created a niche and then filled it themselves.

Forever and a Day follows the band on their Farewell Tour as they play 70 concerts in 24 countries over the span of 18 months. The band is enjoying its most stable lineup in years, including American drummer James Kottak.

That guy. He’s easily the most flamboyant member of the band, wearing almost enough eye makeup and pounding on the kick drum while standing. He’s almost interesting enough to steal the movie away from founding band members Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker. But Kottak serves to bring out what seems to be the main point of the movie: these are really nice, kind of boring, guys.

If you’re looking for lascivious rock and roll confessions, go read a Mötley Crüe book. Besides the completely not shocking revelation that the boys in the band used to sign women’s bare breasts, the juiciest story we got from these guys was about the summer of 1984, when they invited their parents to join them on tour for a week. Scandalous!

To say Forever and a Day is respectful to the Scorpions is a massive understatement. It reveres the band, and you can’t say anything bad about someone you revere. The well-publicized creative differences between guitarist Schenker and his brother Michael are glossed over, and there is only one interview with a former band member. Paul Stanley of KISS shows up a couple of times to talk about the band, but who gives a shit what Paul Stanley has to say?

This is a documentary in the strictest sense of the word. It documents the tour. That’s pretty much it. A shorter version of Forever and a Day would have been a perfect special feature on a concert DVD. As it stands, it’s a nice bit of fluff that only excels when the band is playing.

It’s during the live music segments that the film really hits home, as the band cranks out “Big City Nights” and “The Zoo” with as much zeal as bands half their age. These guys live for the music. They’re driven by it. With the exception of crazy James Kottak, the Scorpions are totally different on stage and off. They’ve got this “entertaining people” thing down to a science. It made me sad that I had given the Scorpions short shrift, tuning out after the perestroika whistle-fest that was “Winds of Change.”

If you want to learn about the Scorpions, find a live DVD. Listen to their back catalog. Then watch Forever and a Day with a renewed appreciation for the music. Just don’t expect to learn a lot more about the musicians.

Forever And A Day was released on VOD and iTunes on September 15 and will be out on DVD and Blu-ray December 1. The film is in German with English subtitles.