The Rainbow is a documentary about the famous Rainbow Bar & Grill which has been part meeting spot, part church, and part home away from home for many rock stars for nearly 5 decades. For a restaurant it has achieved world wide fame amongst rock lovers who dreamed about going there and mingling with and maybe meeting famous rockers like Ozzy in the 80s, Guns N' Roses in the late 80s and early 90s, Lemmy Until his passing in 2015 and many many more. Just imagine going there in the 70s and seeing people like John Lennon, Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, Ringo Star, The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin.
As a family business The Rainbow has been run by three generations of the Maglieri Family and there are some touching stories about Mario Maglieri taking on a father figure for some of the rock stars and caring for them when they were unknowns or when all the debauchery got too much for them. And this is the same man who ended up kicking out a belligerent Charles Manson out of one of his clubs when he wouldn't leave. Or listening to his grandson who is now running the business and has been involved in the music scene since he could walk and who experienced the rise of grunge and new rock bands in the early 2000s.
Unfortunately the movie is just over an hour long and it reminds me of a vh1 behind the music episode rather than a feature length indepth documentary about what is considered a holy site for rock n rollers. For a place steeped in 50 years of rock history and atmosphere there should have been more material available in the documentary and more people interviewed. As it is, it deserves a 6.5-7 but it could have been so much more.
As a family business The Rainbow has been run by three generations of the Maglieri Family and there are some touching stories about Mario Maglieri taking on a father figure for some of the rock stars and caring for them when they were unknowns or when all the debauchery got too much for them. And this is the same man who ended up kicking out a belligerent Charles Manson out of one of his clubs when he wouldn't leave. Or listening to his grandson who is now running the business and has been involved in the music scene since he could walk and who experienced the rise of grunge and new rock bands in the early 2000s.
Unfortunately the movie is just over an hour long and it reminds me of a vh1 behind the music episode rather than a feature length indepth documentary about what is considered a holy site for rock n rollers. For a place steeped in 50 years of rock history and atmosphere there should have been more material available in the documentary and more people interviewed. As it is, it deserves a 6.5-7 but it could have been so much more.