SummaryFrom an early age, Eric Clapton was captivated by the blues. As he says of his lifelong fascination: “It was always one man with his guitar versus the world. He was completely alone and had no options other than to just sing and play to ease his pain.” In this unflinching and deeply personal documentary, director Lili Fini Zanuck (Oscar winner, D... Read More
Directed By:Lili Fini Zanuck
Written By:Stephen 'Scooter' Weintraub, Larry Yelen
Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars
Metascore
Generally Favorable
62
User score
Generally Favorable
6.6
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
33% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
67% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Nov 22, 2017
90
Unlike most rock docs, “Life in 12 Bars” isn’t a look back from a distance. It’s like living through one man’s pain.
Feb 9, 2018
75
The film does a good job conveying the excitement generated by that band as a live act, especially in San Francisco and Los Angeles. But though it produced some remarkable music, Cream’s success was short-lived.
Nov 29, 2017
60
As a musical biography, this comes up short; it plays substantially better as a story of recovery and recovered integrity.
Nov 21, 2017
60
As absorbing as much of this material is, the lengthy feature does not feel definitive: It commits the typical music-doc sin of devoting nearly all its time to a celebrated first professional decade, then hastily skimming past all events since.
Nov 21, 2017
50
The film's title promises a story told with the tidy structure of the blues. (Either that, or it's a bad joke about Clapton's long struggle with alcoholism.) But Life proves weirdly assembled, with counterintuitive emphases.
Jan 19, 2018
40
Clapton has led a fascinating life, and is a contradictory and inspiring figure. Save for a few moments, this film just doesn’t serve him well enough.
User score
Generally Favorable
50% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
50% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Nov 24, 2021
7
I very much enjoyed the music side of this documentary - the catchy guitar riffs/solos and so on. It provides a good insight into his musical career, although there were perhaps aspects of his earlier life that we didn't get to learn too much about. Its always nice to hear contributions from other, famous musicians or celebrities in general about such a revered person, although it does bother me a bit when such 'sound bites' are played over the end of a live performance shown of a musical number (keep the 2 separate please!). I thought the library/archive footage was interesting and its certainly an insightful watch - one I'd recommend for fans of blues/jazz from the 1950s onwards and of course, suffice to say, the musician himself.
Production Company:
- Passion Pictures
- The Zanuck Company
Release Date:Nov 24, 2017
Duration:2 h 15 m
Rating:TV-MA
Tagline:Genius Amplified
Awards
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Camden International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Cinema Audio Society, USA
• 1 Nomination
