Behind The American Dream

Videos: one of my all-time favourite items in my M collection. And it’s such a thrill, everytime an mpeg or vob file comes out, with some vintage TV report or interview that I used to watch, over and over again, on my VCR.

Yesterday, and after so many years, I went through the classic Madonna - Behind The American Dream, a BBC documentary produced in November, 1990.


For the first time, Madonna herself agreed to participate and recorded an interview. Shot in black and white at her request, she looked stunningly beautiful, wearing a Sixties hairstyle and full lips (yes, it was during the collagen experience).

Rather than easy sensationalism, BBC chose to make an essay on Madonna - the cultural phenomenon, the artist and the person - with seriousness and accuracy. She was analyzed by thinkers, like a critic from Art Forum magazine or an academic from Harvard, and close people such as her brother and Christopher Flynn.

Madonna herself exposed her inner world in a way she never did before - as if she was anticipating Truth or Dare.

I remember watching it back then and thinking that, finally, M was being taken seriously by a media channel - other than MTV.

Behind The American Dream is a must-see for any 20 year-old who's interested in understanding Madonna’s unique impact on pop culture and, more than that, on Western society. And Justify My Love or Sex weren’t released yet…

Watching it is realizing, once more, that she was a true revolutionary, paving the way for a whole new way of expression in the mainstream. Her role was to question the establishment, to promote - and provoke - critical thinking.

Still today, this is probably the best documentary ever made by a TV channel.

You can download the whole documentary (in HQ) via AbsolumentMadonna.