Dio: Dreamers Never Die
This career spanning documentary on heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio delves deep into his incredible rise from 50's doo-wop crooner, to his early classic rock days in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, to replacing the iconic lead singer Ozzy Osborne in Black Sabbath, to finally cement his legend with DIO. Ronnie's biography is completely unique to the tired sex, drugs and rock and roll cliches. The film is about perseverance, dreams and the power to believe in yourself.
- Released: 2022-09-28
- Runtime: 116 minutes
- Genre: Documentaries, Music
- Stars: Ronnie James Dio, Wendy Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Vinny Appice, Lita Ford, Rob Halford, Sebastian Bach, Eddie Trunk, Don Coscarelli
- Director: Don Argott, Demian Fenton
Comments
- muratsongur - 12 December 2022
A must see for metal fans... but with a little discretion.
I am a big metal and Dio fan. I need to state this before I put myself into the shooting zone. And if you are like me too, you should watch and enjoy every minute of this documentary. But... yes, there are some "but"s.
Though we are presented with adequate amount of Ronnie's childhood and early years, his first marriage and adopted son are not even mentioned.
And when the story reaches to his music career, most of the people who made Dio an idol are completely neglected. Only Dave Feinstein; who also happens to be his cousin is interviewed from his Elf years. And simply no one from Rainbow era. It was expected that Ritchie Blackmore would not take place in such a work. But, though some of them are long gone, I was expecting to see some footage with people like Gary Driscoll, Jimmy Bain and a long list of musicians who are never even mentioned in the film. Vivian Campbell was presented as the troublemaker of the Dio band where people who were hired and fired after him like Claude Schnell, Simon Wright, Rudi Sarzo are again even not mentioned. Black Sabbath crew were fully present though.
The documentary also simply puts the sole blame of the decline of Dio's career after Dream Evil to MTV simply giving the viewer the motive that MTV decided to play Nirvana instead of metal. Though being an issue, I would like to object by asking the question whether Dio has published some material that has the quality of Holy Diver or Last in Line and we were unable to hear it because it was not broadcasted.
Dio's first reunion with Black Sabbath in Dehumanizer album is completely omitted as well.
Digging deep, one can find more issues, but, well, as it is a movie documentary, I understand that some things should be kept out to fit in the time limits.
And after viewing it for the second time I questioned whether that was a documentary about Ronnie James Dio or Wendy Dio? Looking from a certain angle one can also say that it was a film about what Wendy's years with Ronnie.
However, don't let my criticism stop you from watching it. It was great... Like Dio... Like almost everything about him.
