On Sunday, Kim and I went to go see the new Michael Jackson biopic called, with no surprises, Michael. The film was released April 24, 2026, so we were now opening-nighters. I had heard from my son Roger that it was a good movie that very much resonated with him since Jackson’s dominance of the music scene in the 1980s coincided with Roger’s youth and it left a big impression on him. I was less convinced that I would feel the same since I had an impression of him that harkened back to his Motown childhood Jackson Five days with hits like ABC and then it jumps to all his weirder Neverland tales and plastic surgeries. But then our friends Gary & Oswaldo said they saw the movie and really liked it despite being more our age…so we decided to go. After all, we did enjoy A Complete Unknown (Bob Dylan), Rocketman (Elton John), The Sound of My Voice (Linda Ronstadt …though this was more a documentary and the biopic is due later this year), Bohemian Rhapsody (the Freddie Mercury story with Queen), Coal Miner’s Daughter (Lauretta Lynn), Walk the Line (Johnny Cash), Ray (Ray Charles), Love & Mercy (Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys), and Elvis (no explanation needed). I’m gonna also toss in Yankee Doodle Dandy (the George M. Cohan story…one of my all-time favorites) and Song Sung Blue (sort of a Neil Diamond story…by extension…which we recently saw and loved). I guess when they do the definitive Rolling Stones and Billy Joel biopics, it will be the end of an era, at least for me.
But the Michael Jackson film really felt different. The film is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, King Arthur, Shooter, The Equalizer, Southpaw and The magnificent Seven…all fantastic movies) and produced by Graham King, distributed by Lionsgate. MJ’s own nephew, Jaafar Jackson, plays the King of Pop in what’s been called an uncanny portrayal in terms of the visual and audio likeness. The story of the film traces Jackson’s journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to his evolution into the visionary artist driven to become the biggest entertainer in the world, highlighting both his life off-stage and some of his most iconic early solo performances. It covers his life from early childhood to his career peak, but seems to intentionally falls short of taking us to his more troubled later moments and his untimely death (though there is certainly some foreshadowing of it). it covers some of his public and private struggles including his family dynamics, going solo, his wounds of youth and his accidents (hair on fire) and medical issues (especially vitiligo and lupus), all of which found its way into his troubled life and even his music. Unlike many of the other musician biopics that seem to have an abundance of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, Michael was genuinely about a gentle soul who also became a pop icon. Take the best and sweetest moments of Elton, Ray, Freddie, Linda, Loretta, Johnny, Brian and even Elvis (sorry Bob…I saw little gentleness blowin’ in the wind around you) and leave out the bad and dysfunctional stuff and that’s what Fuqua chose to show us about Michael…and maybe who Michael really was.
Michael Row the Boat Ashore is a traditional American folk/spiritual song with a long history. It dates to the American Civil War era, first documented in 1867 in a collection called Slave Songs of the United States, making it one of the oldest recorded African American spirituals. It was sung by freed slaves on the Sea Islands of South Carolina. The key lyrics are, “Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah” and the verses reference the River Jordan, sisters, and themes of crossing over, all classic spiritual imagery for freedom, death, and salvation. The song found its way into our cultural conciousness when it was popularized during the 1960s folk revival by The Highwaymen, whose 1961 recording hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, bringing it to mainstream audiences alongside the broader folk boom (Dylan, Pete Seeger, etc.). “Michael” likely refers to the Archangel Michael, and “rowing ashore” is a metaphor for crossing into heaven or the promised land, deeply resonant for enslaved people seeking literal and spiritual freedom. It became a staple of campfire sing-alongs, church groups, and children’s music, which is how most people know it today, somewhat removed from its powerful original context.
Watching this movie has made me think about this all because I was so pleased to see Michael get treated well in the biopic and the gentleness and kindness of his demeanor shining through as he shared himself with the crowds and the less fortunate…especially the children. That makes much more sense to me than the media bashing he took about his Neverland Ranch and the innuendo about pedophilia. Kindness is actually quite common in people, much more so than pessimists might expect. The evidence suggests humans are naturally prosocial. Developmental psychology shows that infants as young as 6–18 months display spontaneous helping behavior, suggesting kindness has deep biological roots rather than being purely learned. We seem wired for it. Studies on bystander behavior reveal that strangers regularly help one another. Cooperation and mutual aid were survival advantages, so prosocial instincts are baked into our nature. it’s true that people are more likely to be kind when they feel psychologically safe, not rushed, and when they identify with the person needing help. Kindness also varies in form…many people are quietly kind in small daily ways (patience, consideration, small courtesies) without dramatic gestures, which makes it easy to undercount. As kindness is very common, often more reflexive than calculated, and probably underestimated because it’s quiet and ordinary rather than spectacular, its nice to see it come through in someone as high-profile as Michael Jackson.
I believe Michael did manage to row his boat ashore. He found freedom from his oppresive father while not abandoning his family and friends. In the end, he seems to have found his salvation in his music and at Neverland and eventually rowed across to the Promised Land. Hallelujah!