As the drummer of The Police, Stewart Copeland was an integral part of their success. And fortunately he was able to cash in on that success at the time by purchasing a Super 8 video camera. The result is Everybody Stares: The Police Inside Out, an impressive, insightful and antic-tinged look at how a band goes from nowhere to somewhere big, while getting lost in the journey.
Copeland mixes stage footage with the monster that is the road for most bands, including the band’s meet-and-greet session in San Diego where a handful of people are present. Over the course of the documentary, the stardom of the band begins to slowly erode the relationships between Copeland, Sting and Andy Summers, although not much of that conflict is revealed.
Trips to Japan, Greece, Argentina, Australia and beyond are shown, each with the almost obligatory mania that was The Police. Perhaps the best item about Everybody Stares is the timing, now two decades after the band’s demise in 1986. There is enough distance for Copeland to deliver an extremely good capsule of his experiences in The Police. The bonus commentary between Copeland and Summers is also worth repeated viewings.
