Remembering Michael Jackson through movies

Best starring role

Taking the music video from afterthought to true art form, Michael Jackson worked with many of Hollywood’s top directors such as Spike Lee (“They Don’t Care About Us”), John Singleton (“Remember The Time”), David Fincher (“Who Is It), Martin Scorsese (“Bad”) and most famously, John Landis (“Thriller” and “Black or White”). He matched this with onscreen talent like Macaulay Culkin, Eddie Murphy and Marlon Brando, while “Liberian Girl” (from the “Bad” album) was a veritable who’s who of Tinseltown starring everyone from Steven Spielberg to John Travolta.

Yet MJ wasn’t quite as ambitious as other pop star friends like Madonna and Cher when it came to films. Preferring to make music videos his own mini-films, his big screen outings were limited and often involved playing a version of himself as in 1988’s Moonwalker. And so for his finest starring role, we’ve opted for his bouncy turn as the Scarecrow in 1978’s The Wiz, an urbanised retelling of The Wizard of Oz. The film was far from a classic and was a bit of a flop, yet there’s no denying the energetic charms of MJ especially on “Ease on Down the Road”, a duet with Diana Ross’s Dorothy.

Best movie music

Michael’s music has always found a happy home nestled on a movie soundtrack (we love “Someone in the Dark” from E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial), his classic anthems never going out of date and seemingly suiting every genre. There are some obvious stand-outs however, the “walk-off” between Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) in fashion comedy Zoolander to the sound of “Beat It” being one, though we’ve gone for the moment in Jennifer Garner rom-com 13 Going on 30, when MJ’s “Thriller” prompts a dance party at a boring work do. A cutesy classic.

Best movie moment

There was the odd small surprise on the MJ movie CV, such as his blink-and-you-miss-it cameo as Agent M in 2002’s Men in Black II, yet often Michael was referenced without even starring. Famous for so long and with so many distinctive, signature qualities, it’s no wonder that films enjoyed sprinkling some MJ magic dust, from respectful tributes to silly spoofs, and our favourite Michael moment comes courtesy of Rush Hour 2. In the action comedy sequel, Detective James Carter (played by MJ’s real-life chum and star of his “You Rock My World” music video, Chris Tucker) entertains a hostile bar of Triad gangsters with his karaoke version of “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and he’s even got the moves!