Daft Punk Unchained

Of all the things to happen so far this year, the one thing I expected the least was the recent and sudden split of French house duo Daft Punk, whose music I discovered in high school and whose body of work I have been a fan of ever since. As a way to honor their legacy, I decided to watch the 2015 documentary Daft Punk Unchained, which I had heard about and didn’t actually watch until now, through a French import of a DVD/Blu-ray Steelbook set on a region-free player. Though I knew some stuff about the band already, this documentary taught me information about the duo that I didn’t know about before and gave me better insight into their musical ideology and impact.

The documentary covers the history of Daft Punk, starting from their early years as the band Darlin’ (with future Phoenix guitarist Laurent Brancowitz) and going up to the 2014 Grammy Awards, in which their album Random Access Memories won a total of five awards including Album of the Year. The first half of the movie is largely dedicated to the circumstances behind the creation of their debut album Homework and its impact on the dance music scene, including how the album was so big at the time that other big-name artists wanted to work with them. This also includes footage of a younger Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo before the creation of their iconic robot costumes, though it’s interesting to see other attempts at hiding their faces as well as why they did it.

While their early years are given extensive coverage, equal attention is given to the rest of their career at the time within the second half of the feature, including the behind-the-scenes of their other three albums and the public reaction to them. A portion of the documentary also touches upon the duo’s work on the film Tron: Legacy and its influence on the creation of the album Random Access Memories, where they went out of their way to recapture classic music recording techniques and advertising. Around the Human After All portion of the documentary is perhaps Daft Punk’s biggest impact on electronic music, that being their 2006 Coachella set and its influence on its attendees and the production values of a live show.

Alongside pre-existing footage of Daft Punk, the documentary is interspersed with new interviews with people who have worked directly with the duo, whether on the technical side of things or collaborators such as Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams, as well as those who were otherwise influenced by them such as Skrillex or were an influence on them such as Paul Williams. It’s also interesting to hear snippets of what Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo actually sound like when brought up at relevant times.

An interview with Tony Gardner explains the origins of Daft Punk's
iconic robot helmets and the process of their creation.

Being a France/UK co-production, the film’s audio features a mix of both English and French speakers, including both languages from the aforementioned archive audio of the duo, and all on-screen text outside of given footage is rendered in French, though it is possible to guess what it means if you have a passing knowledge of the language. The copy of the movie I own is a French import, so naturally all of the packaging and menus are in French, however it features English and French audio options that influence the subtitles. The English audio option presents English subtitles for all French audio from the interviewees (though not for the on-screen text), while the French option provides French subtitles for all English audio from said interviewees.

One thing I will commend the documentary for is how thorough it is on the history of Daft Punk. Many similar types of documentaries typically spend much of their runtime covering the early years of a subject before breezing through everything that came afterwards, though this documentary makes sure to give all following eras of their history a good amount of attention even if some parts, such as their work on Tron: Legacy, don’t get a whole lot of screen time. What certainly helps is that their 28-year body of work isn’t that substantial anyway, though I give credit to the filmmakers anyway for managing to include everything that they did within a 60-minute runtime.

Daft Punk Unchained is a must-watch for any Daft Punk fan or those who are just getting familiar with their work. This documentary presents its information in a very engaging way and provides great insight into their history and accomplishments as well as what the ones behind the masks are like as individuals. It’s definitely sad to see such musical icons go, though if what was presented in the documentary is any indication, their music will certainly live on for years to come.