Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago

A bit more than halfway through this two-hour documentary on the band Chicago, the movie catches a spark. We encounter the ’80s incarnation of the group, when the hits sung by bassist Peter Cetera-“Hard to Say I’m Sorry”; “Hard Habit to Break”; “You’re the Inspiration”-launched them into a new era of commercial success. But with that success came resentment from the other band members, feeling that future solo star Cetera and producer/hit maker David Foster were undoing the democracy that had been established as a core principle in the band’s beginning. Halfway through the film, at last we have that tried-and-true element of any compelling story, non-fictional or not: conflict.
Before that, Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago is both enlightening and frustrating. Right out of the gate, it races through the band’s origins before we can get our bearings to understand why we should care. How did those ubiquitous horns, so closely identified with Chicago’s sound, come to be? The film tells us next to nothing regarding each member’s inspirations, their early development as musicians, or how they found one another.
Plowing ahead ahead chronologically through drug abuse and death, the film doesn’t explore how the band managed to churn out so many albums year after year. Occasionally we get insight into the creation of hit songs like Lamm’s “25 or 6 to 4” and James Pankow’s “Just You ‘n’ Me.” These are like oases in a desert of period photos and videos. Pankow reflects on the band’s college-student fanbase in its early days, suggesting political affinity, but that’s as close as we get to figuring out or seeing what he means.
When Pardini allows the band to speak for itself through its live performances, we start to understand Chicago’s enduring legacy beyond the hit songs. Concert footage of guitarist Terry Kath justifies an anecdote, repeated by the band’s founders, that none other than guitar legend Jimi Hendrix heaped praise on Kath as the better guitarist of the two.