Film

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

Name: The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
Genre: Music, Documentary
Released: 2020
Cast: Barry Gibb, Andy Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb, Lulu

Musical

The Bee Gees documentary traces three brothers from Australian obscurity to global dominance across disco, pop, and soul. Director Frank Marshall constructs a portrait of creative partnership, jealousy, and reinvention—how they survived fashion's cruelty and each other's complexity. Essential viewing for anyone curious about how a sound becomes a movement.

TMDb rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love the craft of pop songwriting and want to hear how melodies and harmonies were built, with archive performances and a warm, affectionate look at a famously bickering family band.

Skip it if you want a critical or probing account of the group's private troubles; this is a fond, mostly sunny portrait that leans on the music and skips much of the difficult ground.

What it asks of you: It runs about111 minutes, moves at a steady, chatty clip built around songs, and asks for little more than your ears and an openness to nostalgia.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Muscle Shoals2013

Documents a single studio's alchemy—how geography, personality, and timing created something culturally unstoppable. Like the Bee Gees doc but compressed into one place, one sound, one era.

But Focuses on soul and R&B rather than pop. If you came for glitter and disco, this is earthier than you might expect.

The Last Waltz1978

Scorsese's concert film about The Band's final show. Captures the emotional weight of a creative partnership ending, with music that justifies every minute.

But Filmed in 1978 and shows its age visually. The pacing is deliberate, even meditative—not everyone's rhythm.

Amy2015

Asif Kapadia's study of Amy Winehouse's rise and self-destruction. Brutal honesty about fame's cost and the machinery that grinds brilliant people down. Deeply moving.

But Heavy and upsetting. Watching someone die is the point, which makes it necessary but not easy viewing.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

24 Hour Party People2002

Both explore how individuals become movements. Both ask what makes a scene unstoppable and how egos either feed or consume it.

Stylish, comedic narrative film about Tony Wilson and the Manchester music scene. Same DNA as a documentary—how scenes form, how taste shifts—but told through narrative energy and performance. Michael Winterbottom's film moves like music.

But Fiction rather than fact-based, and the style can feel self-conscious. If you want unvarnished truth, artifice gets in the way.

Shine a Light2008

Scorsese documents the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden. A band outlasting everyone's predictions, playing better than they have any right to. Celebration of longevity.

But It's a concert film, not a biography. If you need narrative and context, this is pure performance without much story.

The Defiant Ones2017

Allen Hughes' two-part series on Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Partnership, ambition, and how two people with complementary obsessions build empires. Deeply engaging storytelling.

But Hip-hop and music production rather than songwriting. If you're specifically here for harmonies and melodies, the focus is elsewhere.

Rumor Has It...2005

Documentary about Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' album. Created amid divorce, betrayal, and creative fury. Shows how pain transmutes into art.

But Sadder and more fractured than the Bee Gees story. Less about triumph, more about surviving wreckage together.

Staying Alive1983

Examines the exact cultural phenomenon that elevated the Bee Gees to godhood. Shows the machinery around the music.

Feature documentary focused specifically on the Saturday Night Fever era—the disco phenomenon that made the Bee Gees untouchable. Contextualizes their moment in culture. Essential companion piece to understanding why they were truly inescapable.

But Narrower in scope than the full Bee Gees story. If you want breadth across five decades, this zooms into one golden period.

Searching for Sugar Man2012

Both examine fame's fragility, the gap between commercial success and artistic truth, and what longevity actually means.

Oscar winner about a forgotten Detroit musician rediscovered decades later in South Africa. Narrative mystery with documentary's emotional truth. Questions fame's randomness and legacy's mystery—why some artists endure, others vanish.

But Smaller, quieter story about relative obscurity. The Bee Gees were superstars; this is about someone the world forgot, then found again.