Overview: In this highly anticipated feature length documentary, the absolute instigator of rock 'n' roll, Chuck Berry, is truly revealed; and with unprecedented exclusive access.

Blu-ray Verdict: Despite his iconic status, and reverence for his talent by rock's heroes John Lennon, Keith Richards, Steven Van Zandt, Joe Perry, Nils Lofgren and Alice Cooper (all featured), Chuck Berry was a family man.

He was a prolific craftsman of word and chords; an undisputed and stunning combination of talent and charisma. Furthermore, we go back in time here and view for ourselves just how Berry’s childhood was characterized by racial segregation.

He’d never seen a white person until the age of three, when the fire department responded to a call in the black community where he was raised. "I thought they were so frightened that their faces were whitened from fear of going near the big fire,” Berry jokes. "Daddy told me they were white people, and their skin was always white that way, day or night.”

Through his own voice and re-enactments set to Berry's very own original music, we also learn that he moment that started it all came in 1941 when Berry first performed 'Confessin’ the Blues' in front of his entire high school.

The song choice (considered crude by 1940’s standards) offended the adults in the room and, of course, elated the students. And it was this performance, and watching his friend play the guitar, that sparked something within Berry. "It was then that my determination to play guitar and accompany myself while singing became an amendment to my religion."

Although Berry grew up during an era rife with discrimination and racial segregation, he intentionally blended music from both sides of the racial divide.

“Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of our country stuff on our predominantly black audience,” he explains, and of which is also noted in his self-titled autobiography. “After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff and enjoyed dancing to it.”

Some of the interviewees (with Keith Richards being the most prominent "talking head" throughout) are the same within their praise for Berry, but those others that slightly divert away from the cozy storytelling path, well, those are the ones that make you smile.

As noted, we go back to the beginning of Berry’s life and director Jon Brewer places a lot of emphasis on how Berry was a family man with interviews with his former wife and children.

Interviewees include Mick Jagger, Jerry Lee Lewis and Berry’s longtime piano player Johnnie Johnson and, as mentioned, Keith Richards.

Indeed, Brewer (B.B. King: The Life of Riley, Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark), was personally selected by the Berry Estate to produce and direct the inside story of the man known as the bedrock of rock 'n' roll and has done a simply fantastic job here on 'Chuck Berry - The Original King Of Rock 'N' Roll,' in my humble opinion. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of a slew more New & Exclusive Interviews!

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