The Last Days of Left Eye

The Last Days of Left Eye

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Editorial Reviews

A documentary on Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, the troubled, enigmatic rapper from the female R&B group TLC. In the days leading up to her tragic death on April 25, 2002, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was on a spiritual retreat in Honduras. She had gone to her home away from home in order to distance herself from her problems, escape the chaos of the media and to face her inner demons. With the aid of a video camera and the support from those closest to her, she documented what would become her final days in journals and private home movies.

Special Features: Deleted scenes and exclusive new unreleased song: "Let's Just Do It" (DVD-ROM)



"...a fascinating chronicle of Lopes' tumultuous life and career." -- NY Daily News

As the director of Tupac Resurrection, Lauren Lazin seems particularly well placed to profile R&B star Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. While Lazin assembled her Oscar-nominated Tupac film after the actor/rapper's death, Lopes initiated this VH1 project herself. In an attempt to set the record straight, she traveled to Honduras in 2002 for a 30-day spiritual retreat and filmed the results. As Lopes explains, "Part of the purpose of this documentary is so that people can get to know me." Lazin uses this footage as a framing device before rewinding to Lopes' birth, childhood, and rise to fame. As in Resurrection, the subject provides the narration; in this case, self-recorded material from that fateful trip (Lopes was killed in an automobile accident on the 27th day). After 17 years in Pennsylvania and Florida, Lopes moves to Atlanta, where she joins TLC in 1991. As the trio racks up hits, like "Creep" and "Waterfalls," she struggles with alcohol, the media, and her record company (TLC files for bankruptcy at the height of their success). Then she meets NFL player Andre Rison, with whom she falls in love, despite his possessive nature. After a bad night, she sets fire to his sneakers, resulting in the destruction of his entire mansion, an act for which she may be better remembered than her music. Lazin succeeds in revealing different aspects of Lopes' complex persona, such as her altruistic and introspective sides. Supplemental features include deleted scenes and a previously unreleased version of "Let's Just Do It." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Fascinating!

Reviewed by Mary Bustamante, 2009-09-08

I watched this video on TV when it first came out. I found it fascinating and loved every minute of it. Lisa was a very complex and troubled individual with a spirit of an angel.
She wasn't only beautiful on the outside but also on the inside.
Her troubled life and how she dealt with things, or didn't deal with them depending on how you look at it, was inspiring. I had to buy it so I could watch it again and again.

Awesome movie!

Loving Lisa

Reviewed by Kylie Norahs, 2009-06-02

Watching this documentary was surreal.

Lisa has created a beautiful film and legacy of her short life. I always loved TLC's music, but I never knew much about them as individuals. I am happy Lisa gave us all the opportunity to get to know her by making this, and a recap of her life up to that time. This documentary is captivating. I believe Lisa did have a Spirit that was amist to transform her and take her away on her continuing journey in the universe.

Sad and eerie that this film came at the end of her life though, and that the last seconds of it were caught on film. She seemed to be looking forward and had many plans on where to go in her life. I just wanted to reach inside the tube and grab a hold of that steering wheel to help her. The documentary never said what caused the accident, or maybe I missed that part. Maybe I wanted to miss it.

Thank you Lisa for the peak inside your Soul and for leaving us many things to ponder in our own lives.

It's been over 7 years now, but Lisa still seems ever present.

This is a must addition to your TLC and Lisa Lopes collection. I think if T-boz and Chilli continued on with TLC, it just would not have been the same. Lisa was irreplaceable. Thank you girls for the fabulous music!

You are missed Lefteye! God bless you!

lessons learned

Reviewed by Krystal Walker, 2009-02-15

this documentary is just real no fluff just facts i love and miss her but god loves her more and there is no disputing that the crash was very disturbing however the lessons that i learned and there where many that i learned led up to the crash to watch her transformation was miraculous mystical and truly inspirational i hope she has found peace in the arms of the lord our heavenly father.

A disturbing, yet very touching film....

Reviewed by Mike, 2008-12-23

This is the last film by TLC group member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. She filmed most of it in Honduras in late March and throughout April 2002, and the idea behind it was to give her fans an inside look into her life. So they could get to know her better, through her own words and videos, and not just what's reported in the media.

The film starts off with Lisa leaving the U.S. and heading off to her spiritual retreat in Honduras. While Lisa narrates (with voiceovers and audio clips from previous interviews she did), you see rare photos and old film clips of Lisa Lopes when she was a baby and as a teen. She talks about her turbulent childhood and growing up under a very strict father. And she tells the story about how TLC began, talks about her ex-boyfriend Andre Rison and the infamous fire incident at his mansion. She also talks about her interest in numerology and being spiritual.

Unfortunately Lisa did not live to finish this documentary, but after seeing what she did film, in my opinion, I felt I got to know her much better. I definitely saw a different side to her as opposed to what i've seen previously (ex. the interviews, videos, etc). I see she had a sense of humor. She was gifted (could play the piano by ear at the age of four), and she was artistic. But she also had deep emotional pain/problems too (ex. carving the word "hate" on her arm).

The picture quality is good and the sound is in stereo. But for some reason, the song "Let's Just Do It" isn't on this DVD (at least not my copy). I received an email response from the Left Eye Legacy website and they stated that VH1 was provided with the song, but for some reason they didn't put it on the DVD. Hmmmm. And the DVD is also censored (any nudity is digitally concealed). Also it would have been great to have had more clips, and any other interviews she did when she was alive. The video extras are ok, but they are the same ones you can see on the VH1 website. I understand that the upcoming "Eye-Legacy" cd will have more deleted scenes from this documentary, but why couldn't they have just put those scenes on this DVD? That would have been more appropriate in my opinion.

Also, there are two things regarding this film that I believe are not accurate:

1. At least as best as I can tell, after watching this DVD in slow motion a few times, Lisa Lopes was NOT wearing a seatbelt. I didn't see ANY type of restraint device in use - no shoulder belt or lap/waist seat belt. Nothing. It's also ironic that after the accident clip where she loses her life, you see the following sentence come up on screen:

"Lopes, who was wearing her seat belt, was the only fatality."


I didn't see her wearing any seat belt.



2. Another thing that isn't accurate is the timeline. In the film, after the graphic: "day 25 of filming" is shown, you then hear about the accident that happened while she was in Honduras - a child ran in front of the van Lisa was riding in. The van hits the child (Bayron Fuentes Lopez), who later dies at a hospital. The film gives the impression that the accident happened in late April and then Lisa Lopes lost her life two or three days later. From what i've read this is not true. The accident involving the boy took place on April 6, 2002. Which is in early April. Lisa Lopes lost her life on April 25, 2002. Late April. So this is a few weeks difference, NOT a few days as the documentary seems to state. Or at least gives the impression.



Another thing that I didn't like: VH1 put promotional clips of the upcoming "Flavor of Love: 3" and "I Love New York: 3" reality series on this DVD. Oh brother!! Thankfully you can fast forward past this stuff, but this does, in my opinion, cheapen the DVD. Who wants to see clips of the reality trash, when you have a REAL and touching film to watch already? But given that this "Rockdocs" documentary is a VH1 production....

I first remember seeing Lisa Lopes back in 1992, at the beginning of the "Ain't to Proud to Beg" video taking off those huge sunglasses and showing those big, round, beautiful eyes she had. I was infatuated with her ever since.

It's sad she's not here now. But before her passing, she did live her life. She traveled around the world. Made good music. Lived, loved and laughed. She was still young, very beautiful, captivating and full of life. And she had much more to accomplish. A tragic loss. But at least we still have her music (Check out Supernova) to listen to and this documentary to watch and appreciate.

If you are a fan of Left Eye and/or the group TLC, you should definitely get this DVD.

Close-up to a good soul

Reviewed by JustAnotherCustomer, 2008-11-30

This documentary is straight and -apart from some entirely unnecessary censorship- fairly unedited honest compilation of the video footage from Lisa's last days in Honduras. Some information and videos from her childhood and TLC life are inserted where appropriate to provide background information to the stories she tells to her friends and to the camera. This creates a quite informative picture about her career and some of her roots, but more importantly, it makes me feel like I can participate in one small piece of her very private life. It lets me have a very close look at her own, off-stage personality with all the twists, chaos, brilliance and these incredibly good energies inside... It's quite some time now that Lisa has left this planet, but I keep missing her a lot. If there is an afterlife, I guess she happily shakes up heaven now and keeps the good souls of our ancestors dancing in the skies (having a lot of fun in piece rather than just "resting" there).