#235 Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)

*****

Director: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola

Cast: Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor Coppola, Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, George Lucas, Dennis Hopper, Sam Bottoms, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne

A brief look into the making of Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's epic, ruinous masterpiece that immediately followed his success with parts I and II of the Godfather trilogy. This documentary includes footage, diary entries, and sound recordings collected by Coppola's wife, Eleanor, all chronicling the making of the film.

Filmed on location in the Philippines, Coppola brought his entire family along with an enormous Hollywood production team to shoot the film over the course of what was supposed to be only a few weeks. Instead, it turned into years of filming and editing, with endless disaster: financial, physical, and emotional. Dealing with typhoons, firing main actors, the jungle conditions, the Philippine army warding off rebels, a heart attack, an overweight, unprepared Brando, placing all of his personal assets up for collateral to cover the new budget, and Coppola and his wife seriously both teetering on the edge of total insanity, the documentary focuses on the overwhelming obstacles behind the final product.

Despite all these obvious hurdles, some of the most interesting moments of the film were the views into Coppola's struggle with his own faith in the film's outcome. Often staying awake for days on end, personally re-writing the script, making up new scenes, and basically winging it, Coppola's methods during the shoot can only be described as feverish intoxication. His wife was able to capture via sound byte (unbeknownst to Francis at the time) much of his insecurities about the project turning out. Footage of Francis obsessively working and smoking cigarettes over a typewriter, giving actors' inspiring character direction, along with general interviews about his "artistic vision" for the project brought me back to memories of my own creative fever in the past. It made me wonder why I ever stopped craving that, and at the same time, I felt relief to not have a life full of such anxiety anymore.

Regardless, it's a great documentary to go hand-in-hand with viewing Apocalypse Now, and I highly recommend it. If it does not, on some level, inspire you then I truly question your being alive at all. It's really that grand.

#228 Tongues Untied (1989)

Director: Marlon Riggs

Cast: Marlon Riggs, Michael Bell, Blackberri, Kerrigan Black, Gideon Ferebee, Essex Hemphill, A.J. Honey, Larry Duckette, Gerald Davis, Paul Horrey

With the feeling of 80s guerilla New York City fine art, Marlon Riggs brings us his documentary on black, gay America via the Black Men Loving Black Men revolution. Using fiction, accounts of his own life as a black gay man, civil rights movement footage, clips from (then's) modern media, dance, and poetry, Riggs paints a picture of an entire facet of Americans silenced by their inability to express themselves.

Of course, being a white, straight woman– how can I even begin to understand the context of this film? Is this film for everyone? To me, it was speaking to its own kind– it was speaking a language I didn't quite fully understand. Un-silence yourselves, speak, be heard, be unafraid. A powerful message to those who I imagine were masking an insurmountable amount of fear and pain with anger during this time.

Being who I am, I cannot change the angle from which I see this film. As an impartial audience, I can only step aside and acknowledge the film for what it is, and also, what it is not. I was not able to appreciate its format– the humor?, the poetry, the artistry that Riggs used in this film mostly repelled me and seemed dated beyond salvation. The message, however, is of course timeless and as important as ever. I am happy to have viewed this film, despite my non-enjoyment of the message's delivery.

#195 Sherman's March (1986)

***

Director: Ross McElwee

Cast: Ross McElwee, Burt Reynolds, Charleen Swansea

Like so many others, I was duped by this film. I nestled down on top of my comforter for what I assumed was going to be a 2 hour long documentary on Sherman with some sort of odd sprinkling of personal-sharing on the part of the film-maker (as I had read in the film description). What I found, however, was one of the first and most noted diary films of the documentary genre.

Ross McElwee is a southerner who is about to start a film that retraces Sherman's march through the south, researching the southerners that are still affected by his legacy. Instead, he is caught off guard by his girlfriend leaving him for her ex just before he begins his journey. Thus, he has a hard time concentrating on Sherman and begins to instead be side-tracked by his own personal shortcomings as a lover, boyfriend, and person.

He begins to explore countless past relationships as well as new relationships set up by his rather determined match-maker friends. Soon, his film becomes almost entirely about this journey with the occasional "Oh, right! Back to Sherman!" moments. One of the greatest moments of this film comes with mindfulness realization that he is not just filming his own life, but perhaps he is filming to HAVE a life. In other words, he begins using his filming as an escape and an excuse.

The self-aware, diary-style film is a very slow moving, plotless exploration of one man's experience of the human condition. The answerless, romantic-comedyless search for companionship and success. For the most part, I loved this film--as I usually always love documentary films! Although interesting and sometimes masterfully edited, I found myself somewhat inattentive at parts–whether that is my own fault or the film-makers is undetermined. See for yourself.

#174 Crumb (1994)

*****

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Cast: Robert Crumb, Charles Crumb, Maxon Crumb, Aline Kominsky, Robert Hughes, Martin Miller, Don Donahue, Dana Morgan, Trina Robbins

I think there is a lot to say about Robert Crumb, his family, their lives, and his work, and this movie presents a lot of questionable statements, images, and thoughts. It confirmed (and yet made me suspicious of) many of the things I thought were wrong or right about people in America. I think it presents a lot of questions about things that many of us are already busy questioning in our own lives and moral character-- and so in this tiny little movie review, I won't attempt at cracking the big-picture code.

So instead, I am going to try to stay focused on Crumb for its value as a film, and not relish on Robert Crumb's value or meaning as a man.

This film is a portrait that makes no attempt at setting a stage to present "the character" of Robert Crumb. He is simply shown as he is, and obviously how he always will be-- and it's also obvious the film crew probably didn't have much of a choice anyway.

For those who don't know who Robert Crumb is, he is an American illustrator, most well-known for his involvement in the underground comics of the 1960s and 70s-- showcasing a twisted, satirical, and subversive view of popular American culture. He is perhaps most well-known for including such deeply personal and passionate expressions of all his most inner-demons (most notably sexual perversion) in his work. You might wonder how a film could manage to reveal more about a man who has already bared-all to the public in his work.

I think the big reveal comes in including the cast of people surrounding Crumb. It's obvious that these are the people that most often illicit his seemingly nervous laugh, and it's also around these people that Crumb seems to be able to verbalize some things that might only ever have been spoken of on paper. Despite the controversially claimed "disturbed" nature of his work, the film-makers managed to show Crumb in his familial context-- showing that he is actually 'the sane one of the family.' The film includes his past girlfriends and wives, his two brothers (Charles and Maxon), and his mother, and the film seems to be just as much about them as it is about the artist. Through these people and his artwork, you sense you are getting the full story, and that Crumb's sarcastic, witty remarks perhaps are a carefully-tuned defense mechanism.

Robert Crumb's art isn't for everyone-- and the film finds critics on both sides, sure. But as a film, I don't think anyone can deny the complexity and brilliance of the story. It manages to shock you without shoving anything down your throat. It also manages to take a lot of things we thought we understood (or at least understood that we were scared of) and brings them bubbling to the surface of our conscience. "Is that really wrong?" "It makes me uncomfortable, but does that mean it shouldn't be?" Of course, all of this serious thinking is peppered in to a pretty straight-forward style documentary about a group of people who are so unusual that we can't help but try to use every ounce of ourselves to simply understand.

I think the greatest thing about this film is that it presents deeply complex and dark themes in the most neutral, you-decide-for-yourself light possible. It enables conversation and an intelligent audience, and for that, I commend the film-makers greatly.

#150 The Thin Blue Line (1988)

***

Director: Errol Morris

Cast: Randall Adams, David Harris, Gus Rose, Jackie Johnson, Marshall Touchton

This is a documentary bent on exposing a case of wrongful justice carried out in Dallas County, Texas. The story is that of Randall Adams, a man sentenced to life for the murder of police officer, Robert Wood-- the disturbing part being that he is innocent. The documentary dramatically re-enacts the case, obtaining interviews from all involved, including the then-16-year-old runaway who did in fact commit the murder of the police officer.

Randall Adams, somewhat of a drifter, ran out of gas on his way home from work one day. A 16-year-old runaway (David Harris) assisted him on the side of the road, and the two spent the rest of the day together: drinking beer, smoking weed, and saw a movie. But this is where their stories diverge. Randall Adams claimed he went back to his motel, watched tv, and went to sleep. David Harris claims they were driving when a cop pulled them over, and Adams fired at the officer as he approached the car.

Carried by the momentum to quickly clear out the case, the police of Dallas County and VIdor, Texas neglected to examine the majority of the evidence pointing clearly at David Harris as the murderer. Instead, Randall Adams was tried and found guilty, and it wasn't until after the release of this documentary that he was freed from jail-- 12 years after he was convicted.

The story is a good one, albeit quite frustrating to watch dumb people fuck up a man's life. Also, the style of the documentary was very, very dated to the 80s. I enjoyed the film a great amount, but it's not the best documentary I've ever seen. Also, the director reused clips of footage probably 6-8 times throughout the movie. Perhaps he was doing it for emphasis, but at certain points, it just really felt like he didn't bother shooting enough to make a film.

#145 Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992)

****

Director: Nick Broomfield

Cast: Nick Broomfield, Arlene Pralle, Aileen Wuornos, Steve Glaser


This is the documentary of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Or was she a serial killer? Or is this documentary even about her killings? Or her? Not really.

This documentary is actually a look at the people surrounding her case: the police, her adoptive mother (adopting her just after she was arrested, oddly enough), her makeshift lawyer, the courts, etc. Her case is unique in that is shrouded in lies, back-tracking, a complicated history, and a slew of people that involved themselves in her case to make money. The documentary focuses mostly on her lawyer, Steve Glaser, a pot-smoking hippie who calls himself Dr. Legal and seems far more interested in writing classic rock anthems about her case than about working on it... as well as her seemingly insane adoptive mother, who adopted Aileen just as she was brought to court, charging outrageous amounts of money for interviews and movie deals. The two, together, seemed to manipulate and turn heads, convincing Aileen to plead no contest and to take the death penalty...

Oh, it's confusing. I've actually clouded my thoughts on this film by watching the follow-up documentary created by Broomfield 12 years later entitled The Life and Death of a Serial Killer. In this documentary, we get a foggy look at Aileen's complicated and abusive childhood, her lesbian relationships, her callgirl work, and her side of the story (though it changed from interview to interview).

One thing is for certain, however. The legal happenings surrounding this case certainly seemed beyond backwards. Aileen Wuornos was an abused child, coming from a home of incest, betrayal, abuse, homelessness, teen pregnancy, prostitution, hitch-hiking... you name it, she experienced it. She entered into the world of being a hitch-hiking hooker, where she allegedly began murdering her customers-- 8 in total. In the end, she was charged with 6 counts of the death penalty, and her sentence was indeed carried out. However, along the way, her lawyer, crazed adoptive mother, abusive people from her childhood, AND the police working on her case were all found guilty of cheating her and using her for movie deals and money.

Back and forth throughout the film, Broomfield interviews Wuornos, who sometimes testifies extremely convincingly that she had been brutally raped, and only killed customers when she thought she was in serious danger of being murdered herself. Sometimes, however, she would renounce these statements and said she killed to make burglary easier. It's a confusing mash-up of who is lying and who isn't, and by the end of the second documentary, the filmmaker himself is on the witness stand.

The end of the film makes a pointed view of the final days of Wuornos. Obviously completely driven to insanity, she raves about conspiracy theories, poisons, in-jail rapes, and even aliens. It is pointed out that the day before her execution she was considered by state psychologists to be perfectly sane, and thus, her sentence was carried out. At the end of the film, there seems to be a silent bond between filmmaker and audience that something seriously wrong has taken place within the justice system-- though it's absolutely impossible to know where to point the finger.

Was Wuornos truly a cold-blooded killer? And in the end, after all the corruption, lies, cheating, cover-up, wrongful profit surrounding her case... did it really matter? Chilling indeed.

The movie Monster was in fact released as a Hollywood picture about her. After all the disgusting information about how these movie deals came to be, it's almost hard to stomach the thought of watching such a film-- when even a documentary filmmaker 15-years-on-the-job wasn't able to really uncover the truth. How can we trust that Hollywood even had a clue?

Ah well.
If you're interested in crime, documentary, political corruption... it's all very fascinating, albeit very disturbing. I do recommend, however, if you watch The Selling of a Serial Killer that you follow up with the second documentary. It is much more telling and focused on the woman herself, although both sides of the story are worth raising an eyebrow over.