London Film Fest 2012 Day 9 - CROSSFIRE HURRICANE

The Stones then...

CROSSFIRE HURRICANE is about as good a rock documentary as one could expect from self-produced hagiography.  Commissioned and produced by Mick Jagger to mark the Rolling Stones' 50th anniversary, the movie is a fairly straightforward edit of vintage clips showing the Stones rise to fame, narrated by interviews with the current band-members.  They don't go into their private lives, or their finances (much) and there are no other talking heads to contextualise the skill (or otherwise) in their music.  Indeed, the only comment on actual virtuosity come from Bill Wyman admitting that Charlie Watts plays behind the beat rather than leading the band, and Keith Richards praising his fellow guitarists with a single line.  There's no-one to tell you why the sound works, which Blues artists influenced the band, and who they have in turn they influenced.  The result is a strangely anaemic documentary that skates on the surface of the Stones history.  Lots of great concert footage but no real honesty, except regarding drug-taking.  On three key events - the sacking and death of Brian Jones and Altamont - the Stones give themselves all too easy a ride, and director Brett Morgan (absent from the film in terms of voice-over or heard questions) doesn't want to push them.  

For instance, in the episode of Brian Jones, they don't admit that they didn't actually try to help him, or talk about the impact of Richards walking off with Jones' girlfriend, and sacking him from the band.  Things just don't add up. If Brian was sacked because he was drug-addled and unproductive, why did they put up with Keith in the South of France, when as Wyman admits, he turned what should have taken 2 hours to record a song into 2 weeks?  The truth is, it wasn't the drugs.  Richards could get away with it because he was half of the song-writing combo. I guess people who really want some insight on what went down can check out the former London Film Fest film STONED, which explores that episode in some depth.

The upshot is that while CROSSFIRE HURRICANE will be a must-watch for hardcore Stones fans, it doesn't have much to offer people who want something more than communal adulation.  I couldn't help but contrast this piece of self-PR with the stunningly good rock doc BEWARE OF MR BAKER, also showing in this Festival. That was a gnarly, energetic, insightful  doc about Ginger Baker, legendary drummer for  Cream and Blind Faith. Both in terms of musical significance and cinematic accomplishment, that is by far the superior film.

....and now. [Insert obligatory exclamation of wonder that Richards is still alive.]

CROSSFIRE HURRICANE is an HBO film and will air in the USA on Nov 15th.

Overlooked DVD of the month - CHICAGO 10

Brett Morgan has a knack for making funny, insightful documentaries about colourful historical figures. Half his genius is picking characters that have a finely tuned sense of theatrics: the other half of his genius is in bringing that to a modern audience with a sense of flair and energy. In his bio-doc of Robert Evans, legendary Hollywood producer and ladies man, THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE, Morgan used photo-montage and memoir. In CHICAGO 10, Morgan mixes vintage news-footage, animated court-room recreations, contemporary interviews and simulated stand-up. The sound-track mixes contemporary protest music with Eminem and the Beastie Boys. The resulting documentary is very funny, often surreal, and brings home the gravity and high stakes of the American civil rights and anti-war movement of the late 1960s.

The story is simple. In 1968, the American counter-culture movement is fuming about the escalation of the war in Vietnam. They plan to come to Chicago and lobby the Democratic National Convention. The movement coalesces around the Yippie movement led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, and the Black Panthers led by Bobby Seale. Mayor/Boss Daley sets the pigs onto the protestors: Communist conspiracies "justify" disproportionate police brutality. The Chicago 8 are brought to trial. The documentary basically dramatises court records and puts them in context. The Chicago 7 come across as witty, intelligent and radical, but not unreasonable. The gagging of Bobby Seale, and the severance of his trial from the group trial seems like an act of pure and brutal racism. It's shocking to modern eyes. Hank Azaria is simply brilliant as Abbie Hoffman and Jeffrey Wright is powerful as Bobby Seale .(The final two members of the 10 are the two lawyers).

Watching the movie today I was shamed by how active and passionate these kids were and how bland and anaemic the anti Iraqi war protests were. But I was also massively entertained. It's just FUN to see Hoffman skewering the judge, or the defense attorney asking if an undercover cop was hurt by a jumper. And so Brett Morgan achieves the rarest of rare things: he makes a movie that is important and entertaining: and a documentary that actually deserves to be seen on the big screen.

CHICAGO 10 played Sundance 2007 and opened in the US and UK in Spring 2008.