DVD Zone: June
CHUCK BERRY: HAIL! HAIL! ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
Image Entertainment
Chuck Berry is acknowledged without hesitation as one of the creators of rock ‘n’ roll. With that lofty status comes the respect and admiration of peers and those that followed. What he never had was the fame. While The Beatles and The Rolling Stones launched themselves to stadium status with his riffs and songs, Berry remained on the sidelines.
Watching director Taylor Hackford’s 1987 documentary, one gets the feeling Berry is cool with that — as long as he gets paid.
Available on DVD for the first time, Hail! Hail! uses the duck-walker’s 60th birthday as an opportunity for a little payback from some of his most famous influences.
Under the musical direction of Stones guitarist Keith Richards, the film follows Berry as he returns to the place in which he got his start with The Johnny Johnson trio: The Cosmopolitan club in East St. Louis, Illinois. Now a burned out shell, they manage to fix it enough to perform an impromptu set for the neighborhood. All this leads up to the film’s centerpiece — an all-star concert at St. Louis’ Fox Theatre. Interviews with such luminaries as Bo Diddley, Little Richard, and Bruce Springsteen are interwoven, but the film never rises above standard documentary fare.
Director Hackford knows his way around the music business (he did go on to direct Ray, after all) so the film is notable not for what’s in it, but for what was left out. During the main feature, no mention is made of Berry’s early, and occasionally repeated, prison time. Certainly such events would tend to shape a person and his attitude towards life. Luckily, that’s what special feature sections are for.
In an extraordinary segment called “The Reluctant Movie Star,” Hackford and his producers get to let people in on what actually went on during the filming. The resulting portrait does not reflect well on Berry.
The producers had intended to include mention of Berry’s felonious past in the main feature with a visit to Algoa state prison (where Berry served three years). Upon arriving, however, he went off to check out his old cell block, leaving the crew to fend for themselves in the prison yard. Eventually, extra guards had to be called in to get them out safely, and Berry took the tapes of the event. Production only went downhill from there. Practically every day after, Berry manipulated his contract to hijack the production and basically blackmail the producers into literally giving him bags of money. If it wasn’t spelled out to the letter, Chuck was gonna charge you extra for it.
Other features show a much different Berry. He could be the consumate professional, such as in the rehearsal footage of him with Richards, Robert Cray, or Eric Clapton, or even downright sweet when he looks though a scrapbook of his career with The Band’s Robbie Robertson, also filmed for but not included in the film’s final cut.
Film: **1/2 Features: ****
GRAM PARSONS – FALLEN ANGEL
Rhino Home Video
From his upbringing in a wealthy Florida orange family to the bizarre circumstances of his death at 26, Gram Parsons’ life was as enigmatic as it was short. While Fallen Angel sets out to give a complete portrait, it comes up frustratingly short.
The problem is that if you are already knowledgeable about the country rock pioneer, there’s nothing here you don’t already know. To the unfamiliar, events are touched on, then never explored fully.
Parsons grew up in Winter Haven, Florida, heir to the Snively orange juice fortune. After his father committed suicide, his mother re-married, only to also die later under suspicious circumstances. Parson’s stepfather was rumored to have some responsibility for the death, but nothing was ever proven. This is the kind of thing that you’d think would bear a little more examination, but Fallen Angel only touches on it briefly.
Instead, the film takes the standard rock-doc road: Parsons becomes famous, Parsons does drugs, Parsons dies. It is the events after his death that also could use a bit more scrutiny.
Allegedly at the singer’s request, road manager Phil Kaufman stole Parsons’ remains from the airport, took the body to Joshua Tree national park, and attempted to cremate him and spread his ashes. To Fallen Angel‘s credit, they do give Kaufman his say. Incredibly, he still sees nothing wrong with what he did.
Special features are sparse, with only an interview with director Gandulf Henning, and a photo gallery.
Film: ** Features: **
