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Devilishly Good

Near the beginning of The Devil and Daniel Johnston Daniel is brought to the stage by the announcer as “the best singer/songwriter in the world!” While the songwriter bit is at least somewhat debatable, he truly does have an incredible way with words, writing wonderful songs quite unlike anyone else, which have been covered by bands as well known as Nirvana and Beck. The singer part couldn't be more wrong.

The man simply can not sing, there must be some sort of kitsch value to his weird-falsetto voice, but even the legendarily “bad” singing of Bob Dylan sounds harmonic in comparison. But that's kind of beside the point; it's the passion behind his work that makes Daniel truly stand out. As he sings, you can literally see all the emotions behind the lyrics well up in him. There are not many artists around that can match Daniel’s love for his work and that is probably the best explanation for where his cult following derives their obsession.

Before filming began on The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Director Jeff Feuerzeig was one of those devote followers. This brilliant film will certainly add members to the cult; his passion for everything Daniel Johnston, oozes from the screen. With the style of his film doing a wonderful impression of the homemade, eccentric and multi-faceted artistic styles of Daniel. It would be tough to imagine a much better film made from the life of this manic-depressive artist savant.

A stage performance.

The list of documentaries where the subjects have kept an impeccable collection of their own lives keeps growing. This is to be expected as the technology to do so gets cheaper and easier to use; and as our society grows more chronically self-obsessed. (Obviously I can be counted as one.) I expect somewhere down the line somebody will have every single second of their life documented ala The Truman Show. But I’m getting off track...

Daniel started documenting his own life long before it was the-it-thing-to-do. He started with voice recordings, keeping audio diaries from a very young age. The film includes some wonderful early recordings of Daniel's mother yelling at him to be a better son and servant of God. He grew up in West Virginia with his conservative and deeply religious family. His parents didn't understand his artistic-outsider personality. But being loving parents they cared for him and tried to accommodate his needs to the best of their abilities. They allowed him to turn their basement into an artist studio where in his early teenage years he created his strange comic book, inspired drawings, made super-8 short films and wrote songs. But Daniel was more than just an over-enthusiastic artist, something darker lay within him.

After moving out of the house and dropping out after his first year at Abilene Christian University; he moved into the art program at Kent State. Here he met fellow artists; people that he meshed with better, but his creative output still far outweigh those around him. Fate intervened and Daniel fell in love with fellow student Laurie Allen, unfortunately she was quite unaware of his longings and went on to marry an undertaker. But this unrequited love became a symbol, something to chase and obsess over; and in affect she became his lifelong muse. ”She inspired a thousand songs in him.” The only glimpse we get of her in the film is some super-8 footage Daniel shot of her while at school. The filmmakers don't track her down; she remains as unattainable in the film, as she was in Daniel’s life. (The DVD contains a great follow-up where we finally get to meet her.)

Falling into a deep depression Daniel leaves school; and like a character out of a novel, he finds a job with a traveling carnival. Up to this point in Daniel's life, the film has had so much material to cull from that it's almost shocking to see some recreation footage of this time. But the nicely shot, obviously Errol Morris influenced, footage fits into the eclectic feel of the film. Daniel leaves the circus life behind while stopped in Austin, Texas at a fortuitous time in history; it is just before the Austin music scene is about to blow up. Daniel starts to record his own songs in his garage studio, distributing his homemade tapes to anyone who’ll listen. He is absolutely determined to get famous. His home recording of Hi, How Are You? becomes the stuff of legends, spoken about by everyone in town who's connected to music.

A stage performance.

From here he scams his way onto a MTV special, gets his t-shirt worn by Kurt Cobain, gets signed by a major label, but it seems that every time something starts to go right, it turns it bad. He ruins nearly everything with outbreaks of his psychological disorder. It's sad to watch this much talent go to waste time and time again. But it's hard not to fault him for his own behavior, even if he can't control himself at times. It speaks to his true personality and artistic abilities that the people around him continue to put up with him, because he could really be a monster at times.

I've started to recite the whole story of his life here and you really deserve to see the film for yourself. But really I've only really laid down a few of the highlights; there are a thousand other things that happen along the way, things that are hard to believe, things that don’t happen to everyday people, things that you'll have to see this movie to fully understand. My words can not do this story justice the way the film does.

With The Devil and Daniel Johnston Jeff Feuerzeig has created one of the best documentaries of the past few years; which won the director’s award at Sundance in 2005. Being a Daniel Johnston newbie, I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to this incredibly talented, devoted and insane artist. I also think that Daniel Johnston fans will be very happy with the results; the film plays like a love letter to the man and his work. Jeff has interviewed just about everybody who has been important in Daniel’s life, through their words and Daniel’s own, cut with an inventive hodge-podge of film stocks and story techniques, he takes us through the inconceivable life of Daniel Johnston. It is the rare film that paints the life of an artist as beautifully as the artist could have themselves.

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Ross Williams is a writer/director/editor, currently working on his first feature length documentary film. He lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife and son. You can view his previous work at: eRATicate.com - You can now watch the trailer and the first four minutes of Ross' documentary: The Turning Point

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