Review of Dig! (2004) by Patrick S — 09 Jan 2006

[color=#000000][font=Century Gothic][color=red][/color][color=red]American cinema is a horrific slave to trends, and it?s hard to imagine any blockbuster movie that hasn?t garnered dozens of cheap imitations. ?The Matrix? set off one of the worst trends in movie history, ?wire? action, a school of Hollywood martial arts that should be burned in effigy for how boring it?s made modern action movies. Or how about ?Titanic? which ushered in bloated historical-dramas like ?Pearl Harbor? onto an unsuspecting public. But if there is one trend I pray night and day will last, it?s the trend of awesome documentaries. Of the last twenty-five movies I?ve seen, the three best have been documentaries, showing how far the documentary has come: from science class bore-fest to thrilling drama. New documentaries remind me of what reality television could be like if there was an ounce of reality in the shows whatsoever [oh, and if producers had the nads to stop meddling in the action].[/color][/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]?Dig!? is one of the best movies I?ve watched this year, and that has nothing to do with the fact that I?m a rock music fanatic. The story itself is just that damn gripping that you can be a total nimrod when it comes to modern rock music and you?ll still thoroughly enjoy the proceedings. While the story starts out tracking the rise of two bands [the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre] from the West Coast underground into possible stardom, after a period of time, the movie settles on the manic behavior of BJM lead singer Anton Newcombe, and the chaos that he creates and his bizarre feud with Dandy Warhols singer Courtney Taylor.[/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]I?m going to say right now, Anton is a total fucking loon. Imagine if Axl Rose fronted a sixties-revivalist group that never got famous, and you?ll understand that this guy is as nutty as Mr. Peanut?seriously. Anton also shows the depressing side of ?art? and the artist, that friction that is created between the ego necessary to make great art and the conflicting personalities they have to surround themselves with. There are certain musicians who are totally incapable of dealing with other human beings, people whose unstoppable vision is totally incompatible with the desires and the vision of others, and it?s that ego/arrogance that makes them erode and destroy what they?ve worked towards. As one musician said of Anton, ?He thinks that no one can play better than he can. If he could clone himself he would. He?d have Anton on guitar, Anton on bass, and Anton on drums.? [/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]When he?s not berating band mates or snorting every kind of drug possible [yeah, that?s not going to create any kind of problems], he starting fights with hecklers in the crowds at shows or basically destroying his own showcase. You start to wonder whether Anton?s behavior is due to his immeasurable standards, or maybe he just doesn?t want to succeed at all. There are a few instances in this movie where it seems like the band is just one push away from stardom when Anton does something to send everything tumbling back down to square one. He fully knows what?s on the line, but he constantly tries to fight back against the people who have devoted their lives to making him a success. And trust me, he?s given more chances than most musicians will ever be given, and he manages to muck them all up.[/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]On the other side of the coin, the Dandy Warhols achieve popularity, though not here in America. The Dandys become household names in Europe, and their story is basically the story of the failure of the American recording industry. It tells of the reckless spending and the lack of a long term point of view in today?s music industry, how Capitol and Virgin and all those other bigwigs are pretty much willing to throw out someone?s entire career due to their own mismanagement. I can safely say that if the Dandys hadn?t struck gold overseas, they would have been tossed in the waste bin like so many others.[/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]And that?s really the thing. The music industry is willing to spend millions off the bat on unproven artists, most of whom are still very much overwhelmed by their new status when they record their first album, instead of spending sensible amounts in order to create serious and attainable goals for their artists. Instead of trying to harvest this talent, letting them effectively find their footing, they gamble it all on a one-shot, make-it-or-break-it hits. Take a look at BJM; companies tossed tons of money to get Anton his own in-home studio before he had even recorded an album on their label, and what happened? He got strung out on heroin and failed to record the album before being subsequently dropped from his label. When you watch this movie, it becomes immediately clear that if you spent any amount of time with this man, you would become acutely aware of how unstable he is, and dropping thousands upon thousands of dollars on him would most likely be a gargantuan waste of money.[/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]So, is this movie about the illogical business practices of the music industry, one man?s self-destruction, or the forces of luck on the outcome of one?s life? It can be seen as any one of them, and all the stories are well told. And while some might say that, considering the movie?s content was culled from thousands of hours of footage, the story being told has been influenced by the director?s personal experiences and input, and that can?t really be disputed, I would say all are very genuine. The disconcerting thing about documentaries is that you can never be sure if what you?re watching is perfectly truthful, or has been slanted to become more sensational. But considering the reactions of the band members after the movie came out, the director was very much on target.[/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]So I feel very much secure in saying that Anton Newcombe is a human being who can?t handle living inside society, period. Here?s a guy who can only be happy getting stoned and making music, and the perils of maintaining some semblance of a career is too much for him to handle. Watching him flip out and physically attack people, even kicking one man in the head from the stage just goes to show that this is a guy who doesn?t understand the restrictions he lives under. And when he?s twice arrested on camera (once for marijuana possession, the other for the aforementioned boot to the head), it becomes clear that this is a man who is asocial in the most literal definition of the term. The laws which bind him don?t even exist in his mind, and if it were left up to him, he would retreat to the woods to live like a hermit and survive on a thin diet of mushrooms and pot, to live and make music for the rest of his life without interruption. It?s that single minded sense of purpose that makes him in ways inspirational. If I could devote myself so fully to one thing, I can only imagine where it would take me, even if it meant taking myself to the very brink of madness.[/font][/color].

[color=red][font=Century Gothic]To think of ?Dig!? as a mere documentary is to underestimate the power of it?s subject matter, the struggles of a bohemian ideal in the vast morass of capitalist America. It?s more engrossing than most big-budget movies I?ve seen in years, and that says something for a movie that was made on a shoe-string budget while steaming piles of crap such as ?Fantastic Four? are backed with 100+ Million dollars. It?s not only the music industry in this country that?s getting everything so wrong.

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