Rockets Redglare

After watching Bus 174, I went back to the pile of eBay DVDs, and picked one I had taken a chance on because it was cheap and available. Rockets Redglare is a film that premiered at Sundance and played at Hot Docs. The subject is potentially interesting - a New York comedian and character actor with a funny stage name and a dark personal history. So, what the hell. How bad could it be?

The answer, my friends, is "very bad." I lasted about ten minutes before giving up. There's a lot to be said for the DV revolution, which made the means of production available to just about anyone. The problem is that "just about anyone" doesn't necessarily have any filmmaking skills or talent, nor, most unfortunately, the modesty or self-awareness to realize this.

This film was apparently made by a first-time filmmaker with borrowed equipment. Well, number one, he should have borrowed a radio mic along with the camcorder, and maybe a book on camerawork, so that the interviews wouldn't look as awful as they sound. But the muddy sound and picture aren't the worst of it. In the ten minutes I watched, Rockets Redglare doesn't come across as the least bit interesting. The rambling clips from the likes of Steve Buscemi and Jim Jarmusch don't create a sense of mystery or raise any questions - it's as if we're supposed to be interested in his story just because these Gods of Indie Filmmaking were friends with the guy. And finally, there are the clips from Redglare's mid-80s stand-up act, which aren't the least bit funny. So. Bad shooting. Bad sound. No structure. Boring subject. Eject.

As of today, you can find my copy at a certain used-DVD store I frequent. One film that was available at the store was The War Tapes, a very good documentary about the Iraq war that was shot primarily by the soldiers themselves, with cameras supplied by the filmmaker. The soldiers got fantastic footage - intimate, raw and often heartbreaking. Throughout the process, they worked closely with director Deborah Scranton, who was back in the U.S. and communicated with them via e-mail and IM. And they clearly cared a lot about telling their story in the best way possible. That's the film that, from what I've seen, is most emblematic of everything that's good about the DV revolution.