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Jimi Hendrix: The Guitar Hero
R1 - America - Image Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (15th November 2010). |
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The Film
 Some questions are just redundant, like is “Saw IV” (2010) the best "Saw" movie? Of course the answer is yes. Similarly asking is Jimi Hendrix the best guitarist leads to a yes, especially if you’ve taken a glance at any listing of guitarists that has ever come out over the past 30 years. Sure there are other legitimate answers, but really when you ask a question about Hendrix’s greatness as a guitar player you’ve already got the answer in your mind, and that answer is always yes. Sure there can be other answers, Chester "Howlin’ Wolf" Burnett, Muddy Waters, Carlos Santana, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton or some answer I’ve probably never heard of that hipsters will be sure to comment on. But really, it comes down to the iconic status of Hendrix, whose early death probably helps in the fame because you never have to see a potential decline. But if you want to hear about his greatness from others who lived at the time and who have similarly been called great, then it’s all thrown together in a new documentary “Jimi Hendrix: The Guitar Hero” (2010). The documentary takes a nice twist from the beginning, rather than just a linear path through Hendrix’s life, it starts with his rise to popularity within the British rock scene of the 60’s, tracking back into his personal life as the documentary moves along. Speaking with everyone from Eric Clapton to Lemmy Kilmister about Hendrix and seeing him play, the documentary moves from England back to the United States including some amazingly rare footage of Hendrix playing in the background of other bands and speaking with his younger brother Leon Hendrix about his early life and later working in the U.S. In face it’s a really good compilation of images of Hendrix and archival footage, paired with some interviews from some big names, even if a lot of the stories are second hand after the beginning sequence after Hendrix leaves England. While there are some footage and images that I’ve never seen before, but there’s an incredible lack of Hendrix’s actual music. It’s really shocking and brings the documentary down, and raises complicated issues surrounding the estates of these dead musicians. Possibly from problems with the Jimi Hendrix estate or conflicts about the use of his music, or the sheer cost of securing rights to use his songs or live recordings in the documentary, but for better or worse there’s not a ton of Hendrix’s music playing throughout the documentary (looking at the cover you see in the fine print that the product isn’t endorsed, licensed or authorized by the James Marshall Hendrix Foundation or Experience Hendrix LLC that control the use of his music and image). What it does have though is a large collection of older White men, plus Slash and Leon Hendrix, talking about the life and music of Jimi Hendrix. Which at times is incredibly interesting, it deals with issues of race in ways that I wouldn’t expect by acknowledging how his great guitar playing ability combined with his blackness to bring him fame in England leading to his breakout with many of the bands. They don’t say it equally explicitly, but the guitarists that he met up with in England, there’s talk of his exoticism and Blackness that drew the white musicians of the day to him because of the way the coveted Black blues and rock of the United States. At the same time there’s also discussions from music journalist Charles Cross about Hendrix combing elements of Black musical performance with Rock n’ Roll, interesting enough, as well as talk with the racism and segregation of the south But after everything the stories told here are good, and some of the stories by musicians like Lemmy or Slash and Hendrix’s brother Leon that haven’t been told as widely or at least I’ve never heard before. On the other hand the footage and the music are lacking some major aspects of Hendrix that I’ve seen and heard more of even in Vh1’s documentary series “The Drug Years” (2006) that isn’t about Hendrix, but he is characterized in. The composition and narrative of the documentary is still fairly well composed and moves through the different stories put together fairly well, though Slash’s narration seems bored at times from the way he reads the prewritten story. However, the lack of endorsement and approval from the Hendrix Experience LLC really hampers the documentary’s ability to make Hendrix as central an element as it should be since so much of the music is from other artists.
Video
Presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, the documentary’s use of archival footage and older interviews haven’t consistently been upgraded to higher qualities and reveals some of the problems in the transfer that don’t always show up in the highest quality. The newer footage and interviews seem to show up in better condition, though the lighting in the original interviews is a little inconsistent and the way they zoom after the fact reduces quality and increases the amount of grain in many of the interviews. What really shows up in the best quality are the old photographs used that have the most clarity since these all seem to be well digitized. Still it’s a good compilation of video materials even if the quality isn’t completely consistent.
Audio
Similarly the audio, presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, puts together older audio files and newer interviews with consistent levels and not too much distortion spread across the interviews. The lack of Hendrix tracks is a big downside to the documentary as a whole, but the music clips they provided show up well, though I’m a little surprised that they put the entire documentary in 2.0 audio rather than providing a 5.1 track that only uses the 2 front channels when the audio requires. It’s understandable in the sense of the documentary, but I feel like there could be more in terms of the audio selected and the quality provided. Also there are no subtitles available on the entire documentary which is a bit of a letdown.
Extras
The special features that are included on the disc are basically big chunks of the unique material included on the documentary, amounting to a couple of featurettes of old footage, some extended interviews and photo montages. First up is the “Henry Diltz’s 8mm Silent Footage: ‘The Monkees’” footage which runs for 10 minutes and 48 seconds. Since the footage is silent it’s a little harder to watch, but interesting shots nonetheless of the travel to a Monkees concert as well as footage of The Monkees backstage and performing. Nothing really Hendrix here, all Monkees footage. “Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Marquee – ‘Hey Joe’” footage runs for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, this is the major piece of Hendrix music and performance live that gets used in the film, it’s a good recording of the song and shows some great early footage of Jimi Hendrix that they were able to secure the rights to. It might just be the best part of the disc, considering the lack of Hendrix’s voice throughout the actual documentary. Next up are the extended interviews, which basically amount to uncut footage of the different interviews presented in the film, they include: - “Dave Mason” runs for 4 minutes and 43, where Mason talks about meeting Hendrix and his intimidating guitar skills as well as the song “All Along the Watchtower” - “Joey Covington” runs for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, here Covington of Jefferson Airplane talks about meeting Hendrix and wearing a blue bathrobe to the concert and getting to jam with the Experience and his favorite Hendrix album. -“Mickey Dolenz” runs for 10 minutes and 17 seconds, speaking a bit to the tour of The Monkees, Hendrix and the use of psychedelics in a visit to New York and being closer friends with Hendrix than the rest of the band, as well as playing the music while high. There are also stories of the Monterey Pop Festival, and some general joking around by him. - “Charles Cross” runs for 6 minutes and 8 seconds, Cross tells more stories of Hendrix’s love of the guitar and how he was always equipped with the instrument and his level of talent, the level of guitar smashing done by Hendrix, and getting the Experience trio together stripped down from a big soul style band to a triad. - “Leon Hendrix” runs for 20 minutes and 51 seconds, speaking to the early nicknames of Hendrix, stories of Hendrix hearing music at an early age, their relationship with their dad, general childhood stories, hanging out with his brother and his favorite music. It’s probably the best of all the interviews since Leon Hendrix seems filled with stories about his brother and his own commentary which gives a nice perspective, though interesting that he’s the only relative of Hendrix included on the disc while the others are noticeably absent. - “Stephen Stills” runs for runs for 6 minutes and 19 seconds, Stills of Crosby, Stills & Nash, relays stories of jamming and playing with Hendrix, with serious thoughts of forming a band with Buddy Miles, and Hendrix. - “Slash” runs for 4 minutes and 58 seconds, speaking more to the cultural impact of Hendrix in music, the uniqueness of rock music and how Van Halen was the last one to revolutionize guitar music, mimicking Hendrix and how positioning of the guitar effects playing. - “Mick Taylor” runs for 7 minutes and 1 second, formerly of The Rolling Stones, speaking to the legacy of Hendrix, the trio format, playing with Hendrix, his own musical influences and singing the blues. - “Lemmy Kilmister” runs for 4 minutes and 26 seconds, Kilmister of Motörhead fame speaking to Hendrix’s consistency on the road, the sound of his music, befriending Hendrix and the Experience and even some jokes. Finally on the disc there are pair of photo galleries, which are really just slideshows of Hendrix and the Experience both candid and posed, including shots of them with naked white women, Hendrix as a background guitarist for other bands. They include: - "Gallery 1" runs for 1 minute and 5 seconds. - "Gallery 2" runs for 1 minute and 25 seconds (noted that these are courtesy of Henry Diltz).
Overall
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