?
Rock Hudson and Doris Day (pictured in Lover Come Back) are given superficial treatment in a pair of new documentaries.
Photograph by: Gazette files
Bill W.
4 stars
Documentary
Directed by: Dan Carracino, Kevin Hanlon
Running time: 104 minutes
Parental guidance: for mature audiences.
Opens Friday, Nov. 9 at: Cin?ma du Parc
In 1989, James Woods won a well-deserved Emmy Award for his lead role in My Name Is Bill W., a TV movie that chronicled the life of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson. Director Daniel Petrie was fortunate that he could cast whomever he wished in this dramatization to play the principals as well as the AA members attesting to the success of the program, without having to worry about maintaining their anonymity.
Neophyte directors Kevin Hanlon and Dan Carracino had a much more arduous task at hand in assembling their documentary Bill W., opening Friday, Nov. 9?at Cin?ma du Parc. They spent eight years digging up rare archival footage of the enigmatic Bill Wilson. Due to a dearth of such footage, they then had to dramatize pivotal events in the life of Wilson and the start of AA. Also problematic was the fact that they had to protect the anonymity of AA members they interviewed by placing them in shadows. Further complicating their mission was that few current AA members knew Wilson, who passed away in 1971.
Regardless of the obstacles, the directing tandem emerged with a stunning doc about the obstacles Bill W. had to overcome in his battle against alcoholism.
According to those who did know him, Wilson, a Vermont native, was a ?stinking, rotten drunk.? A small-time broker, he was left penniless by the stock market crash of 1929. He drank to excess to forget. But the binge boozing had devastating consequences, to both his physical and mental well-being.
In 1934, he was on the verge of no return, trying to dry out in a hospital. In those days, alcoholism was seen as a grave psychiatric issue; treatment was often electric-shock therapy and even lobotomies.
Wilson had an epiphany of sorts when he ran into a non-drinking buddy who found religion. But Wilson?s salvation came when he hooked up with Dr. Bob Smith, also at his wits? end trying to deal with his drinking demons.
And so Alcoholics Anonymous came into being in 1935. And what began with Wilson and Smith counselling small groups of alcoholics grew to a fellowship of more than 2 million members in 170 countries today. The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book has sold over 30 million copies and is available in 60 languages. The AA 12 Steps program is employed by 60 recovery groups ? not all related to alcohol addiction.
For his part, Wilson was posthumously named one of Time magazines?s 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century. And yet his life was hardly smooth sailing after he gave up the bottle.
Wilson was a reluctant hero. He felt uncomfortable in the role of icon and found it a burden to have others look up to him. He feared AA?s growth could be thwarted by too much religious dogma and sought a ?bigger umbrella? to accommodate more members.
More troubling, though, Wilson constantly had to deal with depression, and he created controversy by experimenting with LSD in an effort to rid himself of the affliction.
He died a painful death at 76, having suffered from emphysema in his last years.
Directors Hanlon and Carracino merit much praise for an illuminating portrait of a pioneer who was viewed as a saviour by so many, yet was also a most complex man.
- - -
Rock Hudson and Doris Day were two of the most successful actors of their era. Mind you, they were not to be confused with a Sir Larry Olivier or a Katharine Hepburn on the emoting front. The two appeared in the romantic comedy Pillow Talk in 1959, but while their studio overlords might have wished for some real-life pillow talk between the two, such was not to be. Hudson was gay, albeit closeted, and Day was married.
Hudson only publicly revealed that he was gay shortly before dying of AIDS in 1985. Day, four marriages later, has mostly been out of the limelight since retiring in 1981. (Now 90, she lives in Carmel, Calif., where she co-owns a hotel.)
The actors took different paths to stardom, but shared similar dilemmas in trying to deal with fame in the days when movie stars were essentially studio serfs.
One would assume documentary treatments of their lives and times would be rich and revealing. Perhaps, but not in the hands of the directing duo of Andrew Davies and Andr? Sch?fer. The two are responsible for the docs Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger (playing Friday,?Nov. 9?to Thursday, Nov. 15?at Cin?ma du Parc) and Doris Day: Superstar (playing Nov. 16 to 22 at the Parc).
Davies and Sch?fer bring no added insights into the actors? lives. If anything, they tend to diminish their subjects with surprisingly superficial overviews.
The Hudson doc is little more than salacious gossip about his sex life and attempts to keep his homosexuality quiet, largely due to the fact that he was a matinee idol, much adored by his female fans.
On a certain level, the film speaks to the moral rigidity of the times. But mostly it is just plain vacuous, punctuated by pointless interviews with B-level stars. The big revelations here: Hudson preferred his given name Roy to Rock; he refused to sign autographs, delegating an underling to do it for him; and he loved knitting.
According to his loyal publicist, one of his last words related to his appreciation for her chocolate mousse. Not exactly Rosebud.
As for the equally trite Doris Day doc, the big revelation is that while she may have been portrayed as the girl next door and ?America?s wholesome virgin,? the actress/singer claims that image is ?more fictional than any character I played.?
Rather than delve deeply into her claim about not being the girl next door, the directors focus on the adoration some gushing German fans still have for her.
What would have been far more compelling: a look into the relationship she had with her only child, the late Terry Melcher, the musician and Byrds/Beach Boys producer believed to have been the original target of Charles Manson. But to that, the directors pay the barest of lip service. Bizarre.
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
?
?
?
?
?
?
neighborhood watch dennis rodman dodgers sale tami roman jetblue captain los angeles dodgers christie brinkley
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.