Cobain: Montage of Heck

source: Cobain: Montage of Heck

A sad exploitation of a talented man. As a film sanctioned by his estate, it was clear this was only part of the story and only the part that they wanted to put the spin on. What a disgrace to paint Kurt Cobain as nothing but suicidal long before the success of Nirvana. The 2 1/2 hour documentary is tolerable for only about the first hour. After that, the backstory of Kurt Cobain is polluted by the relationship choice he made and a highly biased or third-party influenced (or paid for?) fallacy that this young man, despite having fulfilled his goal of being a recognized musician and having the possibly unexpected pleasure of being a father, wanted nothing more than to die. The snippets from his journals seem taken very much out of context, again to push the idea this man was suicidal for years, and the Pink Floyd "The Wall"-esque animations are cheesy and make this overly-long film a burden to continue to watch until the end. The saddest part for me was watching Kurt Cobain's mother and father, who both rejected him and would not allow him to live with him while he was a teenager, snivel about their loss. You didn't want him then, but you want him now? Many authoritative sources have debunked some of his mother's statements in this film. Very sad. Others who knew him personally adamantly have denied events portrayed in the film, even as the words came from Kurt himself, the sources noting that Kurt was quick to embellish or make up stories to cause subterfuge in the rampant media coverage at the time of his popularity.Also very telling is that Krist Novelic was interviewed for the film but not Dave Grohl due to "scheduling conflicts." In other words, he did not want or was not invited to participate and some PR firm concocted a reason for his absence that some may choose to believe. Watch the first hour to see some precious moments of Kurt as a youngster, skip the last 90 minutes unless you enjoy being manipulated.

It really does take the myth out the man, and you are able to see him as real person who was super talented and unfortunately was never truly happy with himself and you see glimpses of happiness when he is with his family and band mates or playing music. I loved it, and it has stayed in my head for days because I always had this idealism towards who Kurt was, that seeing him as just a human being with severe self-acceptance issues, and at the same time, a very honest and sensitive guy who loved his wife and daughter, but could only love them the way he knew how, it was really cool and refreshing. People who do not like this documentary are of course entitled to their opinion, but I have never watched any nirvana or Kurt documentaries and I thought this one was a great presentation of the man he was and how he saw the world, so I don't get why you would not like this and think other documentaries are better. It is all about perspective and what the documentaries focus on, so I don't understand why people think they needed to see more footage of this or that... I 100% recommend this one!

I found Montage of Heck to be a scatter-brained documentary that couldn't decide which direction to go. It grabs at various forms of media culled from Cobain's family, and tosses them into a blender, with splashes of interviews and band footage. There were some stunningly rotoscoped animation, using narration from Cobain, that briefly takes you through his dejected teenage years in Aberdeen, Washington. They also rendered the years Cobain spent living with his first girlfriend, Tracy Marander, who supported him when Nirvana started getting noticed. Marander isn't shown (only in interviews and rare photos), we just see how Kurt spent his days being creative while she was at work. Anyway, not long after, the band signed to Sub Pop and released Bleach. There were also drawings and writings (many would make Jack Kerouac's "spontaneous prose" seem lucid by comparison) from his sketchbooks / journals, that were brought to life using muted computer graphics. These were scattered throughout, and became laborious after about the 10th time. Still, the music that accompanied them were great. We get to hear plenty of unreleased material, and I even noticed some Nirvana covers, which felt redundant. Now, cue in Courtney Love. Sigh. It was annoying seeing her all dolled up by a makeup artist, chain-smoking and sounding incredibly untruthful about Kurt's last couple of months. I won't ruin it, but it's towards the end of the film and it made me more suspicious of her. The home videos of Kurt, Courtney, and Frances Bean were quite touching, although at times it got dark, especially some moments with just Kurt and Courtney (not 100% on who recorded them). You know he was the happiest he's ever been, but they were also plunging into the abyss of heroin and other drugs. Overall, Montage of Heck started off as a sweet concoction that ultimately left me with a bitter aftertaste. I hear that 'About a Son' is the superior documentary, so I'll watch that in hopes of getting a deeper insight into Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

By far this is the most comprehensive look into Kurt as a human being, without the sole focus being on his drug addiction and his depressive moods. For the last 21 years the majority of what has been published has focused on Kurt's last few years and his impending demise but it was refreshing to see a documentary that tried to look at the big picture which included home footage of Kurt with his family as a young kid and as an adult, just being himself. The inclusion of so much of Kurt's art and personal journals added so much depth and insight into his feelings at different times over his life, even though editing can skew what we see and what we don't. It is fantastic that Frances Bean Cobain had an integral role in producing a more accurate representation of who her father really was rather than who the media/tabloids wanted him to be.

I have read a couple Bios of Nirvana and found this doc to be fairly simplistic. Still I enjoyed seeing the unseen footage and cartoon montages. What I was really hoping for was a bit more focus of Kurt when he lived in Evergreen and was dating Toby Vail(would have liked to of seen her in the doc). The experience he had during that time is what inspired him to write many if not all of the songs from Nevermind. What the doc did include was well done. I also wish there was a few more people included in the doc. Dave Grohl, Chad Channing, Toby Vail, to name a few. Still A must watch for any Nirvana/Kurt Cobain fan. The story of Kurt Cobain is a frustrating one his personality mixed with his addictions was what ultimately led to his downfall. I really wish he would have sucked it up and stuck around a bit. I will admit the Doc did a good job capturing just how sensitive and awkward he was before during and after his fame.

I have given this movie a rating of 5, which feels generous to me after just coming from the cinema, only because the director was attempting to stick solely to the matter of Kurt Cobain, rather than that band he was in, whatever they were called (I'm sure nobody is interested in them anyway ;), and he DID do this. And as a university essay, this would have meant great marks. However, these rules seemed more like massive limitations to me. I went in wanting to know more about Kurt, of course, but as a fan I was looking for more music stuff; more Buzz, Dave, Dale, Chad, Albini, friends etc. In a strange and telling move, the director agreed to include an interview with himself at the end of the film. To be honest, this seemed like either a way of offering us an excuse as to why we are walking away very disappointed, OR, to further grandiose himself; it's is hard to tell. He stated that he wanted to involve only the main actors in Kurt's life; those who would have been at his funeral if he had still been a janitor, rather than what he became (this wouldn't include Courtney- she has stated she wanted a rock star, and only one with a good nose at that). The problem is that he wasn't a janitor. Surely they could wiped out all the cartoons, all the journal and live stuff that has already been available for years; STILL included the cassette recordings, AND all the stuff about Nirvana and the music, and still come in at 2 hours without losing any of the GOOD stuff in there. Personally I found the whole thing a bit embarrassing and awkward as a viewer. I felt like some horrible sycophant or creepy voyeur through most of this. MAN he would have been embarrassed also if he was alive. In my opinion Kurt's success was as part of a team of people who helped his vision come to life. Yes, he was the alpha visionary in the band, but those musicians, producers and record folk (who we are assumed to understand if this is the definitive Kurt Cobain documentary- don't matter), helped polish the thing to perfection in a manner that we all love. Apparently we are all Kurt worshippers first and foremost. Creepy! This brings me to the thing that bugged me the most. The corny, cringe worthy sabotages of Nirvana's legacy, with all these montage video clips, which just rob the music of all its power, forcing these enigmatic and subtlety crafted songs into the directors less than subtle, frankly, ham fisted visions. At the end when you hear and see the director, you get a sense of how this was doomed from the start. Perhaps even a pinch of Kurt's modesty would have helped here. I wrote this review because I don't want any film maker out to feel the story has been told. This film is just a whole lot of smoke and mirrors.

Montage of Heck is exactly what the name suggests, a montage. An overly long montage I'd say. Most of the film is made up of hand written notes and drawings from what appears to be from Kurt's scrapbook. And that's the problem; notes and drawings don't make for good film material. The film makers have thrown in a few interviews for good measure, but they add nothing to a story that's already been told a million times. I'm no big Nirvana fan, yet I learned nothing new from watching all 133minutes of this film. Kurt's mom and sister, Courtney, Krist Novoselic and Kurt's ex-girlfriend are the only people interviewed (if I'm forgetting someone it's because the film really didn't hold my attention). Where are the interviews with Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Pat Smear, ex members Dale Crover and Chad Channing (to name but two) and Kurt's friends Buzz Osbourne and Dylan Carlson (again to name but two)? And there must have been so many other people behind the scenes that could have contributed to the story, childhood friends, managers, crew members, even bleeping drug dealers. I know the title says montage, but I was hoping for a documentary and was greatly disappointed.

It's been more than 20 years since the death of Kurt Cobain, and while there have been numerous documentaries, books, and television programs devoted to telling his story, it's difficult to point to any one account as being the definitive portrait of the Nirvana frontman. But Brett Morgen's fascinating film Cobain: Montage of Heck is more than worthy of that title. Chronicling Cobain's life and career through never-before-seen home videos, sketches, audio recordings and diary entries, Montage of Heck provides an unprecedented look into the mind of one of rock music's most iconic figures. This is the first film to have the full support and cooperation of Cobain's family, and the wealth of material resulting from this partnership is staggering. Most of the journal entries featured in the film have been animated and set to music, providing a unique and frenetic energy that seems to distract the audience from the fact that they're being forced to read in order to keep up with the narrative. Sometimes they're nothing more than a few short words, other times they're entire pages of ideas and song lyrics and scribbles, but they all showcase a mind that functioned with the same sort of reckless abandon with which Cobain played music. But the animation isn't just limited to the words on the pages of Cobain's many journals. Indeed, there are several fully-animated sequences that are combined with recordings of Cobain recounting anecdotes from various periods in his life. These scenes, from animators Hisko Hulsing and Stefan Nadelman, have an almost dreamlike quality, and breathe an incredible amount of life into Cobain's own narration. Montage of Heck is also peppered with interviews, with frequent quotes from Cobain's parents, his first serious girlfriend, former bandmate Krist Novoselic, and even his widow, Courtney Love (conspicuously absent is Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who served as the band's drummer for the bulk of their short career). Once again, the cooperation of these individuals provides tremendous insight into the series of events that led Cobain into his downward spiral. But the most emotional material, and certainly the most difficult to watch, is a lengthy segment during the film's second hour devoted to home video footage of Cobain and his wife. We see them holed up in their apartment during a heroin-fueled binge, with frequent cuts to news headlines about their drug problems, and Cobain's angry handwritten retorts. We see them at home after the birth of their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, taking baths together and cracking jokes, obviously in love despite the undeniable toxicity of their relationship. Far from the sort of talking head style that is so common with other music documentaries, Montage of Heck instead offers the most intimate look at Cobain that we've ever seen. From the casual listener to the hardcore fan, every viewer can expect to learn something about Cobain that they didn't know before, leaving with even more appreciation for his art, and more sorrow over his tragic self-destruction.

It's 21 years since Kurt Cobain's death by suicide and his status as a legendary alternative rock figure and totem for a disaffected generation has not dimmed in the intervening period. Although I had been eagerly awaiting this documentary, at the same time I approached it with a wariness more than half expecting it to be a depressing encounter. Given what I already knew about the mental difficulties and addiction problems Kurt faced during his short life and the eventual sad outcome it was hard to believe that anything of a positive nature could be wrung from seeing this. This is the first official documentary made about the life of Kurt Cobain. It has been made with the co-operation of his family. His daughter Frances Bean is an executive producer. His parents, sister, wife- Courtney Love, first girlfriend and fellow band member Chris Novoselic (the third band member Dave Grohl is the notable absentee) have all contributed, allowing themselves to be interviewed. The expectation of access to intimate home videos as well as Kurt's own drawings, writing, outpourings etc and other previously unseen footage bringing with it the possibility of gaining a clearer view on Kurt Cobain's life is probably the thing which will entice most viewers to go see this. This heavy reliance on this intimate source material makes for an intense portrayal of the subject. It's also what makes it a success. It's noticeable how often for instance on screen we are shown up-close, his own words in his hand-writing in the original copybook complete with stains and other words and sentences crossed out. It's the closest place the director can bring us, next to occupying Kurt's mind. Much of the writing is angry and nihilistic but there are lots of lists too- of things to do for example; it all suggests a wildly active mind and one not easy to keep a rein on. Home videos himself and Courtney produced, both while pregnant with, and then after Frances Bean was born similarly get us up-close and personal. It's excruciating to watch but compelling too- a couple wrapped up in each other but also in their drug dependency. When Frances Bean is born his love for her is touching but then the videos also reveal the declining health as the heroin addiction spirals. As intense and personal as it is there are no major revelatory insights into the life or death of Kurt Cobain in this documentary. This is not a failing of the documentary as I don't think any revelatory new angles or expositions could have been expected. As well as this the title (taken from the name of a mix-tape Kurt put together) does indicate obfuscation or a lack of clarity or certainty about a picture drawn. So it should be; where a life ends so tragically definitive answers can never be presented and any distillation of his life or death into neat summations is thankfully and rightly avoided. The documentary tells us the following (which in essence we already know or suppose we know). Kurt was an energetic, intelligent child who became withdrawn and angry as he got older, probably owing largely to his parent's divorce. He was often a lone, self-hating teenager who found a release from his angst in smoking pot and then at a certain age he discovered punk music which lit a torch and he began to teach himself guitar and write music. He was disaffected enough and genius enough to write brilliantly disaffected genius songs. His music struck a chord, Nirvana became huge almost overnight and then he struggled with the idea of being held up as a spokesperson for a generation. Desperately insecure, above all else he craved love and a need for rootedness- a family to belong to. He found this with Courtney Love and later their daughter. He sought refuge in them away from what he saw as a hostile world but tragically he also sought refuge in heroin.