Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

source: Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

This is a documentary for people who like documentaries done from an insider point of view. It is a documentary for people who love movies. It is a documentary for people who love Los Angeles. When you sit down to watch it, you might wonder whether the biography of the program director for an early "pay TV" station would be sufficiently interesting to span two hours. You won't be wondering when it's over. From any point of view, the subject matter is extraordinarily difficult. No one under 40 (and no one from anywhere but L.A.) will remember what Z-Channel was. The life of the story's hero came to an end in a murder-suicide. It is notoriously difficult to put across in a movie ideas about taste and aesthetics. In fact it is quite easy to become annoyed at listening to other people talk about the cinema and what it means to them. But in this documentary Alexandra Cassevetes has succeeded admirably on all counts and delivers one heck of an emotional wallop besides.

I just caught this on DVD and I have to say it is amazing. Z channel was before my time, and even if it wasn't, I live on the East coast, so I would have missed it anyway. I had a vague idea of what z channel was before I saw this film. Though the movie itself says little can be found of Z channel on the internet, there is a small write-up of it in the great, and now out of print book Retro Hell. Z channel was a movie channel, one of the first, pre-dating HBO and Showtime. It was unique because there was no market research, and it introduced the public to unique, weird and overlooked classics. When asked how he choose the films to put on the channel, Harvey said, "I just put shows I like." You could do things like that then. Now, you couldn't. Everything has to be meticulously researched to appeal to the common denominator. In this movie, there's a lot of talk about the uncommon denominator and that's what Z was about. Not dumbing down for the masses, but making the masses think harder about what they're watching. "If you appeal to the most intelligent, the rest will follow." That was Z channel's motto and it worked very well. Nobody ever canceled this channel! There's your proof. The other part of the documentary is what it did for actors and directors. James Woods received an Oscar nod because of Z. Orson Welles got to see Touch of Evil lovingly recut the night before he died. Sam Peckinpah got to see his movies loved again when Hollywood had written him off. And on and on. And then there is the third part. Jerry Harvey's personal life. He was a disturbed man, who had a difficult childhood and family life. Depression was in his genes; both his sisters also took their own lives. One person in this doc says with that kind of history its amazing Harvey held out till 39. Surely his love of movies helped him live that long. But it's hard to be objective about Harvey. He's a murderer (though we sense he regretted his actions). How can you make a murderer into a hero? You can't. But this movie does say you can recognize what good he did bring into the world and that was to create a highly influential form of media, that would influence the Hollywood of its day and future directors. Would there have been a Payne or Tarantino without Z? Who knows? Luckily, we don't have to wonder.

a pretty straight forward documentary about an early pay cable movie channel, yet this movie itself serves if anything to pique an interest in the thousands of movie that disappear year after year into the oblivion of forgotten film. as a lover of film and viewer of far too few i find it fascinating that even with all the cable options now available there are so few willing to take the types of risk involved in old film, foreign films, crass films, art films, short films and combine them in the manner that doesn't insult the viewers intelligence. this movie in and of itself may not be terribly interesting, but it will perhaps stir the imagination towards other movies that you may never forget.

Back in 1974 a pay TV station was started in Los Angeles. It was the Z channel--it showed movies uncut with no commercials. It was a pioneer--years before Showtime, HBO and Cinemax. But Z channel showed films no one else would air--foreign films, independent features. A lot of important film were discovered (or rediscovered) on this channel. It ran the uncut "Heaven's Gate" after the disastrous cut version was released; the same with "Once Upon A Time In America"; it introduced "Bad Timing" to an audience after it's minor theatrical release; "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" found its audience here; the complete 9 hour version of "1900" was shown here and on and on. Also, some of these films had X ratings--but Z didn't cut them. MANY clips of the various films are shown here. It's also about it's owner and programming director--Jerry Harvey. It explains what drove him and how he singlehandedly found these films and showed them. Unfortunately he was also suffering from personal demons which ended up killing him. I didn't know anything about this station--and I'm upset that I grew up on the East Coast and not the West Coast. The programming this station had was fascinating and is inter cut with people who worked there and directors it helped. This is an absolutely fascinating look at the kind of pay TV station we'll never see again and the men and women who ran it. Just great--a definite must-see! A 10 all the way.

Xan Cassavetes' great documentary won the Audience Award for Best Documentary film at the first Turks & Caicos International Film Festival, held in the Caribbean from Nov. 13-20, 2004. Z CHANNEL beat out SLASHER, another IFC doc, by ANIMAL HOUSE's John Landis, and the acclaimed DIVAN, by Pearl Gluck, among others. Keep an eye out on IFC to catch Z CHANNEL, a film that is as much about the tortured man behind the long-defunct pay-cable channel as it is about the historic channel itself. The Turks & Caicos International Film Festival attracted over 1,000 moviegoers, as well as luminaries such as Oscar nominated director Jim Sheridan (MY LEFT FOOT), Oscar-nominated screenwriter Richard Price (THE COLOR OF MONEY), Tony-nominated actor Delroy Lindo (GET SHORTY), and renowned film critic Rex Reed (THE NEW YORK OBSERVER). Lindo served on the festival's Jury with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Naomi Sheridan (IN America) and culture editor Marvin Siegel (THE NEW YORK TIMES).

Z Channel A Magnificent Obsession: 4 out of 10: Well they got the obsession part right. Jerry Harvey was the programming genius behind Z channel an independent LA cable channel that did help revolutionize the way pay cable shows film. He was famous for finding obscure films and directors and showcasing them to the Hollywood elite. He was also a troubled soul with a horrible family history who murdered his wife then took his own life. The documentary attempts to tell the two tales intertwined. The latter of the tales seems unfulfilling. Reminisces from former friends and colleagues are quite frank. (Some, 20 years later, clearly don't forgive him) but there is virtually no insight into causation. What the latter lacks in drama and insight the former lacks in scope. Jerry actually became programming director in 1980 at the death scene of big studio director driven independent Hollywood film of the seventies. (His pal Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was the film that inspired the studio coup d'etat.) So his influence on independent film was more of a eulogizer than influential promoter. (Cimino, Peckinpah and others in his independent circle simply couldn't get work Z channel marathon or no Z channel marathon. Only James Woods (whose Salvador performance was highlighted during Oscar season) and Paul Verhooeven (who claims he got his Robocop job after a Z channel marathon of his films) show a career boost from Jerry. So Jerry plucked tons of virtually unseen studio films of the seventies as well as foreign films for his channel and used these movies to help fill the twenty four hours a day. The documentary avoids one reason for this (These films were cheap if not outright free to show) and barely acknowledges the other reason (These films had plenty of nudity making them the perfect cable only product). The film also avoids answering some simple questions such as if it was so popular why didn't Z channel expand to San Francisco or New York? Jerry does deserve credit for introducing the now ubiquitous director's cut. (Though Heaven's Gate was a really bad movie to start that trend on) and his love of the obscure can be felt from Sundance to Netflix. The film does highlight some great obscure films I still haven't seen but surprising shows no footage whatsoever from the Z channel itself. Long and talky Z Channel is a great place to find some obscure films it just isn't that great a story.

A young movie theater manager near Los Angeles, a lover of obscure titles and cult films, writes an angry letter regarding programming to a pay-TV outlet and arouses enough curiosity about his knowledge of cinema to land himself a job; soon, Jerry Harvey is on the move from Select-TV to Z Channel as programming director. Z Channel, an L.A.-area based station showing both old and newer movies uncut and commercial-free, creates a buzz in the Hollywood community, turning its bearded, manic programmer into an underground celebrity. In the years prior to the burgeoning cable conglomerates Home Box Office and Showtime, Z Channel provided the heart of show business with diverse and stimulating programming, a virtual olive branch to overlooked movies, their directors and stars. This documentary by Xan Cassavetes includes clips of many of the pictures aided financially or otherwise by Harvey, as well as interviews with filmmakers, co-workers, friends and exes involved with Harvey prior to and during his most successful years. The story ends on a sad, puzzling note--with lives unraveled and business affairs in disarray--but for awhile there, Harvey seemed to have it pretty good. Unfortunately however, Jerry Harvey was never able to enjoy his own success, being the product of a very mixed-up family with mental illness the dominant gene--and apparently, there isn't anyone left who can fully explain his devastating ups and downs. Cassavetes doesn't recognize or underline the fact that Z Channel appears to have been a rowdy boys' club for film-geeks, with she herself contributing to the misogyny (lots of naked women and/or overt feminine sexuality in nearly every picture spotlighted). I found myself at the finish-line with a litany of unanswered questions, and there's very little attempt to get into the backgrounds of the cast of characters presented here. Still, "Z Channel" whets the appetite for a film-festival of hidden gems and unrealized genius, and it showcases a pointed yearning many of us have for personal redemption through movies.

It's doesn't take a genius to see why the Independent Film Channel would finance this documentary. Basically the Z Channel was the first movie channel to play independent, little seen, and foreign films. Featuring interviews with directors Quentin Tarantino, Robert Altman, and Alexander Pane, "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession" focuses on the effect the channel had on the film industry. The station had among it's subscribers some of the biggest names in Hollywood. What I found fascinating about this film is the power a cable channel can have. For example James Woods credits his Oscar nomination to the Z Channel's constant playing of the little seen movie "Salvador" to the right people. As a film geek I also enjoyed the generous amount of film clips by director Cassavetes. The film turned me on to movies like "Bad Timing" and "F is for Fake".

The makers of "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession" take a potentially fascinating subject and completely botch it. I have to admit that I only got through about a half hour of the thing, but I can only wait so long for a film to let me know it's going somewhere. I'd never heard of Z-Channel before and was very interested to find out about it, but the filmmakers refused to present me with a clear context or history of their subject. Too much was assumed before any solid groundwork was laid. All I was getting was just a bunch of vaguely connected quotes about a vaguely defined subject and wild praise of someone I had been told nothing significant about who had apparently done something amazing, though what exactly that something was remained foggy. It's confusing and annoying to be repeatedly told of the significance and importance of something before that thing is fully explained. Maybe say it once, to peak my interest, but not over and over from different people time and again. Get to the point! Tell the story! Now, I admit that I could tell that this was supposed to be the story of a movie fan named Jerry Harvey who was involved with the first pay movie channel, but that was about it--and I think I should have known more after half an hour! I'm pretty sure that other people like me, people who had never heard of Z-channel before, were similarly bored or confused. This film was obviously not created for us, but for people already "in the know." And that kind of seems to defeats the purpose if you ask me.