Movie #1849: The Devil And Daniel Johnston (2005, Jeff Feuerzeig)
The first Daniel Johnston record I bought was the one with Jad Fair. I thought it was kinda crappy. I was suprised years later when I found a copy of the "Fun" CD. It was on Atlantic (a major label) and it sounded normal! I hadn't even heard that Daniel had made a CD for a major label. This movie glosses over that CD (the music but not the story behind it). And I guess that it didn't sound that normal because according to this movie it bombed big time.
It seems to me that Daniel wouldn't be as a big a star today if it wasn't for his mental illness. I think a lot of people want to come out to see that crazy person. But these weren't amazing publicity stunts (forcing a woman to jump out of her 2nd story window or crashing an aeroplane), they were just the actions of a crazy person. And that's what makes them appealing.
OK, now how about a documentary about Roky Erickson?
Here's a little story about Daniel and Roky.
Here's a song about Roky by Daniel.
After checking IMDB: They've already made a Roky Erickson documentary: "You're Gonna Miss Me" and it was released the same year as "The Devil And Daniel Webster". Sounds like they would have made a dynamite double bill.
I just checked with Netflix about the Roky Erickson movie. It's available.....if you live in the USA, you're SOL if you live in Canada.
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