Simply Perfect

Best movie ever!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I would encourage anyone who is a fan of Townes' music watch this. Townes Van Zandt was a man of deep and complex character. He spoke his soul through his lyrics. I can't help but wonder, throughout watching the clips of Townes himself and those left behind and their recollections, if anyone really "got" Townes. He literally sacrificed his health, his family, and ultimately his life trying to be heard.The scenes with Townes' wives and children were the most touching. Looking into the great black pools of Townes' eyes, it's easy to see how those around him would be mesmerized and want to be near him. The film also handled the less glamorous side of Townes' life with grace.It's clear that Townes rejected the privileged lifestyle of his family and sought the real gold, that which touches the humanity in each of us, which he did so well through his music.

"Well, many of my songs, they aren't sad, they're hopeless." - Townes Van Zandt."I don't envision a very long life for myself. I think my life will run out before my work does, you know? I've designed it that way." - Townes Van Zandt.An amazing talent, with a bent for self-destruction, Townes was a unique and singular voice. This film reuses much footage from "Heartworn Highways", an arty documentary made in the 70s. It conveys the pain and self destructiveness that plagued Van Zandt and reveals that he was a manic depressive and alcoholic, facts which would not surprise anyone who listened to his work.The film focuses on the period between the late 70s and late 80s when Townes went into hiding. After producing a record called "7 Come 11" he literally vanished, refusing to release his music until 20 years later.The film is peppered with interviews with producers and song writers, many touting him as one of the greatest singer/poets since Dylan, who sadly, because of his suicidal tendencies, never achieved the superstar status he deserved.Townes inexplicable failure to promote himself and his music baffled the industry and pretty soon he began a downward spiral, creatively and personally. He'd play Russian roulette with a .357 Magnum, often talk about suicide, inexplicably avoid his family, stay up nights drinking and spent years locked away in a log cabin, away from the world.It seems that these "lost years" contributed to Van Zandt's decline, although one gets the sense that Townes didn't know what he was looking for or what he really wanted to achieve. He was an intelligent man, but his pain was just too much to warrant living. When questioned in an interview about what his goals were, it seems Townes had never thought about it (or didn't have any), and he struggles with the question until answering with a smile, "I would like to write a song that no one understands, including myself." It's a playful comment, until you see the look in his eyes and realise what he means. He'd like no one to understand or identify with the pain of his music, because sadly, to understand is to suffer too. As the film nears its end, the shocking transformation of Van Zandt into a skeletal alcoholic is particularly disturbing. His cheek bones protrude like shards of broken pottery, his guitar skills deteriorating and his voice becoming torn and melancholy.Van Zandt's music has been called folk and country, but on its deepest level it relates most comfortably to the blues. Over the past two years there's been a tremendous revival of interest in roots music. People initially turned to this music as a kind of protest against the childishness and soullessness of commercial, popular music. Then, after September 11th, roots music came to be associated with "Americana". A kind of cultural patriotism.A couple years later and scepticism and anger raises it's ugly head. "Americana" was suddenly bad, and the old vanguard of roots music, those angry anti establishment folk guys like Dylan are suddenly popular again.Zandt never had a revival. Aside from the Coen brothers using his song in "Lebowski" and paying homages in "O brother where art thou?", he's still relatively unheralded and unheard of. Like Van Gogh, he seems a tortured artist doomed to slow appreciation. One of those masters who, though hugely influential, remains remembered by only those in the industry. But at his best, Van Zandt is songwriter who could rival anyone. There is nothing cute, celebratory or charmingly old-timey about him. Far from reassuring, his songs are as unsettling as they come. And as one producer says in this documentary, "if you're serious about American music, eventually you're going to have to enter this darkness." 8/10- Great artists are sensitive people, permanently attuned to the world. Townes Van Zandt lived a tortured life, his music reaching depths few writers are able to plunge. I'm not a huge fan of country music or blues, but even I found this documentary to be quietly adventurous, visually poetic and emotionally devastating. "Be here to love me" is a sad meditation on the darkness and beauty of Van Zandt's life and the collateral damage such a life can have on those who live it with you.

Reading through the other reviews, obviously the majority are massive fans of Townes Van Zandt (as I am) and their views are from the side of people who were already very familiar with Townes and his combination of self-destructiveness, married with some of the most sublime songwriting ever heard. However, what about if you were one of the people who had never heard of Townes (and lets face it, he was largely a cult figure)and you watched this film from the perspective of trying to learn something more about the man. Would you know more about what made him so selfish, so distant to those that he professed to love. Would you have learnt about why he chose to play guitar, what he read or absorbed to be able to write such perfect prose. Who were his musical influences apart from Lightning Hopkins? In my opinion this film does not answer these questions satisfactorily, if at all. In that way I found the film lacking depth and substance. Make no mistake, I loved being able to see Townes play live. I loved hearing largely gushing comments about his talent (Steve Earle excepted with his story about Townes playing Russian Roulette), but somehow this film left me uninvolved and without any deeper knowledge about the life of Townes Van Zandt. As I said in the title - In a word - Frustrating.

This is a wonderful documentary about a songwriter almost universally acknowledged to be one of the best, if not, the best country/folk songwriter of the last 50 years. Many friends, including such notables as Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earl, Emmylou Harris and Guy Clark, give some of their remembrances and evaluations of his work. There are lots of interviews with Townes, as well a several performances lovingly sung by him and others. All in all, a beautiful documentary. Now for some personal gripes, mainly calling for another hour or so in a 99 minute documentary: 1) I would have liked more complete, uninterrupted, performances. The director clearly did not want this to be a concert film, but at least one complete, uninterrupted performance would have been nice. 2) The beautiful Tecumsen (Tecumseh) Valley song is not sung or mentioned. This was a great disappointment for me, having lived with Nanci Griffith's as well as Townes' version of this great song.*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS *** The depiction of Townes' mental problems as well as his drug and alcohol problems were frankly discussed by friends and relatives. One could be saddened by his early demise, but not surprised.