As one of those squeamish animal rights activists, I find the acid trip hard to rewatch, but for you, my dear, *anything*!
I hadn't realized before you brought it up how the acid trip does not fit the cinematographic style of the rest of the documentary. I wonder (this is not a scholarly wondering, I confess it up front) if film!Bruce and his crew are again manipulating the images of the band for their film's benefit. More than once they lie to the band about what they have seen and heard. Are they now lying to the audience about what really happened? The splicing in of the scene of Joe killing himself is clearly an attempt at something besides narrating the linear truth of the band's tour.
I think the bacchanal is a neat motif. Is Bucky Dionysus? Dionysus punishes resistance to his cult in various ways, causing people to kill family members in a frenzy and other acts which ultimately lead to a kind of sterility (the opposite of the fertility he represents). He brings both life and death; and in a way, Bucky brought life to Joe through his inspiration, but he also brings about his death, since the revelation that he is alive and well shows Joe's manipulative scheme for what it is, and that is the beginning of the end for Billy getting back with the band, I think.
None of this is making any sense, as it is 1 am, though I don't think it would have made any sense earlier either. It is a fascinating topic for discussion though!
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-19 07:17 am (UTC)I hadn't realized before you brought it up how the acid trip does not fit the cinematographic style of the rest of the documentary. I wonder (this is not a scholarly wondering, I confess it up front) if film!Bruce and his crew are again manipulating the images of the band for their film's benefit. More than once they lie to the band about what they have seen and heard. Are they now lying to the audience about what really happened? The splicing in of the scene of Joe killing himself is clearly an attempt at something besides narrating the linear truth of the band's tour.
I think the bacchanal is a neat motif. Is Bucky Dionysus? Dionysus punishes resistance to his cult in various ways, causing people to kill family members in a frenzy and other acts which ultimately lead to a kind of sterility (the opposite of the fertility he represents). He brings both life and death; and in a way, Bucky brought life to Joe through his inspiration, but he also brings about his death, since the revelation that he is alive and well shows Joe's manipulative scheme for what it is, and that is the beginning of the end for Billy getting back with the band, I think.
None of this is making any sense, as it is 1 am, though I don't think it would have made any sense earlier either. It is a fascinating topic for discussion though!