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 Dig! 

What grade would you give this film?
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 Dig! 
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Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:01 pm
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Dig!

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Dig! is a 2004 documentary film directed by Ondi Timoner, and produced by Ondi Timoner, Vasco Nunes and David Timoner. Compiled from seven years of footage, it contrasts the developing careers of the bands The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the bands' respective frontmen Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Anton Newcombe. It won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The production company that created DiG! was Interloper Films, Palm Pictures and Celluoid Dreams.

Newcombe argues that the documentary was unfair in its portrayal of him. On the band's official website, he publicly denounced the film as reducing several years of hard work to "at best a series of punch-ups and mishaps taken out of context, and at worst bold faced lies and misrepresentation of fact." The story also leaves one with the impression, by using Courtney as a voice over, that Anton and his band were no longer a band. There was no update regarding Anton at the time of release.


Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:31 pm
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Jordan Mugen-Honda
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Joined: Mon May 01, 2006 9:53 am
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The rock documentary is a very tricky art to master. One must balance the need for constant access and the compromises that may bring with the need to paint as honest and true a picture of the artist as possible to avoid the unwanted veneer of an MTV propaganda piece. I've seen plenty of rock retrospectives in my time but Dig is the first one that comes through with a real feeling of unfiltered mayhem and reality that is worlds away from the sanitized puff pieces music studios love to feed their customers.

The film itself revolves around 6 years in the life of 2 bands namely The Dandy Warhol's, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre as we follow the ups and downs of their respective careers and the affect it has on the respective band members.

Now there is a pretty good chance you've heard of The Dandy Warhol's their faux bohemian rock draped over Vodafone commercials but only genre enthusiasts would ever have heard of Brian Jonestown and their memorable frontman Anton Newcombe and somehow i think this really did increase my enjoyment of this film because i was totally unprepared for it

Its tilted heavily towards Brian Jonestown in terms of concentration mainly because Newcombe is such a fascinating figure, like a lot people blessed with artistic creativity he's a deeply volatile personality and the rest of the band (which chops and changes members like crazy thru the film) are in essence drown out by his rampant need to sabotage all their opportunates with rockstar behavior.

You might think acting rockstar is what a musician is suppose to do but what Dig illuminates better then anything is that the idea of a traditional rock star in the mold of 60s hotel destroying lunatics is dead. Its The Dandy Warhol's who get ahead in this game with a shallow slavish adherence to the rules of the game in essence selling their musical soul for the money, at stages you see they wish they didn't need to do this (a section where they de-camp to the Brian Jonestown house to try and have some of the Newcombe cool rub off on them is one major moment) but its clear they love the trappings of fame and the music is just a sideshow. The Warhols come off in a less then savory manner but in the end you have to admit they made the right choice.

The Warhols succeed while Newcombe with 10 times the musical talent to burn fails in a ragged fashion as his failure stands as the end of not just him but also of real raw music hitting the big time without the studio playbook in charge.

It would stand as the 2nd best documentary i've seen from this decade and you don't even need to like the music to appreciate it. Consider this the sober counterpoint to Spinal Tap.

A+

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Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:15 pm
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