MC FIVE - A TESTIMONIAL
The Other Cinema Soho, London
Wednesday, October 30 2002
And so it came to pass that I got word that the long-awaited MC5 film, "MC5
- A True Testimonial" was finished, and after screenings in Toronto and Chicago,
was making its European debut as part of the a London film festival on 30th
October. I managed to book myself a ticket for the small Soho cinema showing
it, and journeyed up to London that afternoon.
Arriving at the cinema in good time for the showing, we were shepherded down
the stairs and ended up queuing in a small corridor. Whilst standing their killing
time, a guy with an American accent pointed to my MC5 T-shirt and said: "Did
you buy that on-line?" When I answered yes, he said: "Thanks very much for the
support, I'm David C. Thomas, the director." We chatted about various aspects
of the film in terms of making it and showing it, and I asked if they were going
to take it to Australia. Apparently the Melbourne Film Festival are interested,
and he hopes to take it to Australia for a showing or two at some point.
Anyway, he had to shoot off and see some other people, and we started to move
into the cinema proper, whereupon he appeared in front of the sold-out crowd
(about 300 or so I'd guess), introducing the film as a seven-year labour of
love, and how meaningful tonight's showing was, being the Zenta New Year, exactly
34 years to the night that "Kick Out The Jams" album was recorded.
The film opens with some eerie footage shot inside the deserted and dilapidated
Grande Ballroom in Detroit, then goes on to give a brief portrait of the five
main protagonists. The film is basically a collection of interview clips, primarily
shot for the film, but also some archive interviews, interspersed with live
footage, both with sound dubbed from the albums and with the original footage's
live sound. Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson and Michael Davis are interviewed
extensively, and there's a fair amount of input from Rob Tyner's widow and Fred
Smith's wife of the time, and John Sinclair. There are also some interview clips
with Rob Tyner from about 1989 - unfortunately there is only one individual
interview with Fred Smith in the film, from 1972. It would seem that there isn't
really any interview footage of Fred around, and alas it's too late now.
There is radio sound of the 5 from a radio station's battle of the bands in
1965, and footage of them on a local TV station from 1967, as well as other
stills shots of them from their earliest incarnations.
The film sets the background for the band growing up and forming and then tells
the story of the development of the band, falling in with Johns Sinclair, playing
the Democratic national Convention/police riot in 1968, having to move from
Detroit to Ann Arbor to escape trouble etc from the police.
There's a lovely series of interview clips where the first shows Sinclair outlining
the story behind the White Panthers, then a clip of Kramer explaining how important
and necessary it was, followed by two clips (of Davis and then Thompson) saying
how the White Panthers were nothing but a distraction and an irrelevance. Cue
another clip from Kramer saying "of course, the rhythm section may have a different
opinion".
The story continues with their migration to England, their story of playing
the Phun City festival in England (with some fine footage), Fred's silver "spacesuit"
(needs to be seen to be believed!) and all the way through to the final dissolution
of the band, and replacement of Davis and Thompson as they dropped out, and
then the final show, New Year's Eve 1972, with Kramer explaining how he had
to walk off halfway through the show, take his guitar and money and score some
heroin - you can see that even at this remove he has great regrets how it all
fell apart.
There's some great live footage, probably the best of which is a version of
"Looking At You" from an outdoor gig at a university one afternoon in 1970,
and the whole film does an excellent job of making you realise what a great
band they really were. Hell, I wish I could see more of them. Ideally I would
have liked more live footage, but there is a story to tell, and anyway, who
knows how many bits of usable footage with sound exist.
What there is is compelling and well-cut together, generating an overwhelming
sense of energy. I did note that in the credits at the end, the list of thanks
includes Deniz Tek, Ken Shimamoto, and a mysterious entity known only as I94-Bar!
I gather from the credits (and from postings over the past couple of years)
that various other musicians have recorded "testimonial" interviews - they don't
appear on the film, but are acknowledged in the credits. In an ideal world,
these would all appear on a DVD edition of the film. There again, in an ideal
world, the MC5 would have made a hell of a lot more music.
This film won't win any Oscars, but that's probably a good thing if Titanic
can win eight of the bloody things. "MC5 - A True Testimonial" is a fascinating
piece of history and an admirable piece of film-making - it's two hours long,
but the time never drags, it never seems that long and it leaves you wanting
more; see it if you can. I bumped into the director after the show, and he asked
me "So what did you think, did I do all right?" "You did a damn fine job" I
told him, and I meant it. - Jelly
MC5 t-shirts and baseball caps are available from Future
Now Films
Five bottles please,
Mr Barman!
