Having never been exposed to the music of the band The Mentors or their lead singer/drummer El Duce I didn’t know what to expect from this movie. I’d read that the group was famous, notorious, memorable, offensive and one of the bands used by the PMRC during their Senate hearings. With all of that to absorb I popped in the disc and found something that is definitely normal viewing for most people.
El Duce is the name used by Eldon Hoke, one of the founders of the band and their front man. The film is a composite of footage shot by Ryan Sexton, a part time actor on GENERAL HOSPITAL and documentarian. Taking the footage he had he presents the story of the band and their leader in particular.
The band is definitely not for all tastes. They began as a jazz fusion group but unable to find places to perform that way they decided to do the simplest form of music possible (their description not mine), punk rock. The discordant style and outrageous lyrical content of the genre gave them free rein to do whatever they wanted and what they wanted was attention. El Duce called his form of rock “rape rock” with lyrics that matched that concept. Songs ranged from rape to golden showers to anal sex. And it got attention. Wearing black executioner hoods they took the stage where ever they played and made it theirs.
Footage of the band and El Duce in particular on shows like Jerry Springer and Wally George, both shockmeisters themselves, is part of this film. The confrontational attitudes of both interviewer and interviewee might make for high octane programming but the reality is it just boosted the success of the band. It also put on display the dark humor of El Duce himself. Dark humor is a fine line to walk and more than once he falls across the line.
Interviews with band members as well as Duce himself reveal their thoughts and opinions on their music. They felt disdain for hair metal bands they considered packaged music, which in truth many were. They claimed that the music they were making was art, though I’d have a hard time agreeing with that. But the fact is that they are legendary for their antics and songs and will be remembered more than a number of other bands in the shock rock genre.
As the movie begins as a viewer I felt slightly outraged, disgusted by the performances, lyrics and discourse given by Duce. But as the movie progresses you get a more in depth look at where this all came from. Abused as a child, driven to alcoholism, seeking fame and fortune and only finding fame the odds of Duce’s life ending in tragedy was no doubt going to happen.
It did so when he died after having been hit by a train going 60 mph. His death was called a suicide or an accidental death. Conspiracists claimed he was murdered because in an interview just days before for the film KURT & COURTNEY he claimed that Courtney Love had asked him to kill husband Kurt Cobain. The fact is he was by this time down on his luck and what luck he had ran out. All in all it’s quite a sad tale.
The film is being released by Arrow Video and of course that means that it will include numerous extras that make this owning for fans of The Mentors and El Duce. Shot on video the film has been cleaned up as best as possible. Included in the extras are “The Ryan Sexton Tapes” a 34 minute illustrated audio conversation between Sexton and producer Tim Kirk about the shooting of the original VHS footage, “The Nilbog Tapes” a video of the band recording the original score for the film, “More El Duce Tapes” a free-standing alternate assembly of unused material considered a semi-sequel, “Tape 2: Hollywood Reservoir” a piece of raw tape providing a behind the scenes look of the process of shooting the footage and a candid document of the rapport between El Duce and Sexton, “El Duce Stories” a humorous cut-up of a few of El Duce’s famously long and aimless stories into one completely incomprehensible and endless word salad, “Return to Rape Rock Mountain” a brand new interview with Steve Broy aka Dr. Heathen Scum of the Mentors, “Reality Check presents the all-female El Duce tribute band the Womentors, a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by John Pearson and reverse art by Benjamin Marra and for the first pressing only an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Manish Agarwal.
Trust me when I say this disc is not for everyone. Some will
find it funny, some will find it outrageously offensive. The reality is that it
lays smack dab in the middle of both. It is definitely not for children at all.
It does capture a piece of history though. And it displays a man falling in
freefall and heading down a path of self-destruction. That makes for a tragic
tale that some might learn from. Interesting, worth watching but only one to
buy by fans of the group and its leader.
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