Lou Gehrig’s Disease knocks you down hard and fast, or at least it should do. With JASON BECKER: NOT DEAD YET, Jesse Vile’s debut direction gallantly attempts to lift the lid on the degenerative condition using the anomalous case of virtuosic Hair Metal axe-man Jason Becker – given three years to live in 1990, yet still going strong (if paralysed) twenty-two years later. As the director concedes beforehand, “a lot of people think this is a film about heavy metal, but it’s not”; it actually riffs on community, the appetite for life and Becker’s remarkable ebullience in the face of a terminal illness.
You’d be forgiven for assuming the film might oversentimentalise or sensationalise the situation: “Gosh, isn’t he an inspiration for us all?” etc. But at one point, Becker declares that he doesn’t want to go into anything deep or heart-warming; he doesn’t want to be a hero, maybe just “the gross Dad in Family Guy”. Ricocheting from original camerawork and interviews to TV footage, archival films and cartoon drawing, the film avoids overwhelming you with emotion. Yes, Vile confronts your typical existential ideas, but does so in an amusing fashion, not punchy or disorienting.
Vile confronts your typical existential ideas, but does so in an amusing fashion, not punchy or disorienting.
The opening scene shows home footage of a teen Becker jamming a hoedown ‘Mr Tambourine Man’. Locks of wavy black hair, fingers noodling away on a guitar, we’re swept through a youth of obstinate musical mania: Dylan, Clapton solos and a little later, Bach fugues. “He wanted everything to be perfect already”, says his mother, and there was no doubting he was a prodigy. Superstardom came fast: he soon joined Marty Friedman’s neoclassical metal outfit Cacophony, rush-released a solo album and subsequently bagged the most lucrative gig in rock, lead guitar in the David Lee Roth Band. But having recorded ‘A Little Ain’t Enough’, he was diagnosed, and his dreams of touring shattered.
A nightmarish scenario, then, but our protagonist had no intention of giving up. Unable to move and speak, he continues to live with an effervescent determination, and the film examines this workaholic dimension intimately. First there was ‘Perspective’ – an album made in the early 90s using Becker’s eye and chin movements – and now there’s an “eye sign language” developed by his father. He still writes music, it’s just someone else has to write it down. Aside from his unflinching humour, the film’s most touching aspect is perhaps the collective of helpers (ex-lovers, friends and family) who surround him. Together they’ve created an uplifting and closely-stitched documentary, bolstered with an extraordinary spirit.
One thought on “Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet”
Comments are closed.