esrosedotblog

Today's film retold the amazing story of a right wing media phenom who preceded the Rushes, even the Oprahs.

Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (2012)

I remember him. I remember being affected by him. Negatively but he had his charms and charisma. If you were into political talk at that time, he had to be recognized as a player and, somehow, important to both sides whatever those sides were.

This film dismantles any myth that may remain but there isn't much left of the high rise, high burnout career of this singular personality.

He was a fraud and a manipulator but he was so convincing and successful that did not matter. He was important because he was important.

He found the audience that became the Rush people, the Beck people and even, I think, to a great extent the Tea Party people. Not all of those but a lot who feel that being on the bottom of the pile is someone's fault and goddam it we are going to go get them.

There were other evocateurs. Sally Jesse Raphael was one of the best and she knew her game. She is here to talk about her colleague and fellow shit stirrer.

Also Phil Donahue who, from the other side, did the same thing but much much more safely.

Downey killed himself with his intensity, his desire to beat a famous Dad and his insecurity which led to a kind of combativeness that very few others dared to display.

The doc is pretty good. I think fair handed. It does use the opportunity to unmask a real fraud and poseur, Al Sharpton, who was part of a two guy act that both profited from. Al, obviously, was able to parlay that into a more respectable career because, I think, he was an opportunistic egotist and had none of the devils haunting him.

Downey Jr was up and down in only a few years. Truly meteoric.

I doubt that many people will find this film very interesting today unless they were interested at the time. The fans of the time moved on when he was shown decisively as a phony and the other side while respecting him in a way saw in his tragic end a payback from the universe, bad karma, which was kinda satisfying. Speaking for myself. And sad.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

He was, above all, a very interesting guy.

Labels: films