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Directed by Thorsten Schuute and produced by Schuute with Moon and Ahmet Zappa, this is a movie which, thankfully, does justice to the subject. As a reverent Zappa lover, this writer worried like many that such a movie would fail to fully capture the entirety of this one man’s life, work and thoughts. But this does not disappoint.
Shaped by Schutte with genuine reverence and purity, it’s ideal to the singular sensibility of Zappa, in that he is allowed to speak for himself. Because nobody could ever explain him better than he explains himself. It is a film gloriously unadulterated by narration or commentary by any non-Zappas, and as such is a great gift to all Zappa lovers the world over, and to his expansive and ever-expanding legacy.
It sheds real light into Zappa as Zappa, the essential man, the genius, the father and husband, the music industry pawn and critic, the social activist, the philosopher, the occasional clown, and ultimately the human, facing as all do the meaning of mortality.
Because the truth is, as Nobel Laureate songwriter Bob Dylan said, “People have a hard time with anything that overwhelms them.” And Zappa was clearly overwhelming. He was never easily defined, primarily because he never fit into any of the boxes the music industry created to market artists. One of the great electric guitarists of our time, he also could write both funny and odd pop songs and serious symphonies. He was a true artist in an industry run by executives who often have contempt for artists.
So it is a joy to have a film which cuts through the myth and misinformation about him with laser-beam focus to show us the man himself, expressed in all his multitudes. Rather than attempt to simplify Zappa for easy digestion, the film instead takes on the greater challenge of showing us the actual man. And it succeeds.
Zappa sometimes did suffer fools. Not gladly, maybe, but always with a certain weary patience. As someone who had the privilege of interviewing Zappa – back in 1988 – I know that look well of mildly restrained incredulity well, that anyone could be so misinformed. As anyone who knows anything about him already knows, the man had firm convictions. He was much smarter than most human beings, and never ambivalent about his understanding of the world.
I can remember well the impact of his expressions, smoking successive cigarettes, as I asked a question he felt was naïve. (He was right). Almost like a pedantic school-teacher calmly but firmly explaining something to a slow child, he quickly dispatched myths and faulty premises to focus on the truth. That expression is abundant throughout this movie, especially as some journalists – truly uninformed in every way about Zappa and his musical mission – asked ridiculous questions placed in intentionally skewed context, like the guy who said he was “gross” and a “force of cultural darkness.”
Several times it seemed Frank might lose his temper, and simply bite a guy’s head off for delivering so many insultingly false assumptions. But he never does boil over, though there is often fire in his eyes. Instead, in words designed not to dazzle but to be understood, he gently expounds on what’s really going on, with clarity, care and candor.
One thing this movie makes very clear is that this Zappa we know – the man of remarkable musical multitudes, entirely on his own turf, powerfully confident of his singular world view – did not gradually become the man we know over many years, developed slowly from some lesser Zappa. As this movie and all interviews with him dating back to the start of his career make evident, Zappa was fully formed from the start, powerfully and absolutely Zappa from early days on.
His fully-formed genius as expressed when he was only 22 is gloriously preserved and presented here in a rare and delightful episode of the Steve Allen Show from March of 1963, during with Zappa performed a piece he wrote for bicycles and percussion called “Concerto for Two Bicycles.” It’s clear that Steve Allen, who was a fine pianist and songwriter himself (and one with whom this writer proudly wrote two songs), invited Zappa on for the sake of comedy, not music. Steve was famously dismissive of many kinds of music he didn’t like, and probably figured this will be oddball fun, good for some laughs.
What he didn’t expect was the profound seriousness of Frank Zappa. Even then, just barely a man, he had a commanding presence. Tall already and gangly, he wore a formal suit and tie, his hair short and no mustache yet. And seeing this man sans that iconic mustache is akin to seeing David Crosby – or Charlie Chaplin – without theirs.
But he was unmistakably Zappa, as proven almost immediately as the music began; rather than deliver a chaotic jumble of noise ideal for ridicule, he shined with the wisdom he learned from his idol Varese, that all noise is music in the hands of a musician, even that which defies conventions.
With only some drum sticks, a bass bow and two bicycles, he made music, underscored by the house band. He bowed the spokes and steel of the bicycles in rhythm, and tapped on the bikes with his sticks in time. And although Steverino made some jokes and kept things light, it was obvious this musician recognized what was in front of him. Not a clown, but a composer.
But – and this is the important part — a composer willing to play the clown, to even open himself up to public ridicule, if it meant he could get his music out into the world. It was a pattern he used his whole life.
It is but one of many funny, poignant and telling moments that flow through this film. Schuute tirelessly scoured endless vaults around the globe for obscure, forgotten bits of TV appearances and interviews, and weaves them together with a compelling musicality.
Zappa did not shy away from politics, as his fans know well. Few things incensed him more than when Tipper Gore started the PMRC to label CDs with warnings about troubling content. He fought the good fight on behalf of all his fellow music creators, hardly any of whom joined him, and he even spoke – passionately and eloquently – in front of congress. That side of Zappa – the fierce political activist – is presented here, as is priceless footage of him facing, and demolishing, right-wing TV hosts who tried and failed to minimize him. One thing Zappa would never allow was to be minimized.
Also indicative of the nature of this man is his alliance with the dissident-poet and President of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel, who like Zappa was both and artist and activist, and one who had the courage when courage mattered most. The Havel-Zappa friendship is shown here for what it was, a genuine meeting of mind and kindred spirit.
Zappa understood early on, much more so than most of his peers, that the music industry itself – the manner in which it signed, promoted and paid artists – was corrupt. Yet he was also savvy enough to design a way in which he could be Zappa within that industry, and became one of the first artists with his own record company, and complete control of his own music.
And it is all about the music. That is perhaps the only place this movie is deficient in delivering the full Zappa, as the soul and genius of the man lives on most completely in the music. But unless this was a six hour film, it would be impossible to include more of the music, and the director leans instead in providing us Zappa the man. The hope being, of course, that this film will lead more music lovers, over the next decades, to the music. Because, like the man, it is unique, boundless, beautiful, funny and timeless.
The film, which opened theatrically, is now available on DVD. A second Extras DVD has being released separately, both from Sony Classic. Though it was glorious to take this in on the big screen (and at a premiere in Hollywood which included other Zappafiles such as Matt Groening, Sharon Stone and both Moon and Ahmet Zappa), this a film that is ideal for home viewing, as it is much too rich with the fullness of Zappa wisdom, humor and greatness to take it all in at once.
Congratulations to the movie-makers for giving us a Zappa film that does justice to the man. Long live Zappa.
