Beastie Boys Story

On the 4th of May 2012 music lost a hero. Adam Yauch (MCA) of Beastie Boys passed away after 3 years of living with cancer and the world became a poorer place as a result. The 2 remaining members of the band, Mike Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horowitz (Ad-Rock) decided to wrap things up instead of moving forward without their friend and it felt like the right move while still being an upsetting decision for them and fans alike. 8 years later we get this documentary and while it's far from perfect it's still a nice way to wrap up the story of one of the most interesting music groups ever.



Formed in Manhattan in 1981 Beastie Boys were always an oddity. A band that started as a four piece hardcore punk group before transitioning into a 3 piece hip hop group who then became a bastard amalgamation of both before spinning off the planet altogether. Even if the results weren't the best, they were never less than interesting and now with this documentary we get to find out about the lesser known sides of their story courtesy of Mike D and Ad-Rock who are telling their story to a live audience in Brooklyn's King Theatre. It's not a watch you'll get much from if you aren't a fan but it's something the die hards will love. It's funny and it's sad and it's ridiculous and it's poignant .



Poignant? Beastie Boys? The lads that sang about their mom throwing away their last porno mag?? The blokes that finished their shows by released a huge cock balloon onstage? Yup, no lie, it's actually upsetting in places. There's a small moment late in the doc where Ad-Rock is talking about his late friend and his voice cracks and he stops talking, mouthing the words "I can't" at Mike D. It really hits home the tragedy of MCA's loss. We lost an icon but the Boys lost their best friend and it makes you realise the whole documentary is a loving tribute to him. They place him front and centre as the creative force behind the band while barely giving themselves any credit at all. It's quitely affecting for us long term fans to see the Boys (50+ year olds in comfy slacks) like this.



(MCA on bass, the dictionary definition of cool)

As mentioned earlier it's far from perfect though. The Boys acknowledgement of the misogyny of their earlier music feels like lip service and poor aul DJ Hurricane, a frequent collaborator and familiar face in their music videos (he will always be Bunny Kelly from the Sabotage video to me) is barely acknowledged. That was surprising considering he turns up in numerous clips during the show. Also hugely disappointing is the way 14 years of band history are skipped over between the release of 1998's Hello Nasty and the death of MCA in 2012. Their 2004 album To The Five Boroughs was a love letter to NYC in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and its strange that it isn't mentioned at all. Thankfully MCA's work in the Free Tibet movement in those years is covered (fleetingly) but it feels odd to have such a large chunk of band history glossed over. Running time issues maybe but i really can't see any fans giving out about having to spend more time in their company.



If you've ever enjoyed their music or wanted more of an insight into what made one of the most eccentric bands ever to hit the mainstream tick you won't go wrong watching this. It's not as all encompassing as it could have been but it just feels good spending time with these guys again for a while. Available on Apple TV now.

Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona opens with a pulsating 80's synth score laid over images of what seems like a car chase, some vicious on field violence and scenes of nightclub excess. If you went into it cold you couldn't be blamed for assuming it was some kind of soccer meets gangster movie concoction. It's exciting stuff, it's hooks you instantly and it's an intoxicating way into an excellent documentary about a man who flew too close to the sun and died a thousand deaths on his way back to earth.

Diego Armando Maradona was born in Buenos Aires in 1960 into a life of poverty. The youngest in a family of 7, young Diego was the mammy's boy. As a child he was preternaturally gifted with a football and it wasn't long people started taking notice. At the age of 15 he began to play for Argentinos Juniors and became the breadwinner for his family. At the age of 22 he joined Barcelona but his time there was an unhappy and unsuccessful one. His next move was to the faltering Napoli team in the Italian Serie A league and here was where his legend began. His sudden rise to fame combined with a burgeoning ego......well you all know what happened next.

The best sport documentaries are the ones that grab you even if you aren't a fan of the sport. Hoop Dreams, Katie, Murderball, Red Army, When We Were Kings & Senna amongst many others. That last one was directed by Asif Kapadia who also directed Amy. Like Diego Maradona, Amy and Senna were about ordinary people elevated to godlike status because of their talents. Unlike Amy and Senna the subject in Diego Maradona is still alive, but sadly he's not really living much. It's a tale that's been told a million times. A person with a gift becomes famous too fast and it all goes to their head. Like the other 2 documentaries this one is a sympathetic portrayal too. We see deeper into Diego than we were let by the infamous tabloid headlines everyone remembers from back in the day  We begin to understand how things ended up the way they did. We begin to empathise with Diego and then finally we realise just how tragic it all ended up.

Imagine it. You're in your mid 20's. The world is at your feet. You've helped your club hit the top spot. You're the reason your country has won the World Cup. Everyone is worshipping you. Your blood is looked on as godlike (seriously). The Mafia wants to be friends with you. You've no family around to keep you grounded. Women are throwing themselves at you left, right and centre. Cocaine is flying. Is it any wonder Diego lost the plot. This is all stuff we knew already, even if you don't follow the sport. But hearing it all over archive footage of a young man clearly out of his depth makes you analyse it all differently. The smug arrogance disappears and instead you see a person struggling to come to terms with the madness around him. Imagine it. Horrible. Then, just as you peak, your own talent comes back to bite you on the arse and the world that previously loved you despises you instead. It's all quite brutal.

Even if you don't like football you'll be gripped watching this. It's as packed with action, intrigue, backstabbing and tension as any thriller. There's stuff in here that would seem far fetched in fiction. The horrible coincidence involving a World Cup fixture that snuffed out any bit of love Italy had for Diego. That lovely little lob that made him a god in his own town. The blatant foul that made him infamous around the world (brilliantly, England are made seem like the bad guys here, big laughs in the cinema at this part). Knowing the truth of what's coming makes it all a tense watch too. At times you'll think "how did it get so fucked up" and then it starts, the inexorable fall from grace that turns genuinely upsetting rapidly. Here we see vividly what Asif Kapadia has been getting at all along. Fame is not good, fame never ends well.

It's a story that could be transferred to any sport, any arena of celebrity. It's exhilarating and then it's tragic. It is really worth watching. In cinemas now.

They Shall Not Grow Old

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning 

We will remember them.

On Sunday night BBC2 screened a documentary about WW1 to mark Armistice day. This year's day was very notable being 100 years since the ceasefire that ended the war.  It was called They Shall Not Grow Old. It was created by Peter Jackson and because of his involvement we knew we were in for something a bit different to the usual talking head documentaries.

The Great War is decimating Europe. Young English men are joining up in their droves. Some want to fight for their country, some see it as an easy way to earn a few bob, others see it as a chance to see a bit of the world and more are joining to avoid being presented with the white feather of cowardice. 6 weeks of basic training stood between them and their destiny. The going was tough and every man bar none grew sick of the terrible food and ridiculous training regimen. Little did they know this was paradise compared to what lay ahead of them across the English Channel.

Jackson had access to hundreds of hours worth of archival footage to use in this documentary and it's combined with interviews from surviving soldiers recorded back in the 1960's. The effect is stunning. Hearing the voices of these old men juxtaposed against footage of their fresh faces makes for poignant viewing. How the need to be patriotic saw 15 year old boys lying to doctors and recruiters, most of whom saw through the lie and turned a blind eye as the need for cannon fodder on the fields of France and Belgium grew exponentially. The early scenes in training are almost fun. The moaning about the lack of variety in the preserves served with breakfast, urine related hijinks, silly games, all shown to help you remember that these soldiers were boys and young men aged between 15-25, all heading off to fight the Kaiser's forces on the whims of old men.

At the front the documentary takes a massive turn as we watch the black & white footage turn to colour. The 4:3 old style film format expands into the 16:9 format we all watch everyday on our flatscreen tvs. The effect is genuinely hair raising. We aren't watching history anymore. The detachment and numbness allowed to us by historical B&W footage is gone and all of a sudden we could be watching modern lads lads marching off to die. And they die in their thousands. The colourised footage giving us the merest hint of the horrors faced by these brave young fellas. Pink brains spilling from a smashed open head. The red of a body dismembered by sharpnel. The grey pallor of dead skin. It's brutal. You'll want to stop watching when a montage of smiling faces from boot camp is intercut with images of the dead. It's nearly too much but it's important to keep going.

Thankfully Jackson doesn't gloat over the gore and shows us that despite the horrors faced everyday these soldiers somehow held onto their humanity. Jokes over latrine accidents will take you by surprise. The ingenuity shown during trench life with regards to cooking and sleeping will bring a smile and the soldier's descriptions of their first face to face meetings with German soldiers make you realise how important it is to not fall into the trap of becoming an automaton, of holding onto some bit of compassion. These young Germans were the exact same as the British. Men needing a job. They weren't nazi's. That horror didn't come until later. They misguidedly assumed they were on the side of the angels. None of this romanticises war though. It's depicted exactly as what it is. Hell on earth. One voiceover story of a soldier describing how he had to shoot a comrade to save him from the agony of his wounds is the kind of thing that will stick with you forever.

This is a vital watch. The kind of thing that should be mandatory in schools all over the world. It's great to see special effects and movie wizardry being used for something other than creating CGI blockbusters. Some may decry the use of technology as insulting to the memory of the dead or see it as a voyeuristic exercise but I see it as way of making history relevant to people who may not have had the biggest interest in it before. Without the distancing effect of B&W you're forced to see these soldiers as contemporaries and the effect is heartbreaking. We have to study history to learn from it. When we don't learn we're doomed to repeat it. And when it's repeated it's the young who get it in the neck. Everytime.

Katie

On the 9th of August 2012 Katie Taylor rocked London's ExCeL arena by beating Sofya Ochigava to win an Olympic gold medal in the light division of women's boxing. Her victory attained courtesy of two vicious left hooks in the third round and a brutal 1-2-3 of punches in the final round. It was a joyous evening. All of Ireland watching on TV and an arena full of green roaring for her. That few seconds before her name was called had us in bits and we raised the roof when she dropped to her knees as the realisation of her win kicked in. It was fuckin mighty. Our Katie.

Before all that she was a young girl from Bray. Sports mad. Good at everything she tried. Disguising herself as a boy to enter boxing tournaments at a time when Women's boxing wasn't allowed in Ireland. Her preternatural speed and ability to put together hard combinations saw her rise rapidly until she reached the pinnacle of the amateur sport. Then a crushing blow almost ruined everything. A blow that came from the last place she expected. Her own corner.

I loved this, got pure emotional during it. It's a superb documentary, lovingly created from an abundance of archival footage and interviews with Katie herself who when she lets her guard (slightly) down comes across as far warmer and funnier than we've previously seen. It's great to get that bit of insight about her. Her drive, what makes her tick, how hurt she was by that infamous paternal betrayal that was splashed across Ireland's newspapers back in 2016. The Katie we see at pre-match press conferences always came across as rock hard, laser sighted on her goal, a woman who could not be swayed. Here we get a sense of the emotional damage that year wrought on her psyche and it will make your heart break for her. Unlike a lot of documentarians director Ross Whitaker doesn't feel the need to insert himself into the narrative and it's so much better as a result. He just shows us the story.

Happily the film doesn't delve into the minutiae of the split between her and her Da, it's touched on and that's it. The film is about her. His presence looms over proceedings but we only see and hear from him in old footage. There's no gory or sordid details dwelt upon. It happened and it broke her but she found the strength to come back and this for me was one of the greatest things about this watch. Even though it's a documentary it's structured like a boxing film. Her humble beginnings, her rise to fame, hitting the top before everything crumbles and then the slow rebuild, the strength, the force of will and that fierce determination to get back on top. Even when you know the outcome of the boxing footage you're watching you'll still be bobbing and weaving in your seat, cringing at the slow motion clatters she takes and resisting the urge to stand up and cheer at the outcome.

Her support system gets a good look in too. Her Mam Bridget, her sister Sarah, her brothers Lee and Peter, her new coach Ross Enamait. All of them so proud of her but in no way hiding their fear at what could happen as she enters the professional arena. There's a great scene in a Bray restaurant where she's eating with her oldest friends and they are at once so happy for her and at the same time keeping her down to earth with a bit of gentle ribbing. It's such an Irish moment, one we'll all recognise.

Go see this if it's on near you. It will give you a new found appreciation for one of our best ever sporting icons. She doesn't give everything away about herself though, parts of her are still a mystery but we get enough to ensure we'll cheer even louder the next time she's in the ring.