A tremendous portrait of the rock ’n’ roll mavericks led by Iggy Pop
It’s hard to imagine Jim Jarmusch struggling with a documentary film about a rock band, but the Down by Law and Coffee and Cigarettes director has been thinking about Gimme Danger for a while and finally he felt it was time to make it happen.
He’s for sure a fan of The Stooges, but he chose the proto-punk american band because there’s so much to say about it, especially after the death of brothers Ron and Scott Asheton (guitar player and drummer, died in 2009 and 2014) and Steve Mackay (saxophone player, who died in 2015). Jarmusch collected the three missing members testament and a long interview with Jim Osterberg, a.k.a. Iggy Pop, the “shining star” of the film, who tells his life to the camera as he was talking to an old friend: his childhood spent in a trailer, his debut in high school bands as a drummer, his vocation for singing, which came when «I was tired of watching other people’s butts.» Jarmusch doesn’t give much space to the frontman solo career, but keep in mind this is not the goal of the movie.
The story starts around 1967, in Michigan: young middle class was rejecting society’s conventional models, students were struggling for civil rights. That’s when Stooges made their debut, at the University of Michigan, incarnating the spirit of that generation: their outrageous personality and their provocative improvisations on stage were disturbing and appealing for that audience. The rock band from Ann Arbor was the “danger” representing all America’s contradictions of that time. Gimme Danger tells it all: The Stooges rise and fall, the genesis of their masterpiece Fun House, Dave Alexander’s death (in 1975), the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2010) and their comeback with the new line-up featuring James Williamson and Mike Watt.
Jarmusch describes his movie as a “love letter” to The Stooges and that’s exactly what Gimme Danger is: an original and enthusiastic tribute to one of the most important rock bands in music history. The director gives the story an accessible form with a visual language which mixes animations, film footage and overlapping sequences. Gimme Danger is the perfect psychedelic cocktail to represent what the Stooges were and will always be: a band which defies labels.
Last but not least, Jarmusch offers a final overview of modern and contemporary bands who got caught by Iggy’s fascination: from Sex Pistols to White Stripes.
The documentary is out on DVD in the U.S. since February 6.
