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I
had a pretty bizarre week this week. It started
out with the two Aaron Carter/ Monica shows and ended
with watching Jeff
Krulik movies for 7 hours. So last
Saturday I was packing up Gaskets
merch ready to get the hell out of Bristow, VA when
a door I was trying to open slammed into my face.
Behind the door was a very apologetic Aaron
Carter. I just looked at him strangely and said
"You're Aaron Carter. You hit me with a
door." This is not my first time being assaulted
by a minor celebrity. Once Dave
Attell pushed me out of the way at the DC Improv.
Anyway,
if you ever get to check out a screening of any of Jeff
Krulik's movies I would do it. I have a tape of
many of his movies and I have watched a ton of his
movies online, but it was amazing to see them on the big
screen instead of on my monitor or TV. I saw a
movie I had seen at the James River Film Fest in
Richmond called Hitler's
Hat, his newest near feature
length film Shocked And Amazed and a collection of
Parking Lot movies. The Parking Lot movies are
movies that he has shot in the parking lot different
concerts and events over the last 17 years. His
most famous is Heavy Metal Parking Lot, which you should
have seen by now. The movies basically poke fun at
the fans of Judas Priest, Neil Diamond and Monster
Trucks. While hilarious, these movies seem to be relatively
exploitive. Krulik and his co-director John Heyn
said that they have really gotten into the subjects they
mock, but still you get the feeling that Krulik and Heyn
didn't really understand the subcultures they
document. This is specifically evident in the
Monster Truck Parking Lot when Heyn asks one of the more
rustic fans if he had ever heard of Deliverance.
The directors really do seem appreciative of their
subjects when they asked three of them back 17 years
later for this screening. It seemed like a nice
gesture until one of the Judas Preist fans he brought
back who had clearly not changed that much gave a speech
on patriotism. His speech was very heartfelt,
however, you got the opinion that everyone in the
audience was awkwardly trying not to laugh at this man
who was having trouble speaking because of his love of
his country. I myself felt sort of bad for this
man who was running around the theater yelling his lines
from the movie not really realizing that everyone was
laughing at him, and not necessarily with
him. This being said, Heavy Metal
Parking Lot is still amazingly funny and shockingly representative
of '80s youth culture. I love the movie despite
everything I just said about it and truthfully don't
particularly have a problem with exploitive documentary
work. Penelope Spheeris made 3 volumes of Decline
Of Western Civilization documenting 80s Punk and Metal
culture. The first two are two of my favorite documentaries
but defiantly lean towards being
exploitative. (she also went on to direct
Wayne's World, one of the finest films in cinematic
history) Also two of my favorite photographers,
Diane Arbus and Larry Clark have both been accused of
being extremely exploitive. My point is that while
the Parking Lot movies lean towards exploitation,
they are still fantastic films worth checking out.
The DVD will be out soon, and I suggest you check
it out.
For
everything that Parking Lot wasn't, Hitler's Hat (as
well as the two shorter films he showed with it)
were. Instead of mocking his subject Krulik treats
them with great respect and admiration. It feels
as if he made this for his subjects instead of about
them. Hitler's Hat is a movie about WWII veterans
who helped free the Dachau concentration camps and then
the following day happen on a top hat belonging to
Hitler. The movie mostly focuses on the man who
found the hat and brought it back to Albany, NY.
It follows him to a reunion of the 42nd Rainbow Division
over 50 years after the end of WWII. The movie is
mostly comprised with interviews of the veterans spliced
with amazing footage of WWII. The men
of the 42nd are shown to be these very witty well spoken
examples of the "greatest generation".
These men are polar opposites of the kids in Heavy Metal
Parking Lot. The veterans stories are very
touching, revealing and amazing. The movie
contrasts very well the horrors of war with the charming
personalities of the men who fought. You laugh
along right up to the story of the liberation of Dachau.
The stories and images are some of the most upsetting I
have ever witnessed, but yet the movie is some how seamlessly
woven so that by the end you are once again laughing
with these men. Of all the things I have seen by
Krulik and loved, this is the one piece that you should
not miss. Its 40 minutes that you will remember
for the rest of your life.
The
thing about Krulik's films is that they aren't necessarily
about brilliant film making, they are mostly very rough
and unprofessional guerilla film making. What makes
his films brilliant is the people he tracks down and
interviews. All of his subjects from Freddie
Blassie to Earnest Borgnine to men obsessed with porn
and Jews are amazing men, who have accomplished amazing
things. Krulik hunts down these people and shows
you the most interesting things you would never see
unless his camera was there. When I became a
photographer I decided I wanted to do it to show things
to people that they won't see every day. Jeff
Krulik is living my dream. He is exposing people
to people they would never hear about with out
him. Even his movies about famous people (Blassie
and Borgnine) aren't just fluff pieces about celebrities,
but they are very interesting studies of who the man is
and why the hell they are doing what they are doing with
their lives. The major problems with Krulik's
films is that you want them to be longer. You want
to know more about the creators of Lancelot Link, you
want to find out what Blevis the black Elvis is up to
these days, you want to find out everything you can
about these people. This is why Krulik's Shocked
And Amazed TV series could have been so
great.
Krulik
began work on what was supposed to be a television show
on Side Show Culture based on James Taylor's magazine Shocked
And Amazed. He had an extremely high budget
and professional equipment. I never found out
exactly why the show never happened, but the footage
became a near feature length movie. I was extremely
excited about this film because of my love of the
Sideshow. It featured many people I have talked to
online, interviewed for the failed
DBB movie and read about for years. The
problem with the movie is that it tried to cover 150
years of side show culture, as well as all the current performers
on the scene in just over an hour. As a TV show,
Shocked And Amazed could have had many episodes to cover
some of the most amazing people alive today, however,
much had to be edited out and left on the cutting room
floor. The highlights of the movie were when it
focused specifically on Johnny
Fox's Freakatorium and the end of Ward Hall's World
Of Wonder 10 in 1. The movie was pretty successful
as an overview, but as a side show fan I wanted
more. I knew most of what was in the movie and
wish this could have been expanded. I think it
stands alone as a pretty solid Discovery Channel style
special, but as a television show it could have lent
itself to Krulik's style and we could have really met
some interesting folk. The highlight of the movie
was that James Taylor was there and I had a chance to
speak with him as he was packing up. I hope in the
future I will be able to talk to him more when I visit
the American Dime Museum
in Baltimore.
Overall,
despite my problems with a few things, the movies were
great and everything else I have seen by Krulik has been
just as interesting and hi-larious. I would
recommend his movies to anyone. I suggest watching
a few of them here.
I really have to recommend Obsessed With Jews and King
Of Porn, and of course if you haven't seen it, Heavy
Metal Parking Lot. And like I said before if
you get a chance to see any of his movies screened, do
so. Hopefully you will get to talk to Krulik
because he is himself almost as interesting as his
subjects. He is also extremely nice and invited
the audience to a bar with him if they had more
questions. On top of that he remembered me from a
short meeting we had in Richmond months ago.
Wow,
this is the longest DBB entry ever. I hope you
enjoyed it and actually check out Planet
Krulik. Word. Here are some links.
-
Magnets
- Sideshow
Central - Stella
- Xploited Cinema
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