Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard, Mick Harvey
Intro:
... well worth seeing for its content – both for aficionados and, perhaps more so, those who only know Nick Cave’s vast body of subsequent work.
This is a chronologically linear and straightforward documentary – just as well really, as a balancing counterpoint to its often chaotic subject matter. Narrated entirely by members of the band, it charts the history of The Birthday Party from their beginnings as The Boys Next Door until they split (collapsed might be a better word) in 1983.
From Day One, they seemed to be consumed with a sense of their own uniqueness, despite obvious sonic debts to Captain Beefheart and the Funhouse-era Stooges. What’s beyond dispute is the sheer manic intensity of their performances – sometimes wild, almost to the point of derangement.
Some of this was captured on film – albeit at a primitive technical level – and is shown here, though there’s also a compensatory reliance on animated graphics and the like. It’s an eventful story, what with the moves to London and then Berlin, sundry impoverished adventures, heroin addictions and bass player Tracy Pew’s gaol sentence. There’s a quorum of highlights, best of all being the astonishing clip for “Nick The Stripper”.
And there are some very droll interview sequences with the late, great and preternaturally gifted guitarist and songwriter Rowland S. Howard.
Well before the end, The Birthday Party’s music had evolved to a point where it WAS strikingly original, even as their gigs had started to get too formulaic for the band’s own creative satisfaction. Part of the problem was the ‘freakshow’ expectations of audiences, but the musicians’ very love of spontaneity meant that this was never a group bound for longevity.
Mutiny In Heaven is well worth seeing for its content – both for aficionados and, perhaps more so, those who only know Nick Cave’s vast body of subsequent work.
