SF IndieFest: The Devil and Daniel Johnston

The movie traces Johnston's life, from growing up in a fundamentalist Church of Christ home in West Virginia and fighting with his mom; his college years, where he fell unrequitedly in love with the Laurie who inspired all his songs and where he had his first mental breakdown; and his sojourn to Austin, his MTV clips (we had totally forgotten about that "Cutting Edge" show until they showed the intro and then we had a horrific flashback back to 8th grade); and his increasing obsession with Christian iconography and the Beatles, which culminated in a major breakdown -- where he beat his then-manager over the head with a lead pipe and attacked his brother at Christmas. Yikes!

Johnston's mental health became increasingly fragile and unfortunately, he tended to manifest his mania through violence. His parents couldn't control him, his manager couldn't control him -- even Sonic Youth couldn't control him (there's a hilarious/horribly sad segment where he goes to New York to record with Steve Shelley, gets in a fight with Shelley, runs away, and Thurston and Steve are forced to drive around Jersey looking for him in motel parking lots).

Johnston now lives at home with his adorable, distressed, aging parents, where he's set up a room in the garage just like his room when he was a teenager and sings songs and draws art. He seems stable, for now.

Johnston does not come off looking like the nicest guy, mental illness notwithstanding. But neither do Johnston's friends -- a large number of whom appear to have acted with an appalling lack of concern about Johnston's mental health in an attempt to exploit his gifts for gain. A friend checks him out of his first mental institution and appoints himself Johnston's manager so he can book gigs. Even though this friend no longer speaks to Johnston, he continues even today to sell the art Johnston gave him. Others in Austin report having seen Johnston dancing in the river and listening to him talking about Satan and demons, and ask what kind of people were they to send Van Gogh to a mental institution? (They did finally get him to a doctor, but the guy interviewed still feels bad about doing it.) Did Johnston really have to get to the point where he tried to kill three people and himself before anyone recognized there was a serious problem here?

Well, before we strain our shoulder patting ourselves on the back about our caring soul, it also shouldn't go unnoticed that this also raises the question of how complicit the filmmakers were in using Johnston and how complicit we the watchers are in watching an artist slowly destroy himself. How much is it Johnston making himself a living through his music and art and history, and how much is it us exploiting a very ill man?

Meanwhile, "Speeding Motorcycle" was licensed for a Target ad. Johnston's father now serves as his manager, and Johnston plays with a young Christian band in Texas about once a week. Johnston's art shows in galleries throughout the world. As for the movie, it's been sold and will probably go into national release some time this summer. As Johnston's family notes, Johnston's illness tends to worsen when things go up in his career. We hope he stays okay this time, because it's clear this movie is going to do really, really well.