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Director
Todd Phillips puts it all in perfect perspective when he says
that GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, ‘represent a part of
America that most people prefer not to think about, an alienated
directionless minority that appears to have found its voice in a
punk rocker with a death wish.” Watching this excellent
1994 documentary nothing is more evident. GG Allin’s sheer
existence was motivated, triggered, fed and charged by its
surroundings, and whether the root of his behavior was a result
of his environment (his hometown friends talk about Allin not
ever being the same after his brother Merle secretly fed him
acid) or he was born that way, is totally irrelevant.
The most
striking parts of Hated are definitely the live footage. Allin’s
live shows seemed to be attended by a large percentage of
hesitant and curious onlookers looking for a freak show and
another percentage of true GG fans; a portion of which seemed
happy to go the extra mile by allowing Allin to punch them out
or smear them with just shat shit. His shows were super violent
and often cut short because of fights with the public and police
intervention. Towards the end of Hated, during a show fifteen of
Allin’s fans jump on stage and beat him so badly they break his
arm. Then he got arrested. So much for loving Allin’s art and
antics. GG didn’t seem to mind though, through Hated we see how
time and time again a naked and drunk Allin provokes the
audience, bashes the mike against his forehead, picks a random
member of the audience only to drag him/her to stage by the
hair. The outcome seemed to be the same all the time with the
audience retaliating through more violence. Beyond that, the
anti social and extreme persona, there was a real musician with
a substantial, appealing and surprisingly melodic body of work.
Unfortunately, his punk rock records have definitely been
overshadowed by his antics.
Unlike many
rock documentaries, Hated has a real story as told by very
eloquent images and insider interviews including Allin's band
The Murder Junkies, his mother, teachers and hometown
friends. If there is anything I didn't like about Hated is its
length; clocking at about sixty minutes, it feels like we are
being short changed. More content including extended interviews
with GG would have been nice. Fortunately for us, MVD has added
plenty of bonus material in the form of live footage, an
extended interview with Allin's mother and a new hour long with
Allin's brother/guitarist Merle and drummer Dino Sex. |
