HARRY CHAPIN: WHEN IN DOUBT, DO SOMETHING (A-minus) - This is a surprisingly insightful and entertaining biography of the '70s storytelling singer and avid activist in the area of world hunger who set the table for rock-star benefits in the '80s. Even if you have mocked his hit song "Cat's in the Cradle" for decades, it will be tough to deny the power of his personality and his life story, which was cut short by an auto accident in 1981.
Newcomer Rick Korn brings passion to this project, as if inspired by and seeking to match Chapin's thoroughly electric personality and drive. Coming from a musical family (his dad was a noted drummer, and Chapin and his brothers first performed as a folk combo), Chapin stood out for his songwriting abilities and his winning personality.
A bidding war broke out in 1972, and Chapin splashed big with the story song "Taxi." He peaked in 1974 with "Cat's in the Cradle." I'll admit, I never got over those songs, which I would sample from my brother's vinyl copy of "Greatest Stories Live" (1976), and both of those songs, featured in the documentary, still hit squarely in the solar plexus. (The film works in a montage of pop-culture mock tributes to "Cat's in the Cradle" over the years, led by "The Simpsons.") Even if the average viewer wouldn't have that much buy-in, there is no denying the compelling nature of this film.
A documentary should be measured by how thorough and entertaining it attacks its given subject, and Korn certainly leaves little unexamined here. Chapin co-founded World Hunger Year (WHY), and he devoted half of his concerts each year to benefits for various charities and non-profits. (He seeded Michael Moore's Flint Voice publication in 1977). We hear from family, colleagues from the world of charities (seeing the continued benefits of Chapin's work to this day), and from other celebrities, including Billy Joel (who opened for Chapin on one of the piano man's early tours) and a rather snotty Bob Geldof, who manages barely a back-handed compliment for the pioneering work Chapin did. Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, who helped shepherd legislation through Congress during the Carter years, also waxes on about his old friend.
But it's the extensive footage of Chapin (including home movies from his childhood and early years performing) that round out the portrait of a man as a performer and a driven human being. As the film's title, taken from his mantra, suggests, Chapin seemed to have a keen sense of how short life can be, and his fervent drive to "do something" to help others pours from the screen.
AMAZING GRACE (C+) - You want to love this filmed version of a gospel concert given by Aretha Franklin in a church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1972, but you can understand why Sydney Pollack's original effort back then was scrapped and mothballed. Alan Elliott, a composer (not a filmmaker), tries to salvage the footage and turn it into a documentary, but the result is a mish-mash of scenes that cobble together footage from two days of shooting.
Now, the music, with the Rev. James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir in support, is amazing. And the album itself was recorded and released in 1972. Franklin's version of the title track is other-worldly. Her voice can still give you chills.
But the visuals are disappointing. There is no narrative coherence here. Apparently Mick Jagger and some of the Rolling Stones showed up on the second day, so we get multiple cutaways of his mug. We see Pollack mousing around with a camera. And there's a lot of sweating by Franklin and the reverend. But Franklin evinces little personality throughout the film (she doesn't talk to the audience until the very end) and quite frankly looks like she doesn't want to be there. As either a concert film or a historical document, this falls flat.
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