“Spector” (2022)
Madness in the mansion on the hill.
Madness in the mansion on the hill.
Prior to watching this four part documentary, aside from seeing the same damn trailer in nearly every advertisement break as I watched the pre Christmas Test Match cricket from a faraway Pakistan, I knew very little about Phil Spector aside from his musical creation and his “Wall of Sound”, and a wall of sound that was largely absent from The Beatles final album but yet drew the stinging ire of Paul McCartney before the continuing descent into televised crime hell, the trial of OJ Simpson, “Court TV” and the trial of a man of many wigs in the latter half of the first decade of the 21st Century.
From the rudest of celebratory health at the initial mis-trial of 2007 to the frail, haggard and broken man of many wigs at the guilty verdict a year or so later, Phil Spector was eventually found guilty of the murder of 40 year old actress Lana Clarkson early in a gunshot morning of the 3rd February 2003, and would serve just 9 of his 19 year prison sentence before dying at the age of 81 in early 2021.
The trailer that enticed me into yet another truth is stranger than fiction hell is rather misleading, in as much as you’d expect far more than the two full on “to camera” interviews from the songwriter and music producer of incredible world renown. In the absence of these is a darkly black picture painted of a recluse inside his own “Castle” battling with the demons of anger, depression, severe mental health struggles and a somewhat on/off addiction to, and dependency on, alcohol. The creative songwriter of stratospheric worldwide hits that are still cherished to this very day, including Da Doo Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, Be My Baby, To Know Him, River Deep — Mountain High and You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling amongst many, many more, had long since retreated into his own insular world inside the mansion on the hill and so within this narrative chasm we find the talking head interviews with his daughter, friends, musical colleagues as well as a particularly revealing 2003 audio interview recorded just weeks prior to that awful and tragic night, and his destruction of an innocent life.
There’s a balanced if black tale told of a yet to be teenager trying to come to terms with his father’s somewhat ambiguous death and a desire to escape from the henpecking of a predominantly female driven family. But even before the first of his numerous worldwide hits and the character he would “create” according to a childhood friend, numerous tales are told of Phil Spector, the human being or the creation, being manipulative, controlling, obsessive and, most of all, having “no talent for empathy” and dropping friends and artists in a disposable, uncaring way throughout a career, and a life, he then walled himself away from.
There are very few tears shed for the “dark underbelly of Hollywood” as Phil Spector is lamented by friends as an erratic, out of control creation who “demanded attention” before disposing of them in search of another worldwide hit or personal, objectified obsession. “He seemed like a man walking his last mile with our record. It was that grim”. So described an unnamed member of the punk rock band The Ramones.
The year was 1980.
Where this documentary excels is in the humanity and empathy afforded the innocent life extinguished at the hands of a desperately deranged man. Lana Clarkson was a working actress and model who followed the 1980’s template of starring in high profile television shows before the Hollywood of films and the star billing of working with filmmaker Roger Corman before a freak accident stalled a burgeoning career. Re-inventing herself once more, Clarkson created a “one woman show” that (from the stock footage of the day) verges on a well received comedy stand up routine and still seeking another “in” inside Hollywood, she fatally crosses paths with its dark and lurid underbelly.
Very pleasingly, Lana Clarkson is given ever lasting life now by her gaggle of lifetime friends, a devoted mother and painted forever as the lively, exuberant human being rather than the derisively monikered “B-Movie Star” or “struggling actress” that was so often shockingly employed in the turn of the century days of “Court TV” and a tabloid television of titillation.
Her life was destroyed by a man on a decade’s long mission to destroy his own.
Her story, tragically cut short so young, is now a human legacy for all to see.
Executive produced by his surviving daughter amongst others, this documentary in no way sugar coats the life of Phil Spector or that horrific event of exactly two decades and four days ago at the time of writing. Spector paints a picture of a deeply troubled man adrift and separate from a world he demanded erratic control of before destroying an innocent life largely derided and ignored in search of that dark underbelly of tainted Hollywood celebrity and tabloid sleaze.
The episodes begin and end with the Barbara Lynn song “I’m sorry that I met you” and although I highly recommend this 4 part documentary series to you, you might be sorry that you get to meet Phil Spector.
“I’m sorry I met you
For you hurt me so
The hands I held tightly
Just let me go
My heartstrings are playing
A sad melody
I’m sorry I met you
For look what you’ve done to me”
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film and television articles are linked below or there’s well over 200 blog articles (with 400+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“Sicario” (2015)
My Denis Villeneuve odyssey is now complete.medium.com
“The Serpent” (2021)
Truth is again stranger than fiction.medium.com
“The Last of Us” (2023)
Depeche Mode and a whole lot of love.medium.com