Photo: Rod Yates, editor of Empire Magazine interviewing Michael Azerrad on his movie, Kurt Cobain About a Son.
Kurt Cobain looms out of the cinema screen like a melancholic Viking, ready to pillage our minds. Like the images of other dead celebrities, the image sets off thought patterns and we classify: drug addict, father, musican.
Like all narratives perpetuated by the one dimensional main stream media, he was also a son. A talented person with real problems, real skills and dreams.
A son of divorced parents, a common afliction of children of the late 20th century, this and the times haunted Kurt. The lyrics and music of Nirvana described the world of the US Pacific Northwest: dark with low hanging fog and cloud. This description also applies to his life, and the life of many of Generation-X. Cold war, AIDS, unemployment.
The movie, About a Son, is Kurt narrating his life in his own words. As captured by biographer, Michael Azerroth in 25 hours of taped interviews during 1992-3. The imagery paints a Washington state that Kurt lived in. A child of his parents, age and area.
Using Kurt’s own words, and showing the real life Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle one gets a sense of the angst of Nirvana. Kurt also talks about his addiction via self medication to opiates to escape pain; depression and scoliosis.
The movie is about an ordinary person; it humanises a driven person. An complex artistic soul that expressed the nihilism of my generation.
Most importantly, Kurt touches the ultimate poison that is the cult of celebrity that has only grown in the last 15 years. Especially fighting the negative narrative.
Any Nirvana fan or member of generation X should see this movie.
Thanks to PopcornTaxi for bring this movie to Australia.