Watch Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me For Free

Pretty Good

Excellent but underrated film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

BIG STAR: Nothing Can Hurt Me is a 2012 documentary about the eponymous 1970s pop-rock band from Memphis that saw few sales in spite of enormous critical acclaim, but went on to become a cult phenomenon and inspire some great bands in the decades that followed. The documentary was made without the participation of Big Star's surly frontman Alex Chilton (and it was completed following Chilton's untimely death), but it does feature interviews with bassist Andy Hummel, drummer Jody Stephens, and the musicians brought on when Chilton announced a new Big Star in the 1990s. Furthermore, producer John Fry appears throughout the documentary and appears to have had a bigger role in the Big Star story than many listeners might have imagined.The film begins with the Memphis context of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Chilton, who had already had a chart hit with the band The Box Top and toured the country, comes home and starts a new band with Chris Bell. The process of recording Big Star's first album "#1 Record" is explained in some depth, from how the band used the available studio resources to where the iconic cover art came from.We learn how Bell splits after the first album, has a nervous breakdown and flirts with evangelical Christianity, tries to make it as a musician in England and cuts the legendary single "You and Your Sister/I am the Cosmos", and finally dies in 1978 of a car crash at only 27 years old. There are poignant interviews with Bell's older brother and sister-in-law, but part of Bell's angst was his homosexuality, and everyone is uncomfortable even approaching this subject.The documentary continues through the recording of Big Star's second ("Radio City") and third ("Third/Sister Lovers") records, followed by the ultimate breakdown of relations between Jody Stephens and Alex Chilton and the end of Big Star. There's some brief coverage of Chilton's solo career through the 1980s and the reformed Big Star in the 1990s and early millennium. There are some brief comments from later, perhaps more famous musicians that express an eternal debt to Big Star, like Teenage Fanclub and Mike Mills of R.E.M.This is one of those documentaries that, to a degree, expects viewers to already know quite a bit about the band in question, making it somewhat frustrating for those who know Big Star's name and legacy but not so much the band's career and arc. It is mentioned that #1 Record sold poorly through label problems, but it's as if the viewer is already supposed to know that it was poorly distributed. It is mentioned briefly that Chris Bell died in a car crash, but with little detail. And there are some aspects of the production that seem mystery. For example, why does Jody Stephens have such a bad attitude throughout his interviews? Still, I enjoyed BIG STAR: Nothing Can Hurt Me overall. So many rock documentaries interview people who exploded into stardom, moved to la-la-land like California and seem to live on another planet compared to non-celebrities. Here, on the other hand, it's amazing just what ordinary southern Americans these people are, who clearly have some good memories of their youth but never really went for celebrity culture. They could be one's neighbours or the people you pass in the supermarket. That's not to say that they aren't interesting, as they include some quirky characters like the affably campy John King and producer Jim Dickinson's elderly but eternally young widow.

Being a voracious consumer of rock music during the 1970's and having a pretty good grip on the major and minor players of the era, unfortunately I have to say that "Big Star" just wasn't very good. And I also remember the opinions of rock critics were usually out of sync with what most people were buying records of and tickets to see back then, so it should come as no surprise that they would try to spin some superlative filled sleep inducing documentary to fulfill their need to show us all how wrong we were. Sorry critics, it still goes right over your little heads. This is a condescending little foray into what was a fantastic decade of music, in spite of whether the critics approved or not.

Lovely, poignant and beautiful the story of Big Star is fraught with the inescapable trappings of life that both manage to bind and also free us. There is already a wonderful review by David Ferguson. His review sums up much of what you'd actually expect to find on the liner notes of a DVD compilation release of this movie. And he's spot on. My review won't add or be any better. In the end my review will only add a bit of the haunting beauty and power that was Big Star and that lingers with us. A black diamond glimpse into the souls of not only Big Star but each and every one of us. A cautionary song/tale that sums up much of what I think the movie offers: "Take care not to hurt yourself Beware of the need for help You might need too much And people are such Take care, please, take care Some people read idea books And some people have pretty looks But if your eyes are wide And all words aside Take care, please, take care. This sounds a bit like goodbye In a way it is I guess. As I leave your side. I've taken the air. Take care, please, take care. Take care, please, take care." Wm Alexander Chilton

Big Star fans will undoubtedly eat this up, and those unfamiliar with the band absolutely should watch it as well. Lots of fantastic interviews with people who were heavily involved with the production of their records, and I am also grateful for a healthy dose of information on Chris Bell (which seems incredibly hard to come by, even in this age). After watching the film I had a hard time figuring out if this film preaches to the converted, or actually makes an attempt to introduce the uninitiated to this incredible band. I thought I knew quite about the band prior to watching this, but after watching this I realize how little I really knew.