The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005)
Directed by Jeff Feuerzeig
Written by Documentary
Starring Daniel Johnson
Release Date March 31st, 2006
Published August 20th, 2006
There is a thin line between genius and madness. Daniel Johnston crossed that line with a combination of manic depression, fundamentalist Christianity, and bad acid trips. Somehow, despite his obvious mental deficiencies, Daniel Johnston became a cult legend as a musician and an artist and the line between genius and madness blurred to nothing.
In 1985 Daniel Johnston left his home in West Virginia to live with his brother in Texas. He soon disappeared and was later found to have joined up with a traveling carnival. The carnival led him to Austin, Texas, the iconoclastic home of one of the most eclectic music and art scenes in the country.
Johnston, carrying his self produced tapes and lyrics, made the rounds introducing himself, handing out his tapes, and blowing the minds of the Austin intelligentsia who saw something in him that most people did not. Johnston would go on to become one of Austin's most renowned characters and likely its most tragic.
His national profile is equally uncanny. Daniel Johnston once lucked his way onto MTV when the music channel's hip underground show, 120 Minutes, profiled Austin's music scene and Daniel simply showed up at the taping and soon found his way on to the stage. From there, in between trips to various mental facilities, Daniel Johnston's friends and acquaintances passed his legend on to anyone who would listen.
When Johnston’s manager set up a publishing label for him, bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth lined up to cover his work. Curt Cobain brought Daniel his most consistent national exposure by wearing a T-shirt with a drawing created by Daniel Johnston on the MTV music video awards. Cobain subsequently wore the shirt in TV and magazine interviews for months on end.
Here is the odd thing I kept going back to as I watched the documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Daniel Johnston is clinically quite crazy. From a purely scientific standpoint the man's mind is out of his control. He has crazy visions of God and Satan, some of which he has copied down and sold as art. Daniel Johnston has the kind of grand delusions that would have most people lined up for lifetime commitment to a hospital. However, a random arrival in Austin and finding just the right oddball community of artists, finds Daniel Johnston a world renowned musician and artist.
I don't know whether I admire Daniel Johnston or pity him. Watching people like the members of Sonic Youth, who brought Daniel to New York to record with them, and people like Simpsons creator Matt Groening, talk about how much they love Daniel's music is very strange. If these same people saw Daniel Johnston singing on a street corner in New York or LA would they or anyone give him a moment's notice?
The music of Daniel Johnston is bizarre. At once unlistenable and strangely compelling. When Daniel Johnston is riffing at his best; his lyrical combinations are rather mind blowing. More often, however, listeners will find Daniel Johnston lost in his delusions and proselytizing about god and satan and the various voices in his head.
Daniel Johnston has a gift and absolutely no ability to master it. This makes him both fascinating and tragic. It makes the documentary about his life The Devil and Daniel Johnston one of the most compelling and thought provoking documentaries I have ever seen.
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