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Nick Broomfield is a gutsy documentarian. It’s amazing sometimes what he gets people to do on camera. I’ve seen his other celebrity docs about serial killer Aileen Wuornos and Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and it seems that Broomfield is interested at how people latch onto famous people and take advantage of them.
KURT & COURTNEY created a lot of buzz in 1998, because it was pulled from the Sundance Film Festival after Courtney Love threatened to sue. Eventually, the film was released on video and bolstered the conspiracy theories that surrounded the death of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain.
Did he really commit suicide or did his wife Love have him murdered? Broomfield starts out the doc looking into the many conspiracy theories. Could Cobain really have pulled the trigger on the rifle? Would the amount of drugs in his system really have left him unable to move, rendering suicide impossible? Bloomfield interviews private eye Tom Grant, who Love hired to originally investigate Cobain's death, Hank Harrison, Love's father, and punk singer El Duce, who all believe Love conspired to have Cobain murder. I’ve heard many people walk away from this film, saying that it proves that Love had Cobain killed, but it didn't convince me. The evidence is flawed at best or in some cases a big stretch.
In addition to the theories, the film exposes Love’s obsessively violent control over any information that has to do with Nirvana or Kurt. Bloomfield plays the calls from MTV stating the legal threats from Love have led them to back out of the film. Journalist Victoria Clarke, who wrote a book on Cobain, is interviewed about the threats she received from Cobain as well as being assaulted by Love. What the film really proves is that there were many people in and around Kurt’s life that just wanted to profit off of him and that Courtney Love looks to be top on that list. The film makes her look so bad that people make the leap from “she’s evil” to “she’s a killer.” You could say that the film implicates everyone in Cobain's life for his death, because too many were consumed with what they could get from him to take the time to help him with his addiction problem.
As a fan of Nirvana, I was intrigued and saddened by what Cobain had to go through and live with. However, the film is at times uneven and because of Love’s efforts to control it, Broomfield switches his focus to attacking Love at every turn. This is a must see for Nirvana or Cobain fans, but it may not be the cup of tea for people who don’t rock out to alt rock or can’t stand watching the insane tirades of Courtney Love.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
