The El Duce Tapes

A brilliant documentary. It's incredibly well edited and put together. Not so much sad as other reviewers have pointed out, more fascinating. That people exist like El Duce is truly interesting, a complex, flawed, ultimately likeable and flawed man. This is one I'll rewatch as it's a lot to take in, in one go, but I'd like to spend more time with the people here. Nobody comes across bad, they come across real, with no filter which is refreshing nowadays. Do yourself a favour and watch this, I've already recommended it to all my friends, a true hidden gem!

A troubling, hilarious, very wet and extremely squishy documentary about shock-rock pioneer Eldon "El" Duce and his sociopathic bandmates The Mentors. The movie packs plenty of surprises, from El's grotesque high-school vandalism to the group's musical genesis being electric 70s jazz. (El Duce describes their change to punk rock as "fusion to perversion").

The plentiful depravity within provides no greater iconic image than a wobbly, grinning El Duce squatting on a dirty carpet to watch porn on a TV set, cheap beer in hand. The movie's humor disappears almost entirely after 35 minutes--this marked by a sincere on-camera bottomburp from El--once his homelessness, alcoholism and contempt for life emerge amidst endless 40 oz. Bottles of Olde English. Everything becomes much sadder here than in anything found in the angry, blowhard rantings GG Allin spewed in "Hated".

And things get worse, as video gorno follows of El Duce suffering an atrocity straight out of "The Elephant Man." Watching this makes listening to some whiny-ass grunge rocker or pompous fallen star like Axl Rose self-pity himself impossible. Happier moments include tons of glitchy vintage 80s footage, especially of the band's music video for "Donkey Dick", and there's powerful live performances of hits like "Sandwich of Love." One concert takes place in an L. A. garage to an audience of cigarette-smoking 12-13 year-old boys.

El Duce also gives a performance of love-making in a sort of oral-tradition display likely to shock every lesbian performance artist from Italy to Seattle.

Testimonials from bandmates are mostly of the type expected from disappointed high-school guidance counselors or prison guards. There's even material onscreen to shock hardcore fans of the group and definitely believers in the kind of music-contest-fits-all pursuit of stardom. Responsible rock-star parents should consider this required viewing for their children. 5 potato sacks out of 5.

This was a documentary that went on my radar when Duncan from The Podcast Under the Stairs did an episode on it. I'll be honest, I had no idea who El Duce or The Mentors were. The things that Duncan said about this intrigued me so it went on a list of things to check out. Since I work in an office, I decided to watch this late in the day to pass the time since I could treat it like a podcast.

What we get here is a funny and yet tragic tale of El Duce. This gives his humble beginnings. We learn about his homelife and how that led him to be the man that he became. There seemed to be a perfect storm when he and his band, The Mentors, came out. This led to success. It was also a time where the government was stepping into censoring music, movies and video games. This brought notoriety to the group.

I'd also say that this is tragic. El Duce didn't seem to care much about himself. There were demons there that he treated with alcohol instead of dealing with them. This is tragic as his 5 minutes of fame came to an end. He ended up homeless and the butt of jokes. Seeing the later footage was depressing.

I should point out that an independent actor decided to do home videos to document this guy and his band. Ryan Sexton was his name. From my understanding, this was filmed in the 90s and then kept in a storage unit. It seemed a perfect time to bring this out and put it together. It is an interesting look at this wild guy for sure.

What I will warn you though is that this was filmed on VHS tape. The quality isn't great, but there's not much that can be done there. What I will say is that adds charm. There is a home video feel to it. I mean, that is exactly what it is. Hearing these people's thoughts during the height of this guy and then during his downfall is an interesting insight as well. If you're a fan or at least know of this guy or his band, give this a watch. This guy is deplorable, but I still wonder how much he thought and how much he did it to be hated. Regardless, this is an intriguing watch.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

I think this will take a certain audience to appreciate this distillation of footage taken in 1990 and 1991 around lead singer for the Mentors, El Duce, but if you're a part of that audience you'll find it revealing, appalling, poignant, and most of all, sad.

The filmmakers do a good job weaving the various interviews (done in low-fi '90s home video quality) into a narrative, although I did find it a tad too long. You pretty much see where this is going if you didn't already know, but it was truly distressing to witness the disfunction behind the leader one of the most unique early era punk-ish bands. Nice use of vintage clips set some of the context of those wacky days of Tipper Gore and Jerry Springer. Yee haw!

Do be aware of what you're getting into before viewing, but worth viewing.

Sad story of El Duce dealing with obvious signs of depression and alcoholism. Sheds some light on a person many would consider a real POS. Would recommend for fans of underground punk and cool 90's documentaries shot on tape.