Beware of Mr. Baker

I have just seen this film at a BFI screening, with Jay Bulger and the fearsome Mr Baker himself turning up on stage afterwards for a fractious Q&A that ended with shouting, swearing, recriminations all round, and Jay Bulger seemingly storming off stage. The perfect end to a brilliant documentary!

The story is fascinating and engaging throughout, with Ginger Baker himself coming across as a complex and contradictory character. While you're appalled at much of his behaviour (he comes across as a pretty damn terrible father/husband/work colleague), you can't help but admire his incredible energy and drive, his prodigious musical talent, and his refusal to ever let life beat him down.

The sparing use of beautiful and rather poetic animation works very well, and Jay Bulger himself refrains from including himself too much in the finished film - and when he does take centre stage for a moment, it's an extraordinary (and violent!) moment.

By the way - Jay, if you're reading this, I'm sorry people shouted at you after the screening. Perhaps, given the subject matter, it's only appropriate that the whole thing ended in acrimony. And hats off to you for getting a cold, reserved audience of Brits so fired up and vocal.

Great work - loved the film.

Beware of Mr. Baker (2012)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Highly entertaining documentary taking a look at the troubled career of Ginger Baker, a drummer who is considered by many to be the greatest to ever live. The documentary shows why he helped make groups like Cream so memorable yet the film also shows why he ended up broke, unable to find a job and being rejected by many who admired him. BEWARE OF MR. BAKER is an exceptional documentary because it doesn't try to cover up Ginger Baker's rather problematic life but it's also not exploitation by only showing how "crazy" he is. Instead I thought filmmaker Jay Bulger did a wonderful job at really giving you a honest and complete look at this man who is probably his own worse enemy. We get interviews with Baker, his three ex-wives, his son and daughter, Eric Clapton as well as countless other drummers including those in The Police, Pink Flloyd, Black Sabbath and The Rolling Stones. The film has plenty of archival clips of the young Baker coming into his own and it also ventures into his career in South Africa where he was pretty much working for nothing. His love of animals is also on full display as well as him mocking himself for his attempted acting career. If you're a fan of classic rock then this here is certainly a must-see. There's no denying that Baker managed to influence pretty much every drummer who came after him yet very few know who he is.

I am not a particular fan of Ginger Baker nor of the groups he's been associated with over the years. This is NOT a criticism--I am just letting you know that if you don't know who he is or care, you STILL could really enjoy watching this film!

While Baker is most famous for his part in the short-lived rock group Cream (recently admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), this only takes up a small portion of this fascinating documentary about this infamous drummer. Like a good documentary, it tries to cover the totality of his life--and shows him in a warts and all portrait. And, like a good documentary, it allows Baker to speak for himself--in addition to all the celebrity interviews and vintage footage.

So why did I like this film so much in addition to it being well made? Well, Baker is an amazingly self-absorbed *##--and film appears to say he is both a brilliant and amazing drummer AND a sociopathic jerk who uses people and is subject to fits of anger and drunken binges. Heck, you even get to see Baker smash the documentarian in the face and draw blood near the end of the film!! Talk about warts and all.

The bottom line is that this film is like watching a slow-motion train wreck. You know it's repellent and awful--but it's never dull and cannot help but entertain you!!

Well executed film. While the physical history of Mr Baker is presented, in the end it is his artistic history we learn. The film highlights Baker's many desertions in life. And indeed, eyewitness accounts describe the pain this man has engendered to family, and fellow musicians. Some of the major musicians of our time have one or two line observations, edited around a long, many day, interview with Ginger Baker at his ranch in South Africa. And of course the music. Seven years his junior, I witnessed much of his rock music as it happened. However, had I read that this review must have a minimum of ten lines, l would not have started it. One of the "insights" is Baker's life-long, always changing, relationship to rhythm and drums. Insightful too, is the volatile relationships in many of his bands.

Mister Baker here is Ginger Baker, the rock drummer, most famous for his days, from 1966-1968 with Cream. Eric Clapton was on guitar and Jack Bruce on bass. They were technically the most perfect musicians ever to play rock and roll. Clapton and Bruce are interviewed, as are others, such as Steve Winwood from his days with Baker with Traffic. The music is terrific and Baker's life is certainly interesting, separate from the music. We get a wife #1, followed up by #2, #3, and #4. The man is a disaster as a human being and father, but he is also quite possibly the greatest rock drummer ever. At an hour and a half, the film moves quickly, and the clips of Baker drumming are breathtaking. If you are a serious rock fan, this documentary is for you.