The Man We Want to Hang

I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. Dr. Anger really did an excellent job of bringing out the artistic merit in Crowley's paintings.

I was actually at the London showing of these paintings that Dr. Anger filmed, and I must say he captured them in a way that really brings out something special from these paintings. Crowley's artistic ability was limited, but this film really accentuates what was admirable and interesting about Crowley's take on things.

When I heard about the film, I thought it sounded like it might be a bit boring, but I was pleasantly surprised. Don't watch it expecting anything other than a unique look at some paintings by Crowley at close hand, and you should enjoy it.

This is the first film legendary avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger has made in over 20 years. His last film being "Lucifer Rising". After waiting that long to make a new film, you would think he might have done something a little more elaborate. Granted, he has now passed the age of seventy, but I know there must still be quite a bit of creativity in him. "The Man We Want to Hang" is a 12-minute short, consisting of Anger filming borrowed paintings done by legendary and controversial occultist Aleister Crowley. The paintings themselves are interesting to see because of their irony. For such a renowned "occultist"/"satanist", Crowley painted some very mild, and sometimes beautiful paintings that you would never expect him to produce. Anger naming the film "The Man We Want to Hang" is, in itself ironic too, considering that he's showing these beautiful, tranquil pictures which were painted by a man that many people opposed his very being. This film is worth watching if you are a fan of Anger's work, and/or fascinated with Aleister Crowley, but as far as being a "good" film, it's hard to say.....a junior high school student could have shot the same thing.

Aleister Crowley was one odd man. Trying to describe him and his religious and philosophical views is impossible given the space limitations of this review, though he's most associated with hedonism and creating a bizarre mixture of ancient religions and Satanism. His life motto was "do what thou wilt"--an invocation to live and act as you'd like, as he felt that sin and guilt were silly creations of Christianity. Some consider him a perverted Satanist while others adore him for his liberating attitude about life and sexuality. Regardless, the maker of this film, Kenneth Anger, is a huge follower of Crowley--owning a large collection of Crowley's works and letting Crowley and his views of Lucifer influence several of this short films.

This film consists of nothing but drawings and paintings done by Crowley. As the camera moves about, you are given no narration or explanation of what you are seeing--unless you listen to the accompanying audio track with Anger himself talking about his film and his love of Crowley. It seems that most of the paintings in the film were owned by Led Zeppelin musician Jimmy Page, though a few others were borrowed from other sources.

Overall, not a film for the average person. I didn't care much for the paintings and I think I would have simply preferred a film about Crowley himself--explaining his rather confusing beliefs and bizarre lifestyle. Now THAT would have been interesting--this film wasn't. If you ARE a disciple of Crowley, then by all means watch and enjoy. Otherwise, it's pretty tough going.