Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

It's not easy to get past the shiny surface of Andy Warhol's self-sculpted persona, said Gene Seymour in Newsday. Ric Burns' new four-hour documentary argues that Warhol's image management was an art in itself. Despite the breadth and obvious reverence that suffuses this film portrait of the '60s icon, the man himself 'œremains too slippery, suggestive, and inscrutable to pin down with any certainty.' The movie is built elegantly, beginning with Warhol's working-class childhood and peaking where he peaked, with his Campbell's Soup cans and Marilyn portraits, which he executed at the Factory during his most productive decade. A sickly, effeminate boy, Warhol grew up insecure, and during the years of his greatest fame he'd become a voyeur, said Stephen Holden in The New York Times. He considered himself a freak and hated to be touched, looking on greedily as his entourage burned themselves out on drugs and sex. But as revealing as the movie is, it never strays from utter adoration. Andy Warhol 'œmay set a record for the number of times the label 'genius' is applied to its subject.' Unwilling to allow evidence of Warhol's later creative slump, Burns mostly glosses over the period after 1968, said Ed Halter in The Village Voice. The film 'œcan be heavy-handed, with emotive score, sometimes ponderous narration, and more than a few sweeping quotes on Warhol's earth-shattering impact.' But for a celebrity this huge, how can a documentarian help getting swallowed by hype?

Rating: Not Rated

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