Within 24 hours of arriving in LA to start a new life, Shep Gordon was punched out by Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix suggested he become a manager. Soon after, he met Alice Cooper and threw a live chicken at him on stage. Thus the legend of Shep Gordon, Super Manager, was born. And the legend gets more mythical from this point on.
Co-directed by documentary director/producer Beth Aala and Wayne’s World actor Mike Myers, The Legend of Shep Gordon is an easy and entertaining profile piece. It’s similar to other documentaries about backroom players (The Kid Stays in the Picture comes to mind here) where the man behind the artist has been identified as the more interesting story to tell, rather than the talent in front of him.
Aala and Myers have also made a wise choice in sticking to a basic documentary structure. Gordon’s story is told within one overarching, linear narrative about his career, interjected with a childhood backstory, the personal sacrifices made and the emotional toll of his career. By keeping to this simple structure, the filmmakers lets their subject shine, and shine he does.
Shep Gordon is an engaging and endearing man, with a honking laugh and a Rabbinical look. A mensch – a man of integrity and honour – is an apt description according to a rogue’s gallery of celebrities and loved ones who have been the recipients of his loyalty, his generosity and care, and his supply of really good weed.
Despite Gordon’s ‘fame’ as Alice Cooper’s agent and the sex/drugs/rock ‘n’ roll stories that are lovingly retold for our benefit, this film’s real value is in the revelation of the scope and reach of Gordon’s influence. While music has underpinned his entire life thanks to his decades-long relationship with Cooper, he also developed Alive Films, which green-lit the indie hits Koyaanisqatsi and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Gordon also was one of the first agents to spot a gap in the celebrity culture by throwing chefs into the mix, a gap unfilled since Julia Child hit the airwaves as The French Chef. Described as a cultural nexus, with all roads leading to his Maui hideaway, Gordon emerges as a surprising cross-cultural heavy-hitter.
By extension, this nexus is evident in one of the most eclectic mix of interview subjects ever assembled. It’s almost a film version of the website Awesome People Hanging Out Together – with a combination you thought you’d never see in one film. Anne Murray and Fab Five Freddy? Willie Nelson and Sylvester Stallone? Michael Douglas and Alice Cooper?
Like the life of Shep Gordon, this is a film spread a little too thin and doesn’t delve too deep. Any attempt to go deeper is skimmed over and you’re left wanting to know more. However, this is not the point of this film. More often than not, attempts of any deep analysis are picked apart and laughed at, especially by Gordon himself. It is what it is – don’t analyse it, it’s just a good time.
Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
Director: Mike Myers
USA, 2013, 85 mins
Melbourne International Film Festival
www.miff.com.au
31 July – 17 August
Actors:
Director:
Format:
Country:
Release:
