For seven years Ondi Timoer followed both Courtney Taylor’s The Dandy Warhols and their friends and rivals the The Brian Jonestown Massacre, whose front man, Anton Newcombe comes over as part genius and part self destructive madman...

DIG! (2004) is a rock documentary directed by Ondi Timoner. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Festival and the BendFilm Festival and has been made part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From the original 1500 hours, the film is a two hour condensed look at seven years in the life of two bands: The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Ondi initially started with ten bands but when she realised the connection between the Dandy’s and Jonestown front men she decide that this would make a much more interesting documentary.

What makes the film fascinating is the juxtaposition of not only the two bands, Jonestown comes over like a dysfunctional family, whereas the Dandys seem far more grounded in reality, but also the temperaments and outlook of Anton and Courtney, which go a long way to creating the artistic milieu within which their bands exist.

Anton’s character is quickly exposed as unconstrained passion and ego; it’s not long into the film before Anton is physically attacking members of his own band for some minor musical error. This sets up a confrontational atmosphere not only between the band members but between the band and the rest of the world. To a degree this is an easy stance to take because whatever happens to you, you can always blame it on someone else.

Courtney is very different; in the first shots we meet him explaining that the Dandy’s are a group of friends, this becomes their strength as they try and keep their musical integrity as money and success try to pull the band apart.

Narrated by Courtney Taylor, the film starts with both bands on a crusade to start a revolution in music. At the start both bands were on equal terms, in musical terms they seem pretty even, though Anton is clearly the better song writer, but as the years go by Anton’s aggressive ‘take no prisoners’ stance about his music and his view of the music industry finds Jonestown always at odds with success, never quite making the compromise that would have made them big. Courtney meanwhile learns to use the industry to his own advantage.

It is no secret that Anton was less than happy about the portrayal of his character and in this he has a point, his constant fighting and drug taking form much of the colour of the film and are easily the more interesting moments. However, the film is so condensed that a case could be made that Ondi deliberately chose those moments to share, to make the final film more attention-grabbing, with a different slant Anton could have come over as a passionate and driven artist and Courtney as a sell out, but with Courtney narrating the film it is unlikely he would have been happy to have added his vocals.   

For a film that is all about music it was gratifying to see that the disc came with audio options for stereo, 5.1 and DTS, with subtitles for the hard of hearing. The film is presented in widescreen anamorphic. The extras are a little disappointing as they contain no music videos from either band. What you do get is the original theatrical trail, some deleted scenes, a promo for some other Tartan music related films and an interview with the director (15 min, 08 sec), in which she discusses how she kept it going four seven years, even spending four years editing the film.

The film was captured on a number of different media, so there is little in the way of a universal look to the film; however this works in the films favour, giving the live performances a much grittier feeling. Whatever your feelings about how each of the two main protagonists are portrayed this is a rock documentary that everyone should see; it is by far one of the best rock documentaries that I’ve seen in a long while.

9

Charles Packer