Cosmoeticadotcom Film director Stephen Kijak's film is to be commended for never descending into minutia on Engel's life. In fact, virtually nothing, after the initial information on Engle's youth, is mentioned of his private life. This is refreshing, for it lifts the film well above any claims of being a vanity documentary. The negative is that Engel's 'art' is simply not good. Yes, he had a deep, powerful bass voice, and it was put to great effect in the early recordings. But, listening to his latest efforts, not only are his lyrics bad (Jim Morrison, Walker is not, even as some talking heads bizarrely link him to T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce)- in a jumbled sense, but they border on PC and the 'music,' such as it is, is random and found noise, not harmonies and melodies. To top it off, Engel's voice is a dim echo of its former glory, often descending into what seems like a parody of some local 1960s television station's late night horror film show host's attempt at singing to a bad B film.Initially, the film plays out like a mockumentary, but the infusion of vintage television clips dashes that surmise. What is not dashed is the reality of how limited the 'art' of Engel's music. Great art does art well. Visionary art pushes boundaries, as well. But, to push the boundaries back, the artist has to stay anchored to the extremes, at least of the art form. In the case of music, this means non-banal lyrics, damning predictable percussion, varying melodies and other such extensions. Simply going off into a corner and wailing, or grunting, is not an extension of music nor singing, as arts. Of course, that is hyperbole, but Walker's latest efforts smack of a phenomenon known in the arts- that of the spent artist realizing he'll never duplicate his earlier successes, so he just preens and deranges, then hides behind the veneer of his earlier success, as a 'genius,' or the like (and it's no shock to know Engel worships the Beatniks). Engel simply never expands the boundaries of music- pop nor otherwise, even as talking heads damn many of the progressive rock acts of the 1970s that went far beyond Walker's experimentalism: Yes, King Crimson, and others.Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (the title taken from an Engel song) is a well wrought and exquisitely structured film on an ultimately interesting subject, but that subject is not Engel nor music nor art, but the peregrinations of the spent artist in search of that golden nipple needed to nurse him into senescence's uneasy drool. Now, if only director Kijack can find an artist and subject worthy of his talents, the film will be a landmark in the genre.

valis1949 SCOTT WALKER 30 CENTURY MAN investigates the career of one of the most enigmatic musical icons of the last hundred years. Noel Scott Engel started his musical career as part of an American 'Mop Top' band which broke big in England, yet pretty much was ignored elsewhere. At one point, The Walker Brothers English fan base was larger than that of The Beatles. As the band's popularity waned, Scott became a solo artist, and seemed to channel his approach to popular music through the Social Realism Movement popularized by the works of English film director, Ken Loach, playwright, John Osborne, and even, Tennessee Williams. His sound is truly distinctive and extraordinary, and manages to straddle the line between Pop and Avant Garde. Yet, his musical influence is far-ranging, and can be heard in the work of such diverse contemporary artists as Brian Eno, David Bowie, Radiohead, Morrissey, Julian Cope, and dozens more. Throughout the documentary, Walker is very open and forthright about his music, but almost nothing is mentioned about his personal life. Obviously, this was his intention, yet the film left me wondering what the last forty years has been like for this idiosyncratic figure.

brother_jude When one of my musical heroes, Julian Cope, mentioned Scott Walker as one of his big influences, I had to listen for myself. I found the "Scott 2" CD by chance in a cutout bin and have been hooked ever since. The arrangements, lyrics, emotional punch and sheer weirdness of songs like "Plastic Palace People" and "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg" are impossible to get out of your mind once you've heard them. And then there's Walker's baritone voice. I can't think of anyone else singing these kind of songs and not making them sound ridiculous or pretentious. I've since acquired more of his solo work and have found it, by turns, equally fantastic and puzzling. This film does a good job of showing the arc of how he went from pop crooner to enigmatic experimentalist. I was pleasantly surprised when Walker took off the baseball cap and began to take us through his musical history. I had been afraid of him being cold and distant, given his disdain for publicity. Instead he seems to be a decent enough fellow, who just happens to possess a talent for displaying his inner demons effectively. While watching, I began to realize that the intent of his work has not changed over the years, it has merely become starker in conveying Walker's dark, though human, vision. In showing the recording process (one musician punching rhythms on a slab of meat) and hearing him explain the inspiration of certain songs (like the chilling footage from post-fascist Italy), the film gave me more insight, and respect, for Walker's later works like "Tilt" and "The Drift." If anyone wants a glimpse into a TRULY creative mind, whether a fan of Walker's music or not, I recommend they see this film.

seawalker There is a great bit in "Scott Walker: 30 Century Man" in which self confessed Scott Walker obsessive/fan Marc Almond talks about his reaction to hearing "Tilt" for the first time.Marc explains that he was invited to an exclusive play of what was, at that time, the new album. He took his seat, with many other people, in reverential silence and then the event began. After listening to a couple of tracks, Marc turned to his friend and said"This is terrible. This a really bad record. How embarrassing is this?"(OK. For anybody who knows the film off by heart, and I'm sure that there will be a few, those are perhaps not the exact words that Marc Almond used, but I think I am pretty close.)It was a great scene. A crucial scene, in fact, because prior to that we had been treated to a veritable galaxy of famous talking heads rhapsodising over Scott Walker's genius, his innovativeness, the depth and scope of his recordings and his progression away from anything resembling traditional pop music to something more akin to avant guard or even performance art. The pop singer Lulu kept it simple. She just wanted to know if Scott was still "gorgeous". Fair enough, I thought. (She toured with him in the Sixties when he was in the Walker Brothers.)From the snippets of music in the film, and they were only snippets, I am not at all sure if I like Scott Walker's later music or not. I might... because it is like nothing you will ever hear, and I quite like the idea of that.Therein lies the mystery of Scott Walker. His current work is impossible to pigeonhole and you cannot assume that you will like his current work based on his past work, because it is so completely different. I did like the Walker Brothers singles. I did like those early great, soaring, orchestrated solo records, some of which Julian Cope dismisses in the film as "M.O.R slop". Above all Scott Walker was, and still is, a brilliant vocalist.But about the film...This is a really good documentary. It's the full story from jobbing bass player on the Sunset Strip, teeny bop stardom with the Walker Brothers, solo success, solo and critical confusion, solo failure and extreme solo experimentation. There are lots and lots of clips, and some rare archive interview footage including Scott on mid 80's yoof show "The Tube", which is kind of hilarious in itself because of the dreadful video clip that was made to promote the single he had out at that time. (No idea what that was called.) Current interview footage shows Scott as shy, self effacing and (shock horror!) kind of normal. He also laughs a lot when recording, which was a bit of a surprise.Good film.Interestingly enough, the ear worm working away at my brain when I left the cinema was "Make It Easy On Yourself". Hell, there's nothing like a good pop tune. Maybe the most radical thing Scott could do now would be to record a pop album. Now that would be shocking...