Not gentle on his mind
2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s1474-4422(14)70206-6
ISSN1474-4465
Autores Resumo“…Come on you know who that is, it's you honey… It is a movie about you …no kidding [chuckle] I'll be me.” For all the music on display in this film, the human dimension of Glen Cambell's dementia is clear from the start. Sitting on a couch with his devoted wife Kim he is watching old Super 8 films, but Kim identifies the family members for him. It is sad to see his disconnect and in many ways James Keach's documentary is about the presentation of cognitive decline—with all its emerging despair. Glen—the golden boy as he was known—is a country music legend with advanced Alzheimer's disease. He was recently admitted to a care facility; for years, according to Kim, he had several people to take care of him at home but it was too much to handle. Glen might not know it, but he has sold millions of records, was a brilliant guitar player (he was a session musician on tracks by Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, The Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector, and the Beach Boys), and has even authored several books on playing a guitar solo and the essence of rhythm and phrasing. When Glen was told he had Alzheimer's disease, his failing memory was already very obvious to his family members. Surprisingly still, Glen and his band (including three of his children) decided to go on tour to support his new studio album. This film captures the immediacy to pull the tour off. As we follow Glen Campbell closely, we sense at each moment the contrast between his musical virtuosity and his major cognitive deficit. Most of all, the documentary is about procedural (non-declarative) musical memory in people with dementia—the learned motor skills from countless hours of practicing that remain intact longer than any other intellectual skill. Patients with Alzheimer's disease can play a tune or sing it right, even if they are not able to name the tune. However, when playing an instrument the right hemisphere remains important; and when that area of the brain is affected, musicians might lose mastery altogether. The tour starts off well. The use of a teleprompter helps Glen; it even cues him when to play a solo. He may not always know the key but he knows the melody and rhythm perfectly. Initially, he plays without any fault, he comes in with the band when he needs to, and his solos rock. “Who are these people?”, he jokes about his memory loss when he introduces the band. He is visibly enjoying the moment and, as expected, his emotional response to music is fully preserved. When later asked whether he got a life time achievement award at the Grammys, he answers “did I?” The film also shows he can be out of character. At one point he probes a knife in his mouth when he has a toothache, but in a burst of forceful denial he refuses to go to the dentist. He has episodes of scary anger, and during the tour wanders around in hotel hallways. Gradually “the frequency of bad shows increases” and the tour comes to a stop. He is repeating songs, talking too much, missing notes, losing the rhythm, and becoming visibly agitated. One poignant scene shows his extreme vulnerability when he complains about his guitar sounding terrible (“too thin”). In another scene he is struggling to keep up with the teleprompter (“who runs this thing? I have to have that thing on me”). During one show, his loss of decorum seems apparent when he opens up his shirt and shows off contracting pectoralis muscles. Glen has word-finding difficulties and semantic substitutions. His introductions during concerts seem to have become truncated. “I am Glen Campbell…I am…God bless you”. The family members feel that “working seems to stimulate his mind” and, despite all the haziness, “he becomes himself again”. His music making is now a necessity. Those in charge continue the concerts knowing that all bets are off. His fans seem to accept his slip ups. Emptying of the mind in dementia is much the same but also different in great artists. It has been a topic of fascination and wild speculation. Cognitive decline might come as “writers block” (Dame Iris Murdoch) or as “simplification” of painting with red and yellow colour dominance (Willem de Kooning). Skipping major parts during a concert, jumping from the first movement to the finale, and the repetitiveness of the Bolero has been suggested as signs of Maurice Ravel's dementia, but this connection has been strongly disputed. In Glen Campbell, it is forgotten lyrics and his requests for unusual tempo changes (the band goes along with it) that are the problems. Most remarkable is that the film shows he effortlessly plays and sings his songs, but off stage he cannot lace his shoes (I suppose it must have been less practiced). His last studio album had the following coda “some days I'm so confused Lord, my past gets in my way, I need the ones I love Lord, more and more each day.” This film is a celebration of his family's compassion and the admirable effort by his wife to avoid him sustaining an injury or spiralling into self-neglect, but inevitably as a result of his relentless decline she loses grasp of the situation. The film shows the Rhinestone Cowboy driving into the sunset and the audience is right there with him. It is an important and fine documentary on the ravages of Alzheimer's disease in a legendary artist. It is also about the disappearance of a great past. Glen Campbell…I'll Be Me Directed by James Keach, 2014. Distributed by PCH Films. Glen Campbell…I'll Be Me Directed by James Keach, 2014. Distributed by PCH Films.
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