Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fischer

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Derailroaded: Inside The Mind Of Wild Man Fischer
Directed by Josh Rubin
Produced by Jeremy Lubin
Music by Wild Man Fischer
Cinematography Bryan Newman
Edited by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Josh Rubin
  • Jeremy Lubin
  • Howard Leder
Production
company
Ubin Twinz
Release dates
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  • March 19, 2005 (2005-03-19) (SXSW)
Running time
 86 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Derailroaded: Inside The Mind Of Wild Man Fischer is a 2005 documentary film, directed by Josh Rubin and Jeremy Lubin, aka The Ubin Twinz about outsider artist Wild Man Fischer.

The film

The film chronicles the life of Wild Man Fischer, an outsider artist who went in and out of several mental institutions when he was a child. During the 1960s he was a street singer in L.A., which gave him a cameo appearance in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in 1968. The same year Frank Zappa gave him the opportunity to record his first album, An Evening with Wild Man Fischer. Fischer's eccentric personality provided some truly unique music, but his mental problems rapidly ended his career. Fischer suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia and thus became impossible to work with, despite the best efforts of other artists (Barnes & Barnes, Rosemary Clooney,...) to help him. So despite his cult reputation Fischer remained a poor street musician until the end of his life.

The film makers tell Fischer's tragic story thru archive footage, interviews with people who were once associated with him and also interview Fischer himself. According to the directors they were having dinner in a restaurant when suddenly Fischer started talking about his career and all the amazing things he did. Unimpressed the directors went home and tried to check whether these tall tales were true, only to be shocked that they were! They tracked Fischer down and decided to make this documentary film about him. As it turns out Fischer is a poor street artist who occasionally performs, but lives alone with his psychological problems. He sometimes visits his aunt and the film makers also interview Fischer's brother. Near the end of the film Fischer is hospitalized and put on medication. This makes him less aggressive, but also takes away his energy and willingness to perform.

Fischer died in 2011.

Cast

Release

The film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.[1] An Evening With Wild Man Fischer remains unreleased on CD. The awareness brought to Fischer by Derailroaded did, however, bring all three Rhino albums back in print on CD through Collectors' Choice Music.[citation needed] MVD Entertainmanet Group released it on DVD in the US on March 22, 2011.[2]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 71% of seven surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6/10.[3] Metacritic rated it 57/100 based on seven reviews.[4] Joe Leydon of Variety called it "as discomfortingly fascinating as listening to a couple’s heated argument at a table near yours in a restaurant".[5] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "Not everyone who watches this sad, disturbing film with its flashy, animated embellishments will agree that what Mr. Fischer does is art, whether outsider or any other kind."[6] Eli Kooris of The Austin Chronicle called it a "fascinating documentary" that rightly never answers the question of whether Fischer is a genius or lunatic.[7] Drew Tillman of The Village Voice wrote, "This bungled documentary on outsider music legend Larry 'Wild Man' Fischer mistakes exploitation for empathy".[8] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated it 3/5 stars and wrote that it "works as a B-side to Terry Zwigoff's classic biography of R Crumb".[9]

References

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External links

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