Hey folks, Harry here... I was lucky enough to get a screener of FRAZETTA: PAINTING WITH FIRE back before SXSW and folks... as a complete and utter worshipper of Frank Frazetta... this is the documentary to end all documentaries. As you sit there and listen to his childhood, the teenage friends... the gods of comic art, the E.C. years, the movie poster years, the Paper Backs... and the ascension to godhood, the strokes, the fighting back... It is such a great story. Finding out about the athletic background of Frazetta helped to understand just how his mind's eye knew how to freeze that ecstatic delicate instant that defines iconic motion in stillness... The tortured scarred muscles... Oh man, Frazetta... a true god in Comic Art treated exactly the way he should be. I met Frank numerous times as a small boy at conventions when he'd still do sketches back in the early to mid-seventies... Watching John Milius and Ralph Bakshi go bonkers about the man is just priceless... and when you see Bakshi trying to steal an original... there's a geeky nirvana shake of joy that just made me giggle like Joe E Brown. Anyway, here's the review...
Harry,
This is the first time I have written, but, as I have yet to see even a small mention of this on the site, I think the folks should know about this if they don't already. If they do, then they should get their copy if they haven't already! That means you too!
For about the past year and a half, this lifelong Frazetta fan has been drooling with anticipation for the Cinemachine documentary, "Frazetta: Painting with Fire" and, at the same time, shivering with fear that it would be a bloodless, "E" style video bio. I got my VHS copy in the mail today and nervously, excitedly, popped it in the VCR...
Harry, it is everything you could want in a film about the greatest illustrator of the second half of the 20th century! Well paced and laid out in a natural and ever revealing progression of segments over a full hour and a half, it eschews a narrator in favor of anecdotes and reminiscences from everyone from Fleegal Gang members Nick Meglin and Angelo Torres to "Illustrations Arcanum" publisher Glen Danzig. Frazetta's amazing art is, of course, greatly featured. "Doctor Dave" Winiewicz, as always, preaches to the long converted ( bless 'im!).
Of course, the real treat is the extensive interviews with The Man Himself. Frank is bold, brash, ever confident, and totally up front. Here is a man who, after a life threatening and debilitating thyroid condition and numerous strokes, has nothing to fear from anyone or anything. There is no holding this man back! He is as fully powerful a presence as his incomparable rendering of Conan! It is really fun to hear the tales from the Master's own mouth. And to see him working in the studio, now painting with his left hand (he's a righty)... Amazing stuff!
As you might have noted, I mentioned that this was a VHS copy. The DVD is still being worked on. Lots of additional features are promised. I'll be getting that too when it comes out. This great documentary was a wholly independent film and truly an amazing work of love from the folks at Cinemachine. Harry, this is a must own!
All the details are at Cinemachine's site:
With a big, stupid grin,
(Scortch)
