I saw the Upsetter film today...very disappointing. I'll hold back from listing all my moans and groans about it (there are lots), but basically it criminally glosses over his ska to Black Ark period, spends a bit of time on Bob Marley (not in an interesting way), and then gives waaaay too much time to all the depression/madman period, without even touching on the positive post Ark stuff (zero mention of Mad Professor or Adrian Sherwood).
I'm a huge fan who's read a couple of books on Lee Perry and it really disappointed me, but I went with someone completely unfamiliar with his music, and it doesn't even deliver to the newbie: it doesn't leave you with the impression that here is a hero of modern music, other than by saying that he is so - it didn't demonstrate it.
Im going to stop before I get ranty, but on top of everything there's the wind up of the original soundtrack which is bad synths trying to act moody for when things are going wrong in the narrative, and even a techno track for when things were going good! You don't need an OST on this , you got 10 million lee perry tracks
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Worth a watch, but if this is all you had to go on you'd have a completely distorted view of him
Some interesting footage in amongst it though, and the one big coup for me was Lee badmouthing the Congos - I know that by the end of the Ark there were Rastas effectively camped out in his house at all times, and the constant stress from hangers on is what drove Perry to drive them out, and in turn destroy the studio, but in the film Lee singles out the Congos as forcing his hand.
The film also accidentally almost went into the tension between him and Rastafarianism - is he, or isn't he a rasta, and the philosophical tensions that arose between him and the rastas hanging around the studio - that is a really interesting subject that gets to the heart of what makes him special - but my impression is that the filmmakers just weren't aware/interested/knowledgeable enough to go into anything about him in any depth. Never mind depth, there were gaping holes in this film... what a wasted opportunity.
That said a fair few people clapped at the end, and there were also some good laughs in there from when Lee was on form.
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