Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies
Special Edition
(MVD Visual, 2007)

I had terrible nightmares last night. I tossed and turned trying to rid my mind of fear-induced visions filled with ripped flesh, blood, violent attacks, screaming, mayhem and pain. No, this did not result from watching Top Five Eaten Alive on this week’s “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel. (Although, um, whoa.) These nightmares resulted from watching footage from the DVD special edition release of the legendary Todd Phillips’ senior film project on GG Allin, a horrifying and filthy film, a great film by a guy who went on to direct such notable flicks as Road Trip, Old School and Starsky & Hutch.

GG Allin is a complicated character, one that is very hard to like, but also very hard to deny. A punk singer and a spoken word artist, GG Allin’s eccentricity started from the crib, where his father insisted he be named Jesus Christ based on a vision he had of an angel that told him his son would be a great man in the vein of the Messiah. His older brother couldn’t say Jesus Christ and called him JeJe instead, which luckily caught on, because his life would’ve been totally fucked if not. Uh. GG Allin’s legendary performances are known for him performing naked on stage, fighting audience members, audience members performing fellatio on him, him defecating on stage, rubbing said matter on himself and eating it, throwing matter at said audience, cutting himself… etcetera? I dunno… he once shoved a banana up his ass at a show that Phillips booked at NYU for this film. The movie contains footage of this “spoken word performance,” showing the crowd fearfully fleeing to the back of the small room from Allin, who started accosting them with his words and chairs. There’s footage of him drinking mouthfuls of piss. Then there’s the whole thing about how he prophesized he would kill himself on stage, and apparently a few of his fans wanted to die right there with him. He’d been arrested over 50 times on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to exposing himself to minors. People talk a lot about finding Allin’s antics to be funny, funnier than Spinal Tap I believe was one review. Although intrigued by questions of whether I consider something like this to be “artistic expression” or not, I cannot say I’m personally amused by that much shit and violence.

The documentary, which at the time of its original release became the highest grossing student film, explores the life of GG Allin from his youthful rebellion to his ultimate demise. Through performances and interviews with Allin and others, we are taken on his masochistic journey to bring danger back to rock ‘n’ roll. Apparently, we were supposed to find some sort of message in his shocking performance, where nothing was off limits, not even bashing a girl’s head into a wall for talking back to him. This was a guy that hated everyone, did whatever he wanted, lived completely outside the law, and attracted a crowd that was either as full of as much hatred as him, or just really liked getting wasted and telling fart jokes. The latter were the ones you’d see closest to the exit at shows. In the end GG Allin’s life ended not on stage like he continually said it would, but alone in an apartment face down, having overdosed on a truck load of heroin. His death was ultimately the most ironic thing about his career that fell victim to the standardized rock star casualty. So much for reclaiming rock music.

Of any shock rocker that ever existed (Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, Wayne Country… there are around 50 that fall into this category), they all pale in comparison to GG Allin. It was Allin that brought everything; every ounce of pent up anger and bodily fluid to put it all on display. He brought what is dangerous and scary about the underbelly of society to the stage and called it art. No one really talks about his songs. The songs and band merely provided the background music.

The film really does an excellent job of exploring Allin’s life. It’s an unapologetic view shot through the canon of band mates and fans commentary, most of whom were entirely dead pan while justifying his actions. The interviews with Allin himself are really quite narcissistic, but equally honest and surprisingly not really all that psychotic… it seems Allin was extremely comfortable with his anti-establishment lifestyle, vying it was the only way to live. The best commentary, however, came from an ex-band member who didn’t believe in Allin anymore. He shanked himself in the head about 20 times telling us that it wasn’t any big deal and didn’t really hurt all that bad. We’re also privvy to a glimpse of Dee Dee Ramone, who joined the Murder Junkies briefly before quitting after throwing beer bottles at prostitutes out of a moving van with the band (which he later denied).

There isn’t much more to say about GG Allin and this documentary. You either want to subject yourself to this type of stuff or you don’t. Perhaps I watched it so you don’t have to. I’m personally hard pressed to say that what he did had actual brains behind it, but I guess it was smarter for him to turn his lifestyle into a freak show than to go ’round killing people.

Watch: Trailor for “Hated“  [at youtube.com]