The Daddy of Rock 'N' Roll

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wesley Willis: The Daddy of Rock 'n' Roll
The DVD cover.
Directed by	Daniel Bitton
Produced by	Daniel Bitton
Starring	Wesley Willis
Music by	Wesley Willis
Distributed by	Music Video Distributors
Release date(s)	April 22, 2003
Running time	58:48 min.
Country	US
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Wesley Willis: The Daddy of Rock 'n' Roll is a 2003 documentary film directed by Daniel Bitton about rock musician and artist Wesley Willis, who died in 2003 at age 40. Willis, challenged by a weight disorder as well as a schizophrenic personality disorder, is followed in his daily tasks, trials and tribulations in autumn 2000, showing him writing his unique yet virtually identical songs, playing a show, and attending to daily chores.

[edit] Plot

Shot in and around Willis' native Chicago area, the documentary simply shows footage of Willis' daily life with his songs serving as the soundtrack. Willis appears unkempt, morbidly obese and mentally unstable.

His songwriting technique is shown as he visits a local Kinko's dressed sloppily and barefoot, and types expletives and repetitive bestiality references on a computer as lyrics and prints the document. His songs deal with subjects such as praise for celebrities that he had met or admired, reports on bands that he had seen, stories about violent confrontations with superheroes, and expletive-packed rants at his mental "demons". Willis says music helps him silence the discouraging mental voices, but his fan following comes from people who find his songs humorous. Many of his compositions are very similar, a fact that is highlighted by scenes of him recording songs such as "I Whipped Superman's Ass", "I Whipped Spider-Man's Ass" and "I Whupped Batman's Ass", which are juxtaposed to highlight their similarities.

Willis also visits a zoo, bemusingly overdubbed with one of his many songs about bestiality.

Towards the end Willis is shown playing with his band, the Wesley Willis Fiasco.

Several of Willis' friends are interviewed, among them recording engineer Steve Albini. They reminisce over how they met Wesley and how they feel about him. By and large they are all sympathetic of his plight and it is stated he would likely be deceased if he had not cultivated such a network.

One friend describes Willis' poor upbringing (involving forced viewing of his own mother having intercourse in exchange for drugs), and touchingly, Willis' own despair at his condition:

"I'm already doomed. I can't find a girlfriend, I can't do a goddamned thing."