An unflinching near self-portrait of the artist Eric Clapton as a young and indeed mature alcoholic, who took years to come to terms with his addictions to both heroin and alcohol, in the end spurred onto beat them by a tragic domestic accident and at last finding love, happiness and a new family in his later years.
Clapton has provided director Lili Fini Zanuck with a good deal of sometimes unflattering private video footage, none more so than we see him snorting cocaine on-camera in the 70s as well as film of his obviously unhappy childhood and saddest of all, intimate father-son scenes of him with his young boy Conor who tragically fell to his death accidentally in New York aged only four. In addition, much screen-time is given over to his awkward, to say the least, courtship of best friend George Harrison's then wife Pattie Boyd, which extended, painful process inspired arguably his greatest work, the searing "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" double album, although even after he won her, sadly the relationship didn't survive, mainly due to his alcoholism.
There's much fine music here in clips featuring his days with the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Derek and the Dominos and his long solo career plus rare video and audio footage no doubt from Clapton's own personal collection, including a taped conversation between him and friendly guitar rival Jimi Hendrix and commentary, some of it naturally archival, from key collaborators down the years such as Duane Allman, Steve Winwood and Bobby Whitlock amongst many others, although the highest credit is given to the late, great B.B. King film of whom both introduces and closes the film.
Clapton comes across as an often shy, troubled and difficult man as he would no doubt be the first to admit but he's also candid, modest and above all honest about himself. There's none of the usual for this type of film, adulatory talking-heads over-the-top praise for either his music or musicianship which I certainly appreciated.
The film depicts his troubled childhood emanating from his early abandonment by his young-at-the-time mother as the main reason for his future insecurity and eventual self-hating. Later, it too quickly skips over the years from the mid 70's to the 90's (ironically, a time of great commercial success for him) in a matter of seconds, omitting in the process references to the career-boosting importance of events like his 1973 comeback concert at the Rainbow organised by Pete Townshend as well as his time with Delaney and Bonnie's band, or even his 80s hook-up with Phil Collins, although perhaps in so doing the director was demonstrating just how much of an empty void this time represented in his life as he struggled with the bottle.
It takes a long, long time for him to come out the other end of his own dark tunnel, but come out he did, as demonstrated both inside his career by the multiple Grammy success of his "Unplugged" album, and outside it, with the refuge for addicts he funded in Antigua from the sale of his vast guitar collection and lastly with the cosy domestic images of the at-last happy family man at play with his wife and young daughters.
Yes, this filmed life of one as long and full as Clapton's makes omissions, with no mention of his work with say J.J. Cale or his belated return collaborations with his Cream band-mates (of whom he's now the last survivor), or Winwood. Nevertheless, with much fine music, although it was surprising not to hear on the soundtrack such key songs from his career as "Sunshine Of Your Love", "Let It Rain" or "I Shot The Sheriff", fascinating private film and soberingly honest commentary from the man himself, this was a revealing and compelling insight into a great musician's often uphill struggle throughout most of his life with his own lack of self-confidence and inadequacy even after achieving great fame and success.
Told with refreshing and revealing candour, this is one of the better rock-docs you'll see.
