Growing up, Nirvana and Kurt Cobain’s suicide appeared on countless of VH1 countdowns I loved watching, but I was never too familiar with Nirvana until I bought their greatest hits back when it was released in 2002. It was the perfect introduction, which helped Nirvana grow on me. I was in middle school, deep into my metal phase, and I discovered that the grunge movement wasn’t too far off stylistically from metal making it easy for me to develop a strong love for the Seattle grunge scene.
I developed a light obsession over Nirvana and the legacy they left behind; I bought their albums, Kurt biographies, and posters (as shown above, which I brought from Rockabilia back when Rockabilia was the place to buy from). I’ve also watched documentaries after documentaries, but they all seemed the same. I guess they all suffered from limitation because Courtney always took legal action when some of the filmmakers crossed boundaries. When Montage of Heck came about, I questioned how this documentary could be different from all the others. And then I read into it; Frances Bean used her rights to release footage to help make this the documentary she wanted to see about her father.
It was amazing to see such personal videos and listen to unheard audio because it’s all been untouchable, as if it was prohibited for anyone to know about Kurt’s life. Although, it is a strange concept for us fans to have personal insights into the life of a legend. It’s more of a privilege than right to know, and we’re lucky to have seen the day where we were given the privilege take a visual trip, which is what made this documentary stand out from the rest. We were let in.
Montage of Heck definitely succeeded with humanizing Kurt, which is what Frances Bean wanted, since he’s been considered the voice of his generation. Some scenes of home videos were pleasant to see – his family setting with his daughter, and videos of him as a child. Other scenes were rough – the drug riddled moments, which made my heart sink a little bit. But that was Kurt – a successful musician addicted to heroin.
The intimate nature and the animation with Kurt’s voiceovers were well put together making it a fantastic watch compared to other documentaries, and I appreciate that this was made. It said everything needed to be said, and I would recommend you watch even if you’re just a smidge of a Nirvana fan.
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