Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune: movie review
Kenneth Bowser鈥檚 engrossing documentary about counterculture folk singer and political activist Phil Ochs takes in a wide swath of social history. Ochs rose to prominence in the 1960s folkie New York scene at the same time as Bob Dylan (whom he idolized) and Joan Baez.
Unlike the more user-friendly warblings of popular groups like 鈥�The Kingston Trio,鈥� Ochs鈥檚 music, which included songs like 鈥淒raft Dodger Rag鈥� and 鈥淚 Ain鈥檛 Marching Anymore,鈥� were scabrous and far more limited in their popular appeal.
He was an original working in the narrow niche of political protest songs who nevertheless thought his music would be as popular as Dylan鈥檚 鈥� or Elvis鈥檚. He even dressed up in an Elvis-style gold-lam茅 suit for the cover of a 1970 鈥淕reatest Hits鈥� album, even though none of his songs had ever cracked the Top 40. It was a joke, of course, but Ochs was also deadly serious, and ultimately delusional, about his appeal.
The wave of political assassinations only darkened his mood. In 1976, at 35, he killed himself. Many of the interviews in the film 鈥� conducted with everyone from family members to Christopher Hitchens and Tom Hayden 鈥� look to be 10, even 20, years old. Together they concoct a complex portrait of an ultimately unknowable man. Grade: B+ (Unrated.)
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