In my early days as a high school teenager, I discovered the incredible work of Frank Zappa. I remember the first time I played Sheik Yerbouti and was gobsmacked at how insanely provocative it was, not only due to its crude and, at times, extremely offensive lyrics but also its musical patterns were unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. I quickly became obsessed with his music and always thought he would be an interesting subject for a documentary to explore. Well, it’s finally here. Zappa chronicles the life of the legendary singer/songwriter whose satirical and experimental rock music was far ahead of his time (and still is). Using previously unseen archives from Frank Zappa’s private vault, director Alex Winter constructs a portrait of the legend that gives us some insightful information on Zappa’s towering work, both as an artist and a political activist, yet still leaves us wanting to know more about the man.
It’s true that no feature-length documentary can ever paint a complete and highly exhaustive picture of Frank Zappa. To do this would require ordering a 15-episode limited series chronicling every event of Zappa’s prolific life, from his humble beginnings with The Mothers of Invention to the end of his life, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991 and died from the disease three years later. Yet, with a runtime of 129 minutes, Zappa has more than enough time to shed light on Zappa’s most important moments of his life, but still feels inherently superficial. The film follows the same presentation as Don Hahn’s Howard, where talking heads are mostly presented in voiceover through archival footage, with the exception that some of the interviewees, such as Frank’s late wife Gail Zappa, musicians Pamela Des Barres, Steve Vai, and Ruth Underwood to name a few, are shown in-person.
Like Howard, Zappa’s testimonials from talking heads are extremely superficial, telling us how big of a musical genius Zappa is, without giving any real insight on the “how” of this genius. We learn that Zappa loved to experiment with different instruments, such as horns, on a rock band and never catered to the masses after releasing his only “real” hit, Valley Girl (which he wrote with his daughter, Moon Unit, after she begged to spend more time with him), as he believes popular music culture has greatly declined. However, all of these affirmations from various commentators never really delve into Zappa’s psyche as an artist, and only receive factual events from his life (and Zappa in his own words to slightly complement what the subjects are saying). This makes the viewing experience of Zappa feel like scrolling through a Wikipedia page, which shouldn’t be the case.
The most interesting element of a biographical documentary has always been when interviewees go beyond the facts and give personal testimonials that give us a real, profound insight on the subject of the documentary. Zappa briefly does that, when the film starts talking about his political activism, particularly when the Parents Music Resource Center was campaigning for discs to have parental warnings on them if it contained offensive material. Zappa, a staunch advocate of free speech, made it his mission to ensure that no parental warnings would ever see the light of day, and to testify to the U.S. Senate on what he believes is censorship. This is the only time Zappa soars in delivering an interesting insight on Frank’s career as an artist, as it goes beyond the realm of factual information to delve into Zappa as an individual. We see how passionate he is about artistic freedom; believing music can be an uncensored form of art where musicians can freely express themselves and talk about what they want, without the government saying to consumers if a certain album is appropriate for all ages or not.
If Zappa solely focused on Frank’s anti-censorship quest, maybe it would’ve been an interesting documentary on a facet of Frank Zappa’s life. If Winter could’ve focused on Zappa as an unapologetic political activist and exploring this aspect of his life to the fullest extent, maybe it could’ve been a better documentary. However, Winter’s film is too dense, as it tries to present every aspect of his life in two hours. Going through a complete library of archival material and trying to determine whether a certain piece of footage is interesting enough is definitely a lot of work, and Winter needs to be commended for presenting lots of never-before-seen footage on Frank Zappa, from Zappa himself. Still, presenting footage without compelling insight is rather empty, and Zappa feels incomplete. As a die-hard fan of Zappa’s work, I feel Winter missed the opportunity to truly dive into the mind of Frank Zappa, and deliver the ultimate documentary on the life of a legend who reinvented rock in more ways than one. A shame, yes, because the film already does a lot for Zappa’s fanbase by presenting material that has never seen the light of day, but never truly dives into the material and presents Zappa in the canvas he truly deserves.
