TNMC
This site’s design is only visible in a graphical browser that supports web standards, but its content is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
You can blame today’s rage of reality shows on one person: television producer and creator Chuck Barris. Without the presence of Barris’s The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show modern television shows like Paradise Island, The Bachelor, and American Idol may have never graced the airwaves. Aside from his escapades as one of the top television producers of the 70’s, Barris claimed, in his un-authorized autobiography entitled Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, to have also been a assassin for the United States government. Barris not only destroyed lives on The Gong Show by allowing people to embarrass themselves through fifteen minutes of fame but literally by killing thirty-three people.
George Clooney’s directorial debut, the adaptation of Barris’s novel (adapted more faithfully to it’s source material than scribe Charlie Kaufman’s adaptation of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief), follows Barris from his childhood to present day. The opening disclaimer informs the audience that what they are watching is a re-enactment of events constructed by Barris’s novel, notes, and hundreds of interviews with those who knew Barris over the course of his life. We watch as Dick Clark tells us about the young, zealous Barris who wrote the hit song Palisades Park for American Bandstand artist Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon and as Gong Show regular the Unknown Comic informs us of Barris’s dark side while we watch as the events of Barris’s "life" unfold before our eyes.
We follow Barris (Charlie’s Angels villain Sam Rockwell) through his recruitment by Central Intelligence Agency agent Jim Byrd (George Clooney), his rigorous training, and pre-production on his various television shows until he becomes engrossed in the typical web of espionage. Following a hit, Barris is made aware of a traitor in his midst. We watch as his two lives come crashing together. His hippie girlfriend, Penny (Drew Barrymore), becomes aware of his lover, fellow spy Patricia (Julia Roberts). Barris’s chaperoning of Dating Game contestants becomes an increasing cover for his hit operations all while his rise and fall as a television producer and assassin takes place before our eyes. While watching, one cannot but think what a lovely train-wreck Barris, Clooney, and Kaufman have created.
After reading the novel and screenplay, it was surprising to find how much darker Clooney had made the film. Barris’s and Kaufman’s material could have made Confessions a dark comedy or a psychological thriller, Clooney chose the later. This is not necessarily a poor choice because it makes the film more marketable. Dark comedies have a history of being mean spirited and, for the most part, are un-attractive to the average movie goer. One cannot but think of the commercial failure of such dark comedies as Fight Club and Death to Smoochy. It is a shame that Hollywood is an industry built around economic figures rather than artistic creations. By building a film that has the box office grab of Roberts, Clooney, Barrymore (and even humorous cameos by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon) and injecting Kaufman and Barris’s dark comedy, Confessions may prove to have the best of both worlds.
Overall, Clooney’s film proves to be both entertaining and thought provoking. The audience not only view Barris’s un-authorized autobiography but the more complex topic of what people are willing to do for their Warholian fifteen minutes of fame. One may sing a popular pop ballad extremely poorly on live television or write an autobiography in which they claim to be a hit man. Either way, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is one of the biggest treats of the year.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
