Sad story of El Duce dealing with obvious signs of depression and alcoholism. Sheds some light on a person many would consider a real POS. Would recommend for fans of underground punk and cool 90's documentaries shot on tape.
The El Duce Tapes
2019
Biography / Documentary / Music

The El Duce Tapes
2019
Biography / Documentary / Music
Synopsis
Between appearing in supporting roles in General Hospital and local TV commercials, Ryan Sexton spent the early 90s documenting the life and art of El Duce, lead singer of the notorious shock rock band The Mentors. Famous for taking the stage in black executioner hoods, the band spent a few moments in the national spotlight after some of their most offensive lyrics were denounced on the floor of the US Senate. 25 years later, David Lawrence and Rodney Ascher dive into the long unseen VHS footage searching for clues about who El Duce really was, how much of his disturbing persona was for real, and what an act built around a cartoonish sense of violent misogyny can tell us about our own time and place.
Uploaded By: FREEMAN
November 03, 2020 at 12:36 PM
Director
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Great!
Disturbing Stuff
I think this will take a certain audience to appreciate this distillation of footage taken in 1990 and 1991 around lead singer for the Mentors, El Duce, but if you're a part of that audience you'll find it revealing, appalling, poignant, and most of all, sad.
The filmmakers do a good job weaving the various interviews (done in low-fi '90s home video quality) into a narrative, although I did find it a tad too long. You pretty much see where this is going if you didn't already know, but it was truly distressing to witness the disfunction behind the leader one of the most unique early era punk-ish bands. Nice use of vintage clips set some of the context of those wacky days of Tipper Gore and Jerry Springer. Yee haw!
Do be aware of what you're getting into before viewing, but worth viewing.