This documentary about an outsider ‘artist’ provokes strong emotions right from the start. Anyone who gleefully calls their music ‘rape rock’ isn’t going to win many sensible fans. It’s remarkable, then, than through the course of the film, our opinion of the repulsive frontman of The Mentors moves from hatred to pity. Directors Rodney Ascher and David Lawrence take Ryan Sexton’s video footage filmed in the nineties. Sexton followed the band playing gigs across the country and create a narrative that exposes an underbelly of US society that would rear its ugly head much more visibly in recent years.
Eldon Hoke, going under the stage name of El Duce, developed a cult following with his band The Mentors. They took to the stage each night dressed in executioners’ masks (think a black version of the Klu Klux Klan) and ‘sang’ equally outrageous ‘songs’. Beyond shocking for shock’s sake, we find out the admiration the band get from acts such as Gwar, with whom they shared many stages. El Duce became more famous for his appearance of TV’s Jerry Springer Show, which is included in the documentary. Springer allows Duce to dig his own grave by being grossly offensive, particularly when confronted with a rape victim who represents the right-minded view of the group’s lyrics.
As the film unfolds, we see that El Duce act was a transgressive, outsider art project by accident perpetrated by a very damaged man. His sister tells the story of his childhood, and there many moments when he is revealed to be a genuinely tragic character who, like another underground artist who fell victim to his persona, GG Allin, was on course for an inevitable early grave.
Many will know El Duce from the demented appearance in Nick Broomfield’s Kurt & Courtney, in which he claims he was paid to kill Cobain. He’s obviously worse for wear at the point and living on the streets. Within days, he’d be dead. That we feel a smidge of sympathy by this point is testament to the filmmakers for taking us beyond the outrage and controversy of this troubled, shocking artist.
