Kurt Cobain – About a Son
Documentary, 135 minutes
Directed by AJ Schnack
Shout! Factory/Sidetrack Films
Available Feb. 19, 2008

“Kurt Cobain was a person just like everybody else, he cried, and laughed, loved his child, loved his wife, and was frustrated, and happy, and crabby, and jovial, and all those things. I think a lot of that has been taken away from him in the intervening years since his death. He’s just become an icon, an enigma, dehumanized.” — Michael Azerrad, author Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana

Kurt Cobain is very well known but not completely understood. His life and career can be categorized as brief, poignant, and tragic. Told entirely in his own voice taken from over 25 hours of previously unheard interviews given to Michael Azerrad for his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, the autobiographical film Kurt Cobain – About A Son details the life and influences of Kurt Cobain, frontman of the 1990s chart-topping grunge band Nirvana. His story is woven into a commentary by AJ Schnack about the presence and absence of such a great artist.

The film is broken into three chapters. These chapters represent not only the areas that Kurt lived, but the places that impacted his personal growth into the man he would become. Kurt was born on February 20, 1967, in Aberdeen, WA, and lived there until he was kicked out of his family home. Until the age of eight, Kurt was a happy child. His world was Aberdeen and anything he wanted to do and accomplish was at his fingertips. But, his world started to change. He became intensive, depressed, problematic, nervous, and truant. Kurt stated he was “manic depressive at 9-years-old.”

An important thing to note is Kurt was diagnosed with scoliosis as a teenager; he began noticing that the weight of the guitar further exacerbated his condition. You don’t need to ask how Kurt responded to the question: either give up the guitar or deform himself further. Moving back to Aberdeen: the director presents shots displaying the normalcy of the town. We see residents and the places Kurt talked about and we notice Aberdeen looks like many other cities. It has its beauty and grace, but it also has its crooked and jagged edges. The interesting thing is the representation of Aberdeen through Kurt Cobain’s eyes. The director does a good job in displaying what Aberdeen is and Kurt’s words act in opposition to that portrayal. The differences between what we see and what Kurt felt is moving.

Olympia, WA, “was a taste of culture” for Kurt. Here he meets fellow artists and musicians who fight against the major corporate machine, but strive for an ideal of Utopia that he thinks never exists. Living in Olympia forces Kurt to become more introspective on a number of different levels. He applauds the outcasts and appreciates their “subversiveness,” but questions why they really do what they do. This is the first place in a long time that Kurt feels “relieved” and accepted. In Olympia, Kurt also get his first taste of a real relationship when he dates a girl named Tracy with whom he does the normal things like go out to eat and watch movies. Olympia was also very important to Kurt because that is where he began earning money for playing in his band. Even though they made very little, they believed they were doing something that would develop further — they were right it did. As their popularity grew, different media and radio execs offered Kurt and his band a shot at the big time. The biggest thing that plagued the band was maintaining their integrity and not becoming an Indie-pop group. Geffen signed Nirvana with the promise that this would not happen. Little did Kurt and Nirvana know that the multi-million dollar conglomerate, Geffen, would leave them destitute in Olympia right when things were taking off. Their destitution led to the next move in Kurt’s life.

Seattle, WA, represents the last portion of Kurt’s life. He is financially ok, he is touring, and he has met the woman whose volatile, fun, and sexy persona would steal his heart — Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. With Kurt’s financial security and the popularity of the band growing, inner rumblings between bandmates began. Fights over song credits constantly plagued Kurt and fellow Nirvana band members bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl. Their fights left them each feeling wronged and often went unanswered. In Seattle, Kurt and Courtney became pregnant and he welcomed the biggest joy of his life. Courtney also begins helping Kurt’s manage the business side of his career. I remember Courtney being categorized as Yoko Ono when she became more involved with Kurt’s music happenings. Kurt states Courtney helped because he was just lazy. For all of you anti-Courtney haters out there, just hearing Kurt talk about Courtney in this chapter should be enough to dispel the myths of her cutthroat antics you credited to her and the hateful names you have strewn at her (ok, so it becomes apparent that I also love Hole.) Seattle is the last chapter for the film because it is the last chapter in Kurt’s life. On April 5, 1994, Kurt ended his life with a single gun shot to his head.

This film perplexed me a bit. Blame it on me being a true testament of the American movie watcher, but I was not placated with just hearing Kurt’s voice through the film. I wanted to see his face. I wanted to see at least a picture of him in Aberdeen. I wanted to see him as a ruddy-faced child growing up. I wanted to see him in Olympia in front of the Lottery building across the street holding a beer or giving the finger to the camera. I wanted to see him straight on. I needed to see his eyes to put a face to the voice. I guess the filmmakers thought that the lack of seeing him would add strength to the movie, but I am still pondering if it does (see a clip of the film here and see for yourself).

Kurt Cobain was enigmatic to us because he was confused. He wanted fame and pursued it, but abhorred the idea that someone would be interested in knowing all they could about him. We all strive to find and define ourselves to others. We want to be understood and we want to be respected for who we are, or who we think we are. To me, the tragedy of Kurt Cobain is that his confusion made him special. He loved the music, and loved his fans, but also hated himself and on many levels hated us as fans because we loved him. Anytime I hear “Come As You Are” I will always wonder why”¦

DVD Bonus Features

The documentary has a soundtrack that includes several artists who influenced Cobain’s life, such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Queen, and has an original score by Steve Fisk and Death Cab for Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard. The film also has music from Bad Brains, Butthole Surfers, Cheap Trick, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Half Japanese, Leadbelly, Mark Lanegan, MDC, Melvins, Mudhoney, R.E.M, Scratch Acid, Vaselines, and Young Marble Giants.

The Voices Behind About a Son

Michael Azerrad and AJ Schnack are the voices behind this film. All the conversations between Michael and Kurt took place at Kurt’s house around 3am in his kitchen overlooking the bay where bi-planes landed every morning. The intimacy between Michael and Kurt surpasses the usual relationship of interviewer and interviewee because both Michael and Kurt allow themselves to be open and accepting. Kurt talks about his drug use, health problems, and inner turmoil without fear of being ostracized and judged. Michael Azerrad has put an intensely private person at peace enough to share everything about himself. This ability is a testament to the strength of Michael as a journalist. AJ Schnack discusses his primary concern in this film was to put “text first, music second, and visuals last” because Kurt Cobain’s words are the most important thing to present.

Selected Scene Commentary by Director AJ Schnack

Instead of doing the cookie cutter director commentary, AJ Schnack goes through the specific locations that affected Kurt. Aberdeen is “rugged and masculine” and is a representation of the working man’s world. It is a pastiche of grays and greens and a bit of mundanity. The Aberdeen home where Kurt and a few friends lived smelled of turtles and was crammed, but fostered their sense of togetherness. Their home in Olympia is where Kurt wrote the songs on Nirvana’s Nevermind and was right across the street from the Washington State Lottery Department. Olympia is “bohemian and artistic” and is a representation of the need to be free and individual. It is a kaleidoscope of bright color. Seattle is the metropolis for Kurt. It is where family life takes place for Kurt. AJ Schnack also made sure to include scenes of people doing what Kurt actually did in each city/town, like a teenager going to Aberdeen High School, or someone cleaning out chimneys, or even someone cleaning out offices as a janitor like Kurt did for many years. The director states the movie was made in a type of “guerilla filmmaking.” The shots were carefully planned, but they gave themselves the freedom to add or change their shots.

On Location Scouting Video to Scene Comparison

This feature is a comparison of the shots the director took on several of his trips to Washington to the video footage that was taped during the actual video production. The feature has split screens and is very interesting to see pre and post work. Like the other extras on this DVD, it is edited magically, it is beautiful to hear and watch, and it leaves you thinking of Kurt Cobain and his positive and negative legacy.