ROAD RUNNER – A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN
Review by James R Martin
Have you ever wondered why certain successful, wealthy, celebrities get to a point in their lives where they choose to take their own lives? Road Runner – A Film About Anthony Bourdain, directed by Morgan Neville might shed some light on how someone gets to this point in their life.
One Controversial issue regarding the film.
While this film uses a documentary format it has a one distracting difference. In several places it uses voice over created to sound like Bourdain created by an artificial intelligence program that learns to mimic human voices. Nowhere in the film does it mention that Bourdain’s voice is synthetic in places. A modest subtitle when this occurs could have solved any problem in this regard. It is presented in such a way that the audience might think that Bourdain said these things. Apparently, he never said these words aloud, he wrote them down, at least in one instance.
There is a false notion that real documentaries are somehow objective. Documentaries are not objective; they are subjective by default because they are made by humans. All documentaries have a point-of-view. Having an actor read voice over to narrate a film does not make it fiction because narrators are identified, and the audience knows what is being said is narration. But once a documentary filmmaker begins to “re-create” scenes, or use actors to play characters in the film, it becomes fiction. Is voice over created by AI software to imitate a character in the film using an actor? It makes one wonder what else in the film might be manipulated beyond actuality.
The Story
The documentary Road Runner begins with the fact that Bourdain took his own life on June 8, 2018, a few weeks before his 62nd birthday on June 25th. He hung himself in France while working on a new television series. Since this fact is known by all, it seems like a good idea to get it out of the way and go back into Bourdain’s past to learn who he was and how he got to this point in his life. Bourdain’s journey as a chef, television food show host, and celebrity is traced through interviews with family, friends, colleagues, and through the use of archival footage. During the one hour-fifty-eight-minute story we first meet young Anthony Bourdain who essentially begins to narrate his own life story. As time progresses the viewer gets to know Bourdain through his actions, words, family and good friends. By the end of the story perhaps there is some insight into Bourdain’s melancholy, the reason and method of ending his life.
Road Runner, A Film about Anthony Bourdain is a strong documentary that lets the viewer get to know Bourdain in many ways. Bourdain was a talented, intelligent person who evolved over the years in different ways. We follow him through two marriages and the joy of being a parent. Later in life an affair that caused him to take a strong advocacy position publicly.
Throughout his life Bourdain seemed somewhat overwhelmed by his success even though he stepped up and learned quickly to deal with each new phase. The personality seen on the television series was the real Bourdain, but he had another private side to that personality that he shared with his close friends and family. It is clear from the beginning of the documentary that there is a romantic side to Bourdain that comes out in his writing and personal relationships. He enjoyed celebrity but in some ways like an observer of his own fame.
A Documentary Worth Seeing
Road Runner, A Film About Anthony Bourdain, directed by Morgan Neville is worth seeing. It is a well edited story that keeps pace with Bourdain’s constantly moving style of life. Over many decades Bourdain spent most of his time traveling 250 or so days per year. The film shows behind the scenes views of those days of “gathering frequent flyer miles,” as Bourdain alludes to on one occasion. For anyone who watched Bourdain on television, read his books or followed his career it offers a deeper understanding of the man and his travels. The film brings insight into celebrity, success and its impact on one person’s life.
Review by James R Martin, documentary writer/director, author.
