Film Review - Beware of Mr Baker

High times for Mr Baker

Riverside Studios - 11/6/2013
Ginger Baker is best known for being the drummer and driving force behind the 1960s English rock power trio Cream, in which Eric Clapton did his best work, supported by Bassist Jack Bruce. Clapton and Bruce feature prominently in this biopic, which is compiled from stock footage of Baker and his various bands through the years, interviews with Baker and others, and animated sequences.
Though Baker comes across as a cantankerous, unconventional and irresponsible old man, the film is sympathetic enough to try to develop an understanding for his seemingly constant need to up sticks and start again from scratch, whether it be with his bands, marriages, or various countries around the world. This is a man who has three passions in life: music, his polo horses, and drugs. Everything else is by-the-by.
We see his life from his childhood, the early jazz drumming days, rock superstardom with Cream and Blind Faith, jazz fusion in the early 70s, living in Nigeria, Hollywood, Colorado, Italy, and finally back to South Africa.
The snappy editing and music clips, underpinned by Bakers rollicking drumming keep things moving along at a brisk pace, and given the subject, there is no way this could turn into a turgid hagiography, as music docs sometimes do. Remarkably, given the diverse nature of the source material, there is a strong visual style running through the film, helped by the editing and subtle manipulation of the older material. Baker is strident, forceful, selfish, and not always a cooperative subject, but all this is handled with understanding and humour, and I for one came out with renewed respect for the old man, despite what I have read about his behaviour elsewhere.
I saw this as the second part of a double bill with Not Dead Yet, the Jason Becker biopic, and it made for a nice companion piece, given the contrasting familial themes, and the more upbeat mood of the Baker film. Sitting directly behind me in the cinema was none other than Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, who laughed hard and often throughout the film, except when Ginger and Eric compared Ginger's drumming to John Bonham's. Now there's an exclusive you won't find in any other review. 5/5


Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5seWMYG9kk