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| Boyd Rice & Anton LaVey, San Francisco 1989 © Carl A |
The American artist, musician, prankster, etc, Boyd Rice has, since the mid-70s, enervated the international underground milieu through his persistently controversial and loud existence. Rice has never been politically correct and has never adapted to any movements of well-meaning liberalism, where possible border-transgressions are usually handled as mere wine-soaked, weekend-based titillations. Rice is more well-known for stomping on those borders with boots of sardonic humour.
Through his main musical project NON, Rice has been a part and an instigator of an entire "scene": "noise music", in itself an integrated part of the much greater "industrial" scene. With an extremely loud volume and an essentially nihilistic indifference, the music permeates and dominates minds brutally, both live and on record. It doesn't really leave anyone the possibility to reflect or retire. Noise music, as performed by Boyd Rice/NON, is very much a fierce expression of violent integrity.
But the primordially loud hasn't really been enough for this outsider, whose life seems to be about satisfying and fulfilling all the whims and desires of the ego. From the 1970s and onwards, Rice has also existed on the outskirts of the art world. Sometimes welcome because of his knowledge, humour and fanciful ideas, but also often quickly excluded because of controversial social darwinistic views. With friends like Charles Manson, Anton LaVey and younger forces like Marilyn Manson (who incidentally regards Rice as his mentor), it's obvious that one won't be welcome in the petit-bourgeois coteries that usually make up contemporary undergound culture.
Larry Wessel's ambitious four-hour documentary about Rice, "Iconoclast", is an impressive piece of independent filmmaking. For six years Wessel has accumulated ample material: interviews with Rice himself in varying phases and faces, interviews with people who have known him over the years and lots of archive footage from a, to say the least, eventful life as a musician, prankster, philospoher, TIKI-connaisseur, Satanist, night watchman, collector and what have you.
If you nurture an interest in Rice and the kind of subculture he represents, this film is naturally a treasure trove. Its perspective in time, spanning almost 40 years of mischief, also reflects upon other American phenomena and people, cultural as well as other ones. Rice has indeed been an icon of sorts for a long time and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey even called him an "iconoclast" (hence the film's title). No matter what, it really is hard to think of anyone who's bugged so many for such a long time. Some Americans that come to mind, except the already mentioned Manson (Charlie, that is) and LaVey, are Mark Twain, HL Mencken and perhaps even Gore Vidal (even if Vidal's distinctly liberal focus is slightly askew compared to Rice' considerably more totalitarian romanticism).
However, in all of the misanthropic, militaristic, occult, aggressive and social darwinistic aspects of Mr. Rice' mind rests an important balancing factor. In his case, this factor consists of a colourful melange of bubblegum pop, TIKI culture, Tiny Tim, The Partridge Family and a solid perspective of childhood-nostalgia. All of this permeated by a huge portion of black humour. The sum of all of these parts sounds like an almost clinically correct manifestation of the philosophy that Anton LaVey codified and expressed as Satanism. Not surprisingly, Rice was Anton LaVey's good chum for many years during the San Francisco era.
"Iconoclast" is an extremely entertaining and fascinating film. It's even intelligent and well-made enough to transcend its own subject. A vast array of both famous and infamous subcultural movers and shakers pass by and share memories and points of view. It doesn't seem to end, but then it actually does. Four hours in front of the TV screen felt like one, at most. This usually means that the film in question was really, really good. "Iconoclast" is certainly no exception to that rule.
Iconoclast (DVD)
Directed by Larry Wessel, USA 2010
Starring Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey, Bob Larson, Blanche Barton, Douglas P, Jeffrey Vallance, Z'ev, Johanna Went and an unholy alliance of many others.
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