The famous cartoonist is the protagonist of an unmissable documentary made for his millions of fans. Frank Miller: American Genius honestly chronicles the successes, failures, and addictions of the visionary artist who brought 300 and Sin City to life.
On June 10, in US theaters on the circuit Cinemark Theatresthe highly anticipated documentary premiered Frank Miller: American Genius. With lucid honesty, the docu-film recounts the long-lived and brilliant career of the legendary cartoonist (as well as director and screenwriter) but without neglecting the dark moments, marked by alcoholism and dangerous addictions.
My addiction was a dance with death but it was a very boring dance with death because it was always the same moves. They knew me in the local saloons. I did the same ritual every morning. I had a watch on my wrist and the main purpose was to tell me when the bars were open.
Artistically speaking, the work of Frank Miller it gave life to a dark imagery, with a unique charm, which has carved out an important place for itself in pop culture. His is the signature on popular graphic novels such as Daredevil: Born Againcreated for Marvel, Batman – The Dark Knight Returns for the DC Comics, Sin City And 300, crowned with very successful adaptations for the big screen. Miller also signed the screenplays Of RoboCop 2 And RoboCop 3cult science fiction of the Nineties.
But how did it come about? Frank Miller: American Genius? The film’s synopsis reads: “Frank Miller: American Genius documents the unique journey of an unprecedented American artist. The film explores career of almost half a century of the legendary comic artist and writer”. The documentary is an open letter to the fans, created ‘following a near-death experience’. Starting from the beginning, in a small town in the Vermontuntil arriving at Hollywoodthe docu-film looks back successes, failures and rebirth of an artist with an unmistakable style and vision.
As mentioned, the artist does not hold back even when it comes to opening up about the bad influence that alcohol abuse he had on his job. Frank Miller openly admits that addiction drove him away from drawing and pushed him to take refuge in writing, due to the devastating effect on his motor skills. “I realized that I could make a living just by writing,” Miller states in the documentary, “and writing, somehow, flows much more easily in a drunken state.”
However, as time passed, his mind became clouded to the point that even his writing became fragmented and incoherent. “From time to time, I knew that I was killing myself – continues the cartoonist – and I wanted to erase that feeling in the only way I knew how, which was to take the voice with which I was killing myself. It’s not rational. I wasn’t rational. It was with me, it was the way the disease works. I was committing slow suicide. In fact, it turned into a quick suicide.”
As the years went by, the time also came for Miller to get up and reconsider what he experienced in a light that was as ruthless as it was real: “My greatest feeling about addiction is rather a disgusting sense of wasted time“.
Throughout his career, the artist has co-directed and co-written Robert Rodriguez the iconic Sin City (2005) and the sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). About that, American Genius is enriched by the testimonies of Jessica Alba, protagonist of both films, and the director of San Antonio. It also appears Zack Snyder, director of 300 (2007) and its sequel 300 – Rise of an Empire (2014), inspired by Miller’s graphic novels.
