MIFF Session 5: YOU CAN CALL ME BILL

As we open on a lushly lensed Forest we hear a slow fade up of voices. Well, voice. And that's the point. It's the voice of William Shatner and soon enough we see him, ninety something and rounded but bright eyed and completely present, a self-avowed old man who is here to tell us the things he has come to value and the lessons his life has given him. He does this sitting in a chair on a sound stage. For over ninety minutes. Stop running and come back, this is not what you think.

Divided into chapters sandwiched between a prologue and an epilogue, this character study/long interview is enriched with a constant feed of clips from Shatner's life and career. What stops it from being a feature-length bore has to do with the deftness of the archive material by choice and astute editing. Mostly, though, it's Shatner himself who regales his audience with a continuous blend of autobiography and personal philosophy, delivering his own eulogy with both gravity and charm. And, lest we should forget, he adds healthy dollops of self-effacing humour to help the medicine go down. While I'll admit that I was wincing at the first few minutes that this was not going to be a glorified stage tour night with oodles o' funny stories, I had no trouble settling in, regardless of how ponderous it might get. Shatner is that winsome.

He does have some help in the shape of director Alexander O. Phillipe. Phillippe makes movies about movies and movie makers. Last year's Lynch/Oz cornered a number of directors and asked them to talk about David Lynch through the filter of The Wizard of Oz (don't smirk, there's a lot there). Leap of Faith is one of the better documentaries about The Exorcist. Others (which I haven't seen so I'm counting them among "others") include a feature about the shower scene from Psycho and George Lucas' fanverse. He doesn't just articulate timelines, he looks for the point.

The point here is a long and varied acting career and the development of a true life character. Shatner is form fit for cultural history as Star Trek's Captain Kirk. Both character and show offered their audience a progressive approach to science fiction through three seasons of fables along social, political and philosophical lines. While the immediate aftermath to that is covered as hitting bottom, he bounced back to continued fame and performance, touching more than a few iconic moments. Thence to real space flight at the behest of brazillionaire Geoff Bezos.

Things missing from being overrepresented include the Star Trek interracial kiss, the baffling cover versions of songs like Mr Tambourine Man in the '60s and more recent musical outings, as well as the inadvertent lateral effect of being the face of Michael Myers in the Halloween franchise. However, the film (as presumably Shatner freely allowed it) insists on the real breadth of his roles to include not just old westerns and classsic Twilight Zone episodes but some of the many commercials he was in. When he speaks of an actor's commitment to performance and we see the same force applied to a poignant scene from Star Trek as a later ad that has him growling, "I want my deep - fried -  turkey!" there is, along with the compulsive laugh, a genuine sense of the actor telling his craft. He's not just mumbling about it in embarrassment, he's presenting all of it as equal. Find me one of his contemporaries who would unironically offer a Priceline commercial alongside an iconic speech. If you aren't won over by this alone when you witness it who knows what it would take for you.

Recently, I heard Shatner's appearance on Mark Marron's WTF podcast and it was a revelation. He was happy to go over his career peaks but wanted also to talk about climate change and the unexpected sadness he felt on going into orbit and looking at the Earth and the infinite void beyond. It was thoroughly engaging. When I started watching this film I missed that passion in his voice and Marron's goading interview style that brings it out of his guests. But soon enough, however lunking some of Shatner's observations might feel the sincerity just keeps coming through and that's from one who is frequently ridiculed for being over earnest. That he continues to embrace all of it, the mockery and the accolades only shows us his strength. 

After the screening I got home and put on one of his Twilight Zone episodes, Nightmare at 20, 000 Feet, and was struck by the nuance of his performance. IN the story, his character is on a plane and keeps seeing a monstrous figure on the the wing, tampering with the engine. No one else sees it and thinks he's crazy. At one point, on of the crew indulges him and the look on his face goes from relief to a dark resignation as he understands he's being patronised. It's a few seconds of screen time but it works. It just works.