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Released by: MVD
Released on: June 9, 1998.
Director: Todd Phillips
Cast: GG Allin, Merle Allin, Dee Dee Ramone, Geraldo Rivera, Unk
Year: 1994
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The Movie:
How can you really sum up GG Allin? Some found a legitimate social context to his 'performance art' while others considered him the lowest of the low. Prone to starting fights with audience members, defecating and urinating in public and into the public, exhibiting insanely self destructive behavior both on and off the stage, and threatening to kill himself in front of his audience more than a few times.
Hated: GG Allin And The Murder Junkies is a documentary on the man, his life and death, his musical legacy (if you can call it that) and his impact on those who knew him and those who had to deal with him. Made as a student film project by Todd Phillips, who would go on to specialize in goofball humor movies like Old School and Road Trip, the camera follows GG around in a semi casual manner, interspersing the interview segments with footage from his concerts, interviews with his friends, family, and band members, and clips from his appearance on Geraldo.
Clocking in at roughly fifty minutes, it's a fascinating look into a sick mind. While some may not find it too difficult to stomach when stunt footage from Steve-O and the Jackass crew is so readily available in an uncut form complete with testicular stapling and more poop flinging than you can shake a stick at, GG mixes his vile behavior not with comedic frat boy humor but with pure, unadulterated hatred for everyone and everything he encounters. And the scary thing is, as far as I could tell, it's not an act.
Some of the segments are amusing. A few of his family members and friends have interesting anecdotes about the late singer, especially his brother Merle, who sports a nice Hitler moustache. The segments from Geraldo are priceless, with Allin more than happy to shock the audience with his life views, philosophies, and of course, his tattoos. A few news clips are also mixed in to give some context to the repercussions that occurred during and after his shows, most of which ended with violence and/or police intervention.
Some footage from his funeral is also included towards the end of the feature, which despite Allin's spiteful and repulsive persona is oddly somber and even a little bit pathetic. Which leads to the biggest flaw in the production - there's not really enough information on GG given during it's brief running time. What is there is good and quite interesting but some more information on his life and how he became the fiend he was could have pushed the documentary from interesting to fascinating.
That issue notwithstanding however, Hated is a powerful and messed up movie about a total anomaly of a man. Philips does a good job of remaining impartial to his subject, neither judging him or praising him in his film, merely letting the man and his actions speak for themselves. Love him or hate him, there was only one GG Allin, and that's probably a good thing.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The documentary was shot on low quality 16mm film stock as a student film, so if you're expecting a high gloss presentation, well, look elsewhere. A low budget and less then ideal lighting conditions can, at times, make the movie look a little worse for wear. Overall though, you can almost always tell what's going on just fine. Some of the concert footage looks pretty rough and is fairly dark, but as it stands, this transfer is far superior to the VHS releases that have made the rounds prior to this version and the transfer itself is done well with no real compression or edge enhancement problems.
Hated is presented in a Dolby Digital Stereo track that fares considerably better than the video does. There isn't really much in the way of channel separation but then again, there doesn't need to be. Dialogue is almost always nice and clear and again, with the exception of some of the concert footage, which is a bit rough, everything sounds reasonably good here.
The biggest and best extra on the disc is just shy of an hours worth of footage that documents GG's last day alive. It starts at what would be his final 'concert,' though he only performs one song. Most of the set is basically a brawl with a lot of gross out material and shock value defecation taking place for good measure. Once the show is over we follow the band as they're chased by the NYPD, hail a cab, and then head off to try and find some drugs so that they can get high. These are presumably the same drugs that would kill him the next day. It's really rough stuff shot on a handheld and doesn't look so hot but it does add some insight into just how messed up this guy was and it gives you a very raw look into his life and his lifestyle.
Aside from this, you'll find a trailer and a bio on director Todd Phillips, as well as an option that allows you to jump to any song within the documentary or jump to any of the interview footage.
The Final Word:
Hated is a look at one of the most twisted punk/performance artists of all time. It's hard to watch but at the same time it's hard to look away. MVD has done a pretty solid job on bringing this truly bizarre documentary to DVD.