There is a new movie about Jimi Hendrix which has been around for a while. It has already played in Canada and will be playing at SXSW in Austin, Texas soon. I've known about this movie for quite a while. I assumed it wouldn't get much attention because it's pretty much a low-budget indie film. However, now that the director (John Ridley) has just received an academy award for another movie recently, it appears that the Hendrix movie itself will also receive more attention than it might have. It's called "All Is By My Side." All the reviews I've read are mostly positive. Personally, though, I'm very skeptical about the movie. There isn't any of Hendrix's own music (because the estate refused to cooperate.) Also, John Ridley appears to be really focused on Linda Keith--at the apparent expense of Kathy Etchingham who was Hendrix's girlfriend in London.
Although Kathy's remarks aren't getting a great deal of attention, I think maybe they should. According to her, Hendrix is shown as being violent toward her when, in fact, she says he was never violent at all. I've read about one scene already in the movie in which Hendrix gets angry and both he and Kathy end up in the hospital. According to Kathy, this never happened. Nothing violent ever happened. Kathy also says that the movie shows Jimi as being neurotic, indecisive, and needing way more guidance than he ever needed in real life.
In Kathy Etchingham's opinion, John Ridley has taken her book about Hendrix and "twisted the facts to fit his own warped agenda." She says "Mr Ridley has taken the story and turned it into a dull as ditchwater work of fiction while claiming it is a 'true story.'"
Of course, there is no guarantee that everything Kathy Etchingham says is completely accurate, either. That's obvious. But her objections should be noted. I'm certainly noting them. I haven't even seen the movie, obviously, and there is only so much I can know about it. But especially considering all these objections I'm seeing by Kathy Etchingham, I do have some doubts about it. This is what she says in a Huffington Post article:
"A lot of people will go and see it who have never read any of the biographies and they will think it's gospel truth," Etchingham warned. "I don't want it to fundamentally change history."
She has other complaints, but I'm only trying to focus on the basics. For one thing the actor playing Hendrix is 38 at a time period when Hendrix himself was in his early 20s. Also, Kathy says the clothes worn by the characters look like something from an Austin Powers movie, etc. I doubt very seriously if I'll see the movie. I applaud the effort of the actor portraying Hendrix. I can see he did pour his heart into this. But I've already read about too many inaccuracies to be interested in this movie. The movie critics may love it. But to me it would be like a Lincoln aficionado going to see "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."
