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Trust Weighted
Great
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66Trust Points
Wick's Review
Summary - Great 4.0
Excuse me while I dry my eyes, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me caused them to well-up on multiple occasions, when it wasn’t triggering deep nostalgia for a beloved entertainer. This loving documentary was made by the Rhinestone Cowboy’s family to share his struggles with Alzheimer’s before and during his farewell tour of 2011 and 2012. The movie hits the solar-plexus on several levels: emotional, musical, even educational.
I came to the movie an indifferent Glen Campbell fan. That said, who doesn’t like Glen Campbell? He was already a fixture when I started paying attention to music, but drifted too far into commercial crap for my taste. Yet he was a deserved superstar, compared in I’ll Be Me to a 5-tool baseball player, his entertainment tools being singing, guitar playing, songwriting, acting and being handsome. Yep, he’s all that.
His guitar solos in I’ll Be Me are a particular delight and a bit of a surprise, until you recall that he was a legendary session player as a member of The Wrecking Crew, only after which he became a hit singer.
Music and superstardom aside, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me is an insightful look at Alzheimer’s disease. Given that there are two kinds of people in this world – those touched by Alzheimer’s and those who will be touched by this most cruel affliction – the Campbell family are especially genial guides to learn about it.
Acting - Really Great 4.5
Glen Campbell is an awesome specimen of American manhood, even as a dementia-suffering senior citizen: handsome, genial, quick to laugh, buff and still a world-class musician. It’s a privilege to spend time with him in his final lucid days.
His wife Kim Campbell deserves credit for architecting this movie and the farewell tour it documents. While she’s his fourth wife and a former Rockette, she doesn’t appear to be a user, nor the movie an ego trip, a la a Kardashian or Real Housewives barbarity.
Their daughter Ashley Campbell is a gorgeous and talented young lady. One hopes she gets a chance to make it in show business on her own.
Paying Their Respects
- Blake Shelton talks about how it would be an inspiration to see Glen Campbell at the Grammys, since he grew up idolizing him. Instead he gets to play Rhinestone Cowboy with him on stage.
- Paul McCartney is shown rocking out in the audience, and then paying his respects to Glen backstage describing how he was “rocking out to Rhinestone Cowboy.” Glen smiles, but doesn’t seem to know who the Brit talking to him is.
- Bruce Springsteen pithily describes the spare and special artistry of Glen Campbell. Wow
- Jimmy Webb wrote By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Wichita Lineman and Galveston.
- Vince Gill, Brad Paisley & Keith Urban are country stars a generation or two younger than Glen. Not surprisingly, all three revere him.
- The Edge marvels at Glen’s guitar work.
- Steve Martin was a writer on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, a big TV show back in the day. He too loves Glen. My only regret is that Martin didn’t comment on Campbell’s picking, since the funnyman is a noted banjo player himself.