Film

Bob Flanagan is (or more accurately, was) a man of many aspects. He’s a man who has defied the odds, and survived with cystic fibrosis, a disease that causes incessant phlegm and liquid buildup in the lungs. His doctors figured that by the time he was ten, he’d have succumbed to the heavy cough and congestion, basically drowning in his own fluids. When we meet him, he’s already forty three years old. He’s also an artist, and along with his partner, collaborator, and Mistress, Rose, he’s created m…ny provocative live-action art pieces, as well as more conventional art (like the Visible Man with fully functioning body fluids…yuck). He’s a singer / songwriter / comedian, albeit for a somewhat small market (think Weird Al Yankovic meets The Gimp from Pulp Fiction). He’s a ‘slave,’ in the chat-room sense…he serves a Mistress named Rose, doing basically whatever she asks, subjecting himself to humiliation, to cuts, to slaps…he’s into pain as a way to pleasure.

The critically lauded documentary by Kirby Dick, Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, strives to show this man as a combination of all of these facets, to show him for the real person that he was. For the most part, it’s very successful, never commenting on the nature of his relationship with Rose, instead just LOOKING at it, making it much easier to see how loving and intimate the relationship is, underneath all the chains and leather. The problem with Sick, for me, is that I couldn’t ever consider watching it again, because a lot of the imagery is really just gross. I don’t need to see Bob hammering a nail through the head of his penis, or Bob tied down with a huge deuce on his chest, or his butt-plug stool. Even more disturbing that those images, though, is the image of the strange Mistress Rose at the very end, in her garage, where she’s showing the camera man the liquid drawn from a deceased Bob’s lungs. Why would anyone save that? I suppose it’s not much stranger than storing a dead relative’s ashes in a can on the mantle, though.

I wouldn’t say that I’m squeamish, but Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan is just a difficult film to watch. When Bob isn’t getting poked, prodded or probed by his partner, he’s coughing, hacking up phlegm, and obviously in a lot of pain and misery. Though the documentary works as “art” in that it elicits a fairly visceral reaction from those who view it, it doesn’t work as a form of entertainment. Unless you’re way into S&M stuff, this one is a skip, particularly if you’re a little weak in the stomach. Points for artistic achievement, but heavy deduction for zero rewatch value.

Video

The 1.33:1 fullscreen on Sick, as is the case with most documentary films, never strays far from the average rating. The quality of footage varies slightly, but most of it looks to be shot on economical Super 16 film, which somehow imparts the film with a more personal feel. It doesn’t have any glaring authoring errors like compression artifacts or color bleed, but it certainly doesn’t execute well with challenges like background detail or shadow delineation. Of course, no one meant for this film to be a virtuoso technical disc, and knowing what to expect makes this one a little easier to forgive. Menus are well-animated, appropriately sticking to the film’s theme.

Audio

Much like the video rating, appreciating the audio on Sick is a case of having realistic expectations. It’s presented in 2.0 Dolby Stereo, which works just fine, given that this is a documentary made up almost entirely of interview (or other first-person) footage. Clarity is never an issue, in spite of the various source material dates and formats. As one would expect, directionality is nil, but that won’t deter the prospective buyer.

Special Features

Lions Gate really devoted some time to this obscure title and assembled an unexpectedly thorough and comparatively copious supplemental package. It starts out with a feature length commentary with director Kirby Dick, who talks about how he knew Bob, and also provides some off-screen anecdotes about the couple and their worlds. If commentary tracks are your thing, this one is a pretty decent listen. Speaking of the director, Dick On Sick is seven-plus minutes of interview footage with Kirby Dick, reflecting on different aspects of the film. Dick seems to have his feet on the ground, particularly when he scoffs at considering Sick a “work of genius” as some critics called it.

Sarah’s Sick Too is a short fifteen minutes that catches up with Sarah Doucette, the CF victim from the film who idolizes Bob. In the film, she says she didn’t expect to live past 25 years old…thankfully, she’s still alive in 2003, at 26. The piece shows us how normal a life she lives, and how her meeting with Bob and Rose affected her outlook. Getting into the more film-focused bonuses, we have eight deleted scenes, available with or without Kirby’s commentary. The disc also contains four performance pieces, which are basically highlights of Bob’s living art pieces at various shows. The disc also contains direct access to all of Bob’s original songs from the film, and wraps up with the original trailer. For a DVD that probably isn’t going to sell an immense number of copies, this is a pretty stacked disc.

Final Thoughts

Sick: The Life or Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist is about as “niche” as niche films get. It’s a documentary (never the most accessible work), about a man dealing with a devastating illness (tough to watch), provocative and controversial artwork (esoteric by nature), and what mainstream society generally considers sexual deviance (given to strong reaction). It’s an unflinching look at one very unique man’s death-defying life, but I can’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already know that they can handle some pretty indelible imagery (like a steel ball the size of an orange getting shoved up a guy’s…well, discover it for yourself).

Special Features List

• Director Commentary
• Interview With Director
• Short: “Sara
• Performance Pieces
• 8 Deleted Scenes
• Song Montage
• Trailer