Last Days

Last Days finds Gus Van Sant continuing down the same path he’d previously laid down with Gerry and Elephant. Following the thoroughly mainstream effort that was Finding Forrester, these latest pieces have been far more experimental in their nature drawing heavily on the long take styles of Béla Tarr, Andy Warhol and Alan Clarke’s Elephant. Each film offers a long hard stare at its subject, albeit in a detached, dispassionate manner. The aim is to derive some kind of truth from the onscreen situations almost by osmosis; highly constructed (or rather mapped out) yet also governed primarily by their improvisations, the focus is on the incidentals as opposed to anything you could confidently label as “drama”.

As well as the influence of Tarr, Clarke and Warhol, it’s also possible to detect a few other pre-cursors. Documentarian Nick Broomfield, for example, has based much of his career on making penetrating glances into various corners, whilst Humphrey Jennings’ docudramas benefited from an undeniable frisson owing to their genuine wartime settings. And certainly Van Sant borrows much from the documentary and docudrama traditions - Last Days is a film almost entirely without artifice, during Ricky Jay’s first scene, for example, we’re barely able to get a glimpse of him owing the light reflecting from a windscreen – yet he’s also perhaps more reckless in his outlook. By trusting in his technique and relying heavily on his performers he’s also become unafraid of bemusing, baffling or boring his audience. Rather his film weaves its own route in a limbic region between intrigue and inconsequence.


Where this approach works best perhaps is through the manner in which it handles Last Days’ ostensible subject. Just as Elephant addressed the Columbine High School massacre in a tangential fashion, so too this particular work concerns itself with the suicide of Kurt Cobain. By taking on his subject through an experimental lens, Van Sant is able to dispel the salacious aspects. We’re not given the biographical details or the gossip – there’s no drug use to be seen, only its effects; no witnessing of the actual suicide; no real musical content in the strict biopic sense – but rather a more general portrait of an individual as he goes through his final moments.

Indeed, it’s important to note that Van Sant isn’t making a film which is strictly about Cobain. The character at the centre of Last Days is named Blake and represents a blur of associations. The input of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore inevitably prompts direct connections (especially for anyone who has seen The Year That Punk Broke) whilst the sartorial trappings (the hair, the cross-dressing) similarly mean that Cobain refuses to go away. However, to focus on this one aspect would be to diminish Michael Pitt’s embodying of the role. Though we barely see the character in a manner which allows to discern Pitt’s features (without foreknowledge it may take up to an hour before you’d be able to recognise him), the actor nonetheless brings with him his own baggage. Thus as well as Cobain we’re also faced with connections to Pitt’s performances as troubled youths in the likes of Bully, The Dreamers and even Murder By Numbers - all of which only serve to muddy the waters. Indeed, the result is a film which we’re able to watch without considering or judging individual truths; it doesn’t matter whether or not the events onscreen match those which occurred in real life for Van Sant has his sights set a little further than that.

And so Last Days becomes a far wider investigation into suicide and, by extension, death. Certainly, it’s one which operates within a very specific milieu (and the supporting cast, including Lukas Haas, Asia Argento and Harmony Korine, do a fine job in pulling off its recreation), yet there’s no denying that Van Sant succeeds in making us look in the right directions and consider the right questions. Of course, being a fairly effusive creation by its very nature, the film never once provides any concrete answers, but then I don’t believe that this was its intent. Rather, much like Elephant, Last Days is merely concerned with prompting a discussion, and in this respect it proves a success.


The Disc

Last Days comes to DVD in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, one which was shared by Elephant. On the whole its presentation is mostly fine – there is some moderate haloing during certain scenes, but otherwise the disc appears to be without flaw. The clarity is superb, the colours solid and there don’t seem to be any technical problems to speak of. As for the soundtrack, here we find the original DD2.0 recording plus an optional DD3.1 mix. An odd choice perhaps – and a rare one – yet it proves incredibly effective. In comparison to the stereo offering, it offers a more dynamic and enveloping experience especially during the scenes in which music figures more prominently. Not that the DD2.0 is in anyway weak however, rather both prove technically sound and demonstrate as good a clarity as you’d expect from such a recently made picture.

In terms of extras, the disc similarly impresses. We get a pair of serious minded featurettes, one of which (entitled ‘The Making of Gus Van Sant’s Last Days’) discusses the films experimental nature, whilst the other (‘The Long Dolly Shot’) offers up eight minutes worth of B-roll footage of Van Sant filming one of the scenes. Also present is a 26-minute interview with Michael Pitt which sees the actor discuss how he first came across Van Sant (picking up a VHS of My Own Private Idaho in a garage sale) before concentrating more fully on the film itself.

Less important but still welcome are a period perfect mock music video (which reminds that Van Sant was active in the medium at the time, most notable making the Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s ‘Under the Bridge’ promo), a deleted scene no doubt excised because its overhead shot was considered too tricksy, and the original theatrical trailer.