Two years before his death, Kurt Cobain was pushed onstage at the 1992 Reading Festival, hunched over in a wheelchair, wearing a white hospital gown, a long blond wig and a look of frailty. After feebly attempting to sing to the masses gathered, he collapsed spread eagle on the stage, to the delight of the crowd.
This concert footage serves as a great introduction to the new documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck because it instantly provides an example of Cobain’s up-and-down nature. Moments later, Cobain grabs his guitar and Nirvana blasts through “Breed,” a hard driving rock song. The show ends with the utter destruction of the stage during “Territorial Pissings.” Cobain knocks over his twin stack guitar amplifiers, having rediscovered his destructive side.
As bassist Krist Novoselic explains, the signs were “as plain as day” that Cobain needed help, but the calls for help remained unmentioned. This led to further need for self destructive tendencies and ultimately, the suicide of the misunderstood outcast turned internationally adored superstar.
Montage Of Heck explores more than just Cobain’s life and death. As the first documentary made with cooperation from the singer’s family, Heck allowed Academy Award nominated director Brett Morgen full access to Cobain’s storage unit loaded with drawings, journals, audio recordings and unreleased songs. The film incorporates animation based on drawings created by Cobain, while other animated sequences are narrated by Cobain’s recordings, citing specific scenes from his youth that tormented him while in Aberdeen, Washington.
“Kurt had to be born. It was a must,” Wendy Cobain, Kurt Cobain’s mother, said. Wendy loved her son, and clearly still does, but he was a restless spirit who was prescribed Ritalin.
His father was unsure how to raise him, so he ridiculed and shamed Kurt, providing the basis for Kurt’s hatred of authority and lack of self esteem. At nine years old, his parents divorced, and Kurt spent much of his youth bouncing in and out of family members houses, as no one was able or willing to properly care for him.
The discovery of music and marijuana allowed Cobain outlets for his anger, but it led to a life of heroin addiction, rock stardom and self-hatred that propelled Nirvana out of the Seattle grunge scene and into the international spotlight.
Heck closely examines what made Cobain resort to his lifestyle, and why the birth of his only daughter, Frances Cobain, was the only thing that could have made him give up the fame Nirvana earned. The film does a great job of not glamorizing his death by highlighting the emotional abyss he plunged into, culminating with the pages of journals he filed with, “Kill yourself” written repeatedly.
The little boy who dressed up as Batman for home movies was no less human than any of us. Kurt Cobain was a human who was horribly mistreated as a child, then suddenly idolized as an adult and hailed as the voice of his generation. His death is tragic and heartbreaking, and was the result of a call for help from a broken, reclusive man that was never received.
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is currently available to stream on HBO GO, and HBO Now.
Follow Craig on Twitter: @wgwcraig