Crumb (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Crumb is a 1994 documentary film about the noted underground comic artist Robert Crumb (R. Crumb) and his family. Directed by Terry Zwigoff and produced by Lynn O'Donnell, it won widespread acclaim, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The late critic Gene Siskel hailed Crumb as the best film of the year, as did critic Jeffrey M. Anderson, who writes for the San Francisco Examiner. It was released in the USA on April 28, 1995.
The tagline for the film is "Weird Sex, Obsession, Comic Books"; and while it is certainly full of all three, Crumb is considered a moving film about the experiences and characters of the Crumb family, particularly Robert Crumb's brothers, Maxon and Charles, his wife and children (his sisters declined to be interviewed).
Robert Crumb initially did not want to make the film, but eventually agreed. There was an urban legend, accidentally created by Roger Ebert, that Terry Zwigoff made Crumb cooperate by threatening to shoot himself. Ebert has clarified this in the commentary of the film's recent re-release.
Trivia
Media reports following the film said that Robert Crumb later told Terry Zwigoff that he hated the film. According to Zwigoff, however, this never happened and the two still speak on a regular basis.
During his years-long, money-starved struggle to make this documentary, director Terry Zwigoff was laid up in bed with crippling back pain and was suicidally depressed.
Goofs
"San Francisco" is misspelled in the closing titles. The caption reads: "Max Crumb still lives in San Francicsco".
