Big City Dick: Richard Peterson's First Movie (2004)

Directors:

Ken Harder
Scott Milam

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

This is a captivating journey into the world of a savant street musician and his lifelong struggle to become a successful recording artist...

Plot Keywords:

Apostrophe In Title | Punctuation In Title | Character Name In Title

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Himself
Pat Cashman	...	Himself
Gary Crow	...	Himself
Dean DeLeo	...	Himself
Robin Erickson	...	Herself
John Keister	...	Himself
Johnny Mathis	...	Himself
John Maynard	...	Himself
Scott McCaughey	...	Himself
Muriel Peterson	...	Herself
Richard Peterson	...	Himself
Mike Rhodes	...	Himself
Ken Schram	...	Himself
Ross Shafer	...	Himself
Steve Wilson	...	Himself

Runtime:

USA:129 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

New Ziv Pictures

Movie Connections:

Features "Sea Hunt" (1958)

too long, too wrong

I saw this at the Seattle International Film Festival (with 3 of the filmmakers, the star and several "personalities" in attendence) because I've seen Mr. Peterson walking the streets of Seattle on a few occasions and was curious about him. To see him in person is to know that there's a story to the man. The reviews and anticipation were pretty high in the city for this locally made film and the theater was a full house.

Then the film. Although I can't agree with many of the sentiments about Peterson expressed by the previous reviewer, I do agree that the filmmakers provided a documentary that was either far too long for their subject, or far too superficial to justify 130 mins.

I would have expected the film to begin by directing our attention to his odd character (autism, obsession with "Sea Hunt" and golden-age tv shows, musicianship, hugging 'personalities', etc.) and then slowly reveal the real man, his past, his inner thoughts, etc.). We did get some of that; however, it's efforts were ingenuine, almost as if what was received was secondary to his goofy present.

I sensed that I was not alone; that many of those in the theater grew kind of bored with Peterson, that he wasn't that interesting, wasn't that funny, wasn't that talented that we would want to spend over 2 hours watching this film. But I'm not sure that he wasn't.

I feel like the filmmakers could've made a better and more revealing portrait of the man. Things were hinted at (abusive upbringing, inability to relate to his father, etc.) but never explored at length. Instead, our time was spent on his hugging and horn-blowing.

After the film, when the stage was filled with the makers of the film, it's interesting that questions were few to nil. I think that tells you of the level of emotional involvement we the audience had in the movie. Anyway, I give the movie a 3/10.