SCOTT WALKER 30 CENTURY MAN investigates the career of one of the most enigmatic musical icons of the last hundred years. Noel Scott Engel started his musical career as part of an American 'Mop Top' band which broke big in England, yet pretty much was ignored elsewhere. At one point, The Walker Brothers English fan base was larger than that of The Beatles. As the band's popularity waned, Scott became a solo artist, and seemed to channel his approach to popular music through the Social Realism Movement popularized by the works of English film director, Ken Loach, playwright, John Osborne, and even, Tennessee Williams. His sound is truly distinctive and extraordinary, and manages to straddle the line between Pop and Avant Garde. Yet, his musical influence is far-ranging, and can be heard in the work of such diverse contemporary artists as Brian Eno, David Bowie, Radiohead, Morrissey, Julian Cope, and dozens more. Throughout the documentary, Walker is very open and forthright about his music, but almost nothing is mentioned about his personal life. Obviously, this was his intention, yet the film left me wondering what the last forty years has been like for this idiosyncratic figure.
