Rodney
Ascher has dabbled in some interesting documentary fare ever since cracking open
the nut (no pun intended) of cinephile obsession with Room 237. He also probed the terrifying paradox of
sleep paralysis with The Nightmare.
Recently he joined forces with Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The
Exorcist editor David Lawrence after uncovering a strange, gross but
compelling goldmine in the form of what they comprised as The El Duce Tapes. Consisting of a collection of old VHS tapes
shot by documentary filmmaker (and part time actor) Ryan Sexton, he dove with
his oversized camcorder into seedy nightclubs where he filmed the infamous
shock-rock band The Mentors and primarily the outrageously foul mouthed
provocative front man El-Duce.
Discovered
by Ascher and Lawrence three decades after they were shot and left dormant, the
two piece together the story of the late Eldon Hoke, The Mentors’ drummer and
front man hiding behind an executioner’s black hood often hurling deliberately
racist and sexist slurs at the audience.
Pushing the boundaries of good taste with a gleeful desire to offend
including but not limited to making rape jokes, El Duce either really believed
the hateful vile things he shouted out on the stage or was really putting
everyone on. Those who were close to his
circle such as his sister, girlfriend, stage dancer and his creative partner
Steve Broy seemed to think the latter.
Whatever
you make of the band featured in highlights from concerts and appearances on
talk shows like Jerry Springer amid other shock rockers including Gwar, what
became undeniable to everyone was Eldon Hoke represented another tragedy
involving a clearly musically talented individual who fell off the ladder through alcoholism. Despite the fuzzy blurry aesthetic of the VHS
footage augmented by some unneeded post-production editing effects, the subject
of this self-made shock rocker’s unmaking comes through loud and clear. How does a creative individual with obvious
stage presence proceed to undo everything he built up and spiral towards rock
bottom?
At
times El Duce is charmingly irreverent and gross, his interviews mixed in with
candid recollections in between beer guzzling, burps and farts. Other times he’s pathetic and sad when he isn’t
completely and utterly vile. In any
event, the tale of El Duce and The Mentors remains a fascinating one for how not
only how it ended for all involved but for how the documentary filmmakers use
the footage left behind to tell their own story of a shock rocker that fell off
the wagon and headed for downwards. This
isn’t always easy or enjoyable viewing but a journey you hypnotically can’t
turn away from once started either.
--Andrew Kotwicki
