Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me

2013
7.5| 1h20m| en
Details

Broadway legend Elaine Stritch remains in the spotlight at eighty-seven years old. Join the uncompromising Tony and Emmy Award-winner both on and off stage in this revealing documentary. With interviews from Tina Fey, Nathan Lane, Hal Prince and others, ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME blends rare archival footage and intimate cinema vérité to reach beyond Stritch’s brassy exterior, revealing a multi-dimensional portrait of a complex woman and an inspiring artist.

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Reviews

Mjeteconer Just perfect...
Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Roland E. Zwick Elaine Stritch, that gravelly-voiced, long-legged, larger-than-life singer/dancer/actress and Broadway legend, died less than six months after the release of "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me," a documentary made when she was 86. At an age when most other performers have long since called it quits, Elaine Stritch went soldiering on, clinging tenaciously to the one thing that gave her life purpose and meaning - performing on stage in front of a loving and devoted audience.Director Chiemi Karasawa and her crew follow this grand dame of the stage around Manhattan as she preps for a new one-woman show, chats with friends, poses for pictures with fans and passersby, and speaks, with often brutal honesty, about her life, her career and her views on aging and death. Needless to say, her outsized talent and personality shine forth through every single moment of the film.On a personal level, the movie chronicles her struggles with alcoholism and diabetes, her marriage to John Bay, the one love of her life, who died of brain cancer in 1982, her affair with Ben Gazara, etc. Karasawa interviews a number of celebrities - Nathan Lane, the late James Gandolfini, the cast of "30 Rock," among them - to get a sense of what it was like to work with Stritch on a professional level. The movie buttresses this with a veritable treasure trove of photographs showing Stritch at various stages in her life and career.The movie doesn't shy away from showing the difficulties and diminished capacities that come with aging. For instance, there are moments of tremendous tension as Stritch becomes increasingly temperamental and irascible, struggling to do things now that came so easily to her in her youth (i.e. remembering lyrics during rehearsals and sometimes even performances). There are times when she even comes across as a bit of a diva or curmudgeon, going so far as to "direct" the documentary itself, molding a particular scene to her own liking. The fact that Stritch died not long after the filming of the movie makes watching it now an especially poignant experience, as what was initially intended as a tribute has now become an elegy.One of her non-celebrity friends describes Elaine Stritch as "a Molotov cocktail of madness, sanity and genius." That pretty much sums her up, all right.
TheMarwood This is a wonderfully candid, straightforward doc on the ever fascinating Elaine Stritch, who at 87 can still command your attention. Sharp and witty as ever, this workhorse of a woman was born for the stage. This film is very well put together by first time director Chiemi Karasawa, who never lets a false note into her documentary and keeps this at a lean 81 minutes. Shoot Me is never a puff piece or a shrine to Stritch, it's presents her past, her career and her demons without an ounce of schmaltz and without a heavy hand - in fact, despite a cameraman's voice occasionally, or Karasawa offscreen asking a question, the filmmakers feel invisible, which brings out honesty in the film and their subject.
jadepietro This film is recommended.Elaine Stritch: At Liberty was a brilliant one woman show that chronicled the life of a Broadway legend, with wonderful musical interludes and wry storytelling about a convent girl making it on the stage that spanned her life through roughly 50+ years of Broadway musical theater. That show earned her that elusive Tony Award and became the pinnacle of her musical career. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me never rises to that caliber of excellence. The film is in dire need of tighter direction, more concise editing, and better camera-work. This documentary focuses on Ms. Stritch's latter years and, while more serious in tone than the previous reincarnation of her biographical solo show, the film successfully tackles the ravishes of the aging process and becomes her swan song to a life upon that wicked stage.For those unaware of Ms. Stritch's many contributions to the theater (and there just may be a few out there), the film reveals her irascible nature and unique larger-than-life talent via some sparse film clips from past shows (Sail Away, Company) and some recent concert and cabaret performances at the Hotel Carlyle, where she took up residence for many years. She is the one and only Broadway Baby and Ms. Stritch unleashes her cynical humor and sage wisdom throughout the film. With her as the main subject, how could the film not succeed!Now, contemplating leaving the biz and moving back home with family in Detroit, Michigan, the film documents her journey. Her candid interviews and fond reminiscences of her past glories sharply contrast with her on-going bouts with illness and memory loss at the age of 86. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me is a raw honest depiction of the aging process and its physical toil of the human body, but not its spirit. The in-your-face hand-held camera-work is, at times, startling and intrusive, but it captures her pain and stamina. One admires the documentary's frank treatment of this aging diva and her battles with various ailments that sadly beleaguers her. This aspect becomes the film's strongest point.Ms. Stritch has always been a master storyteller and her tales cover the lives of other celebrities that fell into her orbit like Rock Hudson, Ben Gazzara, and John F. Kennedy in such an entertaining fashion. Tributes from with other actors and close friends like Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, the late James Gandolfini, and others attest to her powerful presence. But more seems to be said in words than shown in pictures in this film. One wishes there could have been more footage of her classic stage performances which would have made this film biography all the more encompassing. There are many lost opportunities here, moments begging for those musical interludes from her earlier years to intermix with her life today. The film ends rather abruptly, adding to an unfinished quality of a tale not fully told.Still, any time spent with the glorious Ms. Stritch is time well spent and Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me is a must-see for any theatergoer or moviegoer alike. GRADE: BVisit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.comANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com
writers_reign Like its subject herself this is a one-off and a priceless record of a unique entertainer still going strong at 87. It's so good that you find yourself wishing that someone had done the same for George Burns, Jack Benny, Bob Hope and certainly Judy Garland, those artists who somehow transcend iconic and penetrate our psyches the way a harpoon penetrates the blubber protecting a whale. Stritch is seen at both high and low points and though there are nods to her early career - which took off in the late forties in Revue - the bulk of the footage celebrates her later years including the outstanding one-woman show Elaine Stritch At Liberty though the good thing is that it doesn't re-cycle the material from that Tony-winner. She is, of course, closely identified with Sondheim material and though the composer/lyricist is seen a couple of times he is conspicuous by his failure to offer a personal comment as, for example, Alec Baldwin does. This was so noticeable that an audience member brought it up at the Q & A after the screening and the question was fielded by Rob Bowden, Stritch's accompanist for several years, who said that though they formed a mutual admiration society there was also an underlying tension. Fair enough and she doesn't really need an endorsement from Sondheim or, indeed, from anyone. She is her own best Advance Man and long may she continue to be.