Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune (2010)

PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE  (2010)
    D: Kenneth Bowser                                              ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
A documentary about '60s protest singer Phil Ochs, whose catchy, satirical tunes were more pointedly political than Bob Dylan's, and just about as good. Ochs idolized Dylan, who (according to the movie) treated him badly. Ochs himself was funny, ambitious, egotistical, and as time went on, subject to escalating bouts of manic depression. He wrote and recorded some of the best topical music of his time, songs that became anthems in the struggle to end the Vietnam War, but the mass acclaim that Dylan achieved, and Ochs desperately craved, eluded him. In 1976, at age 35, he hanged himself. What Ochs might've done with another 35 years is hard to say. He was an adventurous and uncompromising artist, and musically his potential was unlimited. At the same time, there's a sense that by the time he checked out, his work was done. Toward the end, he was increasingly lost and out of control. The songs had stopped coming. Booze and the demons had won. And anyway, by then the war was over.