>>PREVIEW
THE LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF GUY TERRIFICO
Starring Matt Murphy and Kris Kristofferson.
Written and directed by Michael Mabbott.
Opens Friday, January 20
Uptown Screen
"If Canada had a Gram Parsons," is how Michael Mabbott first described the premise of the movie he wanted to make. Though not everyone knows the name of the hippie cowboy who turned the Byrds and the Rolling Stones onto country music, Mabbott knew it made for a less confusing description than calling his first movie a "honky-tonk-umentary," a genre that wouldn’t exist until he had the chance to invent it.
What the filmmaker couldn’t know is that those words would prompt a seven-year odyssey that included encounters with Merle Haggard and Levon Helm, recording sessions in several cities, a 22-day shoot in Toronto and the invention of a fictional singer who could serve as his pseudo-Gram. To see the project through, Mabbott would rely on the talents of singer-turned-actor Matt Murphy, the generosity of Kris Kristofferson and the magic of bourbon.
An endearing comedy full of great tunes, The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico is the fruit of those labours. Mabbott and Murphy’s mock-doc debuted at the South by Southwest film festival in March before its Canadian première at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it shared the award for Best Canadian First Feature.
A Haligonian rocker who’s served as frontman for Flashing Lights, Super Friendz and now City Field, Murphy is charming as Guy Terrifico, an Alberta-born singer who first rises to prominence in the early ’70s by playing host to country’s biggest stars at his den of iniquity, Barrio Terrifico. He gradually gains confidence in his own material, but a disastrous TV appearance in Nashville nearly ends his career before it begins. Terrifico’s wild antics overshadow the purer joys in his music. Just at the point when he’s got it all sussed, he’s mysteriously shot dead onstage. Decades later, the music community is rife with rumours that Terrifico’s unfinished album is about to be completed, even though as Haggard notes in one of the clips of real folks reminiscing about Terrifico, "It’s real hard to sing when you’re dead."
Though this showbiz tale follows a familiar trajectory, The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico is richly enjoyable and often ingenious for its re-creation of an unfairly overlooked musical era. As funny as the movie can be, the creators clearly revere the "outlaw country" scene of the ’70s, when writer-performers like Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings revitalized the country scene with a grittier, boozier approach to roots music (see sidebar).
"I came into this by listening to the Stones’ Exile on Main Street and then getting into these country guys," says Mabbott in an interview at a King East café alongside Murphy. "But I didn’t understand their context. I thought it was humorous that so many of these wicked songs were being written in this absurd environment of pills and whisky and performers wracked by stage fright. Honestly, I thought they were just trying to be bad boys, but I don’t think their bad behaviour was motivated by a desire to party. It’s a tough life they were living."
One of the first things Mabbott did with his script was send it out to the oldtimers to see if they’d participate. His biggest supporter was Kristofferson, who gave Mabbott four songs to use (including the movie’s de facto theme song, "The New Mr. Me"). The grizzled singer also made sure that some of the more ornery subjects Mabbott needed – Haggard, for one – contributed bogus recollections.
Most crucial of all was finding the right Terrifico. "It was really important to me that the lead actor be able to play the songs," says Mabbott. "I’d gone to school in Halifax and seen Matt play a couple times in Flashing Lights and seen him play country as Little Orton Hoggett (Murphy’s C&W alter ego). Years and years later, when I’d already sent out the script to Nashville and got a bunch of people on board, I was talking to a mutual friend and he said, ‘You should talk to Matt Murphy.’ Musically he couldn’t be more perfect in terms of the whole rock ’n’ roll approach to country in the Little Orton Hoggett shows. They were hilarious, these guys dressed in ridiculous outfits with bad accents and bad shtick. But what they got away with musically was pretty good."
Originally enlisted to help write Terrifico’s songs, Murphy made the leap to bona fide thespian. Though the acting was a challenge, Murphy’s experiences as a performer helped him relate to the anxiety Terrifico feels when his creative ambitions and the demands of his audience diverge.
"That can obscure the reason why you came to town to play in the first place," says Murphy. "You have all these funny ideas when you’re on tour about what you’re supposed to do or need to be. It’s very easy, even on the small, mashed-potatoes level I’ve been working at, to get ahead of yourself and forget that people came to hear the music you put out and aren’t standing there thinking, ‘If he doesn’t jump off the drum, I want my money back.’"
He was also careful to make sure that Terrifico was his own guy. "That’s a risk when you are trying to represent so many people," says Murphy. "We’d go, ‘What about Townes Van Zandt? We’re forgetting him.’ We’re trying to encapsulate the whole period in this one guy, this amalgamation of every awesome songwriter from the ‘70s. We stayed aware of that, but I think we get away from pastiche."
The two men put in countless hours of work to make sure Terrifico was plausible. On the final set of recordings before filming began, Mabbott even made Murphy "drink bourbon and smoke cigarettes to get his pretty voice sounding right."
"We had this crazy night in the studio in Halifax," says Murphy. "I was just wild, flailing around. ‘Give me the bottle and press fucking record, I’m ready!’"
That level of commitment is palpable throughout The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico, which Mabbott packed with homages to canonic music films like The Last Waltz, Gimme Shelter and Don’t Look Back. It’s bound to appeal to what Mabbott calls "music nerds" and Mabbott and Murphy are particularly pleased that it’s appreciated by the guys who inspired it.
"They love the film," says Mabbott. "A lot of the jokes are jokes they told me and a lot of stuff that happens to Terrifico was stuff that happened to them. They seemed a little shocked at how well it turned out. Kris has been saying over and over that what Matt did with his songs was just amazing."
"Kris made a point of mentioning that he really liked what he did with his songs," says Murphy. "I thought, ‘Thank God,’ because that was the only thing I was really nervous about. I’m worried about what people will say about my acting, but most of all it’s wondering if Kris will approve." |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.