Superstar

It's encouraging to see major manufacturers releasing documentaries to the home video market, and this Chuck Workman film about the life and times of Andy Warhol is sure to find a wide audience. Whatever one happens to think about Warhol's intrinsic worth as an artist (dubious, at best, in moi opinion), there's no question of his tremendous impact on the evolution of media in the 60s and 70s. He coined the term "superstar" and was, unquestionably, one himself. Interviews with Shelley Winters, Dennis Hopper, Roy Lichtenstein, Liza Minnelli, and others offer insights into this mysterious man who managed to be in front of the cameras regularly but never had much to say. Surviving family members recount some of Warhol's childhood, while art dealers and critics discuss his career and impact on both the art world and the culture at large. If the 60s were, in part, a grand exercise in the will to experiment, then Warhol was one of the primary symbols of that will. It takes that kind of willingness to make a 6 1/2 hour film of a man sleeping and then play it in theaters. The question of whether it's art becomes almost secondary. An excellent documentary. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)