Kurt Cobain - Death of an Icon - Blu-ray

Film: When the band Nirvana stormed the charts in late 1991 with the song Smells like Teen Spirit and the accompanying album Nevermind, a tremor went through the music landscape. The band around frontman Kurt Cobain laid the foundation for the popularity of grunge rock, which seemed to speak from the soul of an entire generation. The band became a mega-act in no time and Cobain an icon. All the more shocking hit many millions of fans on 05.04.1994 the news that Kurt Cobain took his own life. A heroin overdose and a bullet in the head ended the life and work of a musical genius far too soon. But as is the case with deaths of prominent people, there are quite a few legends and conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain. Private detective and ex-policeman Tom Grant is sure that Cobain was murdered. And the film Kurt Cobain - Death of an Icon by Benjamin Statler aims to prove that his assumption is not a pipe dream.

In a mixture of re-enacted game scenes and interviews, the film traces the investigation that Grant began in April 1994 on behalf of Cobain's wife Courtney Love. He was supposed to find the singer who had disappeared at that time. But soon he had doubts about the statements of Cobain's wife and when the musician was found dead and the police rashly spoke of suicide in his eyes, Grant continued his investigation. The recordings of his conversations with Courtney Love, some of which are presented as re-enacted game scenes, as well as extensive interviews are meant to support Grant's thesis. But the film also gives some space to the opposing side, even if Courtney Love herself refused to make any statement. Statler takes pains to make the whole thing seem neither like a muddled conspiracy theory, nor like a one-sided witch hunt.

Although there will be many who will think Grant's theory is absolute nonsense, there's no denying that the film is really well done from a purely technical standpoint. It seems well researched, the mix of interviews and game scenes works (even if Tyler Bryan as Kurt Cobain seems a bit pale) and even if the positioning of the makers seems quite clear, there is a good balance in terms of content. Certainly, formally the film is no different from other docu-dramas. Acting-wise it doesn't offer quite great cinema and visually it's kept rather simple. Nevertheless, the search for the (alleged) truth about the death of an icon is very exciting and involving. Does the film give clear answers? No, but even if doubts about Grant's theory remain, doubts about the suicide theory also arise. How justified these are, that's up to everyone to decide.

From Courtney Love there was - understandably - a lot of headwind. So her fans are probably responsible for the film getting spurts of extremely bad 1-star reviews at times on the imdb.com site. But this docu-drama definitely doesn't deserve those - neither in terms of craft, nor content. It is admittedly not a masterpiece, but this controversial reappraisal of one of the most sensational deaths in recent music history is well worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The image of the Blu-Ray is very clean, has a very high image sharpness especially in the interview sequences and also provides a coherent color scheme for a very engaging atmosphere. The sound remains largely unspectacular despite a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, as the rather centrally mixed interview sequences set the tone here. But since genre-related no great surround moments should be expected, there is overall for image and sound a more than satisfied: good!

Extras: More than the trailer and other program tips of the provider, the Blu-ray unfortunately has nothing to offer.

Conclusion:Kurt Cobain - Death of an Icon is a mixture of feature film and documentary that traces a very different, very explosive view of the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Whether you believe the conclusions of private investigator Tom Grant or not is up to you. The fact is that the film is absolutely convincing on a purely factual level and Grant presents his theses in a valid and comprehensible way. The film doesn't try to take a clear position. Even though there is definitely a clear tendency, director Statler always tries to keep an open mind for different versions of the story. This might not please fans of Courtney Love in particular. But from a purely workmanlike standpoint, this docu-drama really succeeds. The Blu-ray presents the film in adequate picture and sound quality, only further bonus material is unfortunately not available. Overall clearly a: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp