I saw this with some friends at the Nuart theatre last night. This doc did have the poignancy that its subject would be dead before it first came out in 1988. Fifty-seven, he could had passed for seventy-seven, the way his skin dried up from all that substance abuse.
A fan of jazz, I never had anything of Chet Baker and still hold the opinion that Miles Davis was the premiere trumpeter of the time period. But Baker was listen-able and could be quite good when the mood striked.
But he was no good as a family man as his actual family points out. A photographer shows the many pictures he took of him saying he was so photogenic which just struck me as weird.
More intriguing was all the photos Baker took of naked women, proof that he was quite a ladies man. One buxom brunette, never really introduced, is one of the hangers on in what would be the last year of his life.
I'm not complaining because I adore the young Natalie Wood, but other than Robert Wagner playing a Baker character in 1959, not much reason to show so much of it. Also, a lot of fun was the celebrity pictures taken in the 1950's, trying to figure out who's who, such as Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in shots.
Speaking of snap notes, we're supposed to Baker's baby book and pictures and photographs of him standing next to the Bird, Charley Parker.
But it's bittersweet and does serve its purpose, a rare look of Chet Baker as an individual not living up to his initial promise.
A fan of jazz, I never had anything of Chet Baker and still hold the opinion that Miles Davis was the premiere trumpeter of the time period. But Baker was listen-able and could be quite good when the mood striked.
But he was no good as a family man as his actual family points out. A photographer shows the many pictures he took of him saying he was so photogenic which just struck me as weird.
More intriguing was all the photos Baker took of naked women, proof that he was quite a ladies man. One buxom brunette, never really introduced, is one of the hangers on in what would be the last year of his life.
I'm not complaining because I adore the young Natalie Wood, but other than Robert Wagner playing a Baker character in 1959, not much reason to show so much of it. Also, a lot of fun was the celebrity pictures taken in the 1950's, trying to figure out who's who, such as Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in shots.
Speaking of snap notes, we're supposed to Baker's baby book and pictures and photographs of him standing next to the Bird, Charley Parker.
But it's bittersweet and does serve its purpose, a rare look of Chet Baker as an individual not living up to his initial promise.