Sr
US, 2022, 93 minutes, black-and-white/colour.
Robert Downey Sr, Robert Downey Jr, Menachem, Paul Thomas Anderson, Norman Lear, Sean Hayes.
Directed by Chris Smith.
The Sr of the title is counter culture director from the 1960s to the 1990s, Robert Downey. With the emergence of his son, Robert Downey Jr, in the 1980s and 1990s, the older man received the title of Robert Downey Sr or, with his friends and family, Sr.
This is a film for cinema buffs, interested in the changes in small budget, independent, underground filming that emerged in the 1960s, especially in New York. Robert Downey was significant with his range of films, planned, improvised, with a range of cast including his then wife, the lively Elsie Downey.
There are substantial clips from several of these early films, then from his films in the 70s which did get some kind of release, Putney Swope, with its racial themes, Greasers Palace, with its oddball comedy, and some more conventional films, Up the Academy, Rented Lips, Too Much Sun, Hugo Pool). His final film is a documentary from 2005 about an area to New York, Rittenhouse Square. Downey also appeared in a number of commercial films, especially Boogie Nights and Magnolia for Paul Thomas Anderson who is interviewed here.
There are a number of talking heads, especially Alan Arkin reminiscing about the past, Norman Lear about Downey’s talent. And, of course, there are interviews with members of the family and friends.
However, at the centre of the documentary, a family portrait, are the father and son. In fact, for audiences not familiar with the Downeys, this is an interesting visual/dramatic picture of a relationship between father and son, initially unconventional, ultimately very personal.
Sr has a strong, often engaging, personality. There is an overview of his life, his background and emerging in the 1960s, the drug culture and experiences of the time, he unashamedly relishing the drugs, and introducing them to his son at a young age (and the film’s reminder that Robert Downey Jr in his 20s and 30s was a drug addict, arrested many times, serving time in jail, eventual rehabilitation and not only recovering his career but building a very successful new career). Sr looks back on his past in the but in a benign kind of way even as he changed his lifestyle. His testimony to his wife and her performances in his films. His second marriage, a love match, was very short, his wife, Laura, dying. His third marriage was successful even though his wife says that their 1500th anniversary is coming up, a marriage of 23 years and support until his death.
But, the core of the film of the conversations between father and son, sometimes in New York, sometimes Downey Jr bringing his son to meet his grandfather, often the conversations by phone between Los Angeles and New York. There is a special sequence where Downey Jr, with the help of Sean Hayes as an accompanist, sings a Schubert song for his father. And, all the time, Sr is planning his documentary, going around New York, filming, commenting on the locations, commenting on the techniques he would use for filming. Is also seen, watching a screen, working in an editing suite.
But, ultimately, Sr succumbs to Parkinson’s, becoming weaker in body but still agile in mind. He died in July 2021.
There is a funeral celebration, friends gathering, testimonies – but, with the final credits, some excerpts from his films, especially ending with some comic situations from Greaser’s Palace.
