Framing John DeLorean – A Wonderful Meta-Documentary

John DeLorean’s story has it all – money, drugs, women, fast cars, the President of the United States, court room drama, jail, family and more. But despite this, no movie has ever been made about the man, the inventor of the famous self-titled car featured in Back to the Future. However beyond that, there is a complex and highly layered story of a man that would go to any lengths in order to realize his dream of developing something truly life-changing.

Framing John DeLorean is a wonderful docu-drama that depicts reenactments of key moments within DeLorean’s life while mixing it with the usual talking head testimonials and archival footage we are used to. This documentary expertly succeeds in reaching its goal of placing a moral decision upon the viewer that forces them to answer whether or not his actions were justified in order to save the very thing he dedicated his life to creating. The film wonderfully oscillates between the pro and negative moments throughout his career and life that seek to paint the man and the legend surrounding him in such a way where you feel as if you may have a firm grasp on his story but yet still know nothing really about him at all.

Where the film takes a turn towards the “meta” is through the highly produced reenacted segments featuring Alec Baldwin as DeLorean who would also provide personal commentary on the very man he’s portraying. It’s even more interesting to see how Baldwin seeks to get inside DeLorean’s mind by seeing him as the hero of the story who will stop at nothing to reach his goals no matter the cost. These great scenes intermixed with testimonials from friends, co-workers and former business partners help provide better shades of the man the media has seemed to color as a one-note businessman with no regard for anyone else. Therein lies the previously mentioned moral dilemma that makes the story and film so enticing and exciting to watch.

While DeLorean’s ambition and drive are on full display, below that lies dense layers of determination, love, revenge and more that has continually lead to the growth of DeLorean’s legend throughout time. His story is one that is amazing – not just in content but also due to the fact that so many projects to depict it have been attempted but never actually made.

At the end of the day, Framing John DeLorean appears to be the closest we will get to experiencing that story for now and it succeeds in every step.

*still courtesy of Sundance Selects*

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Trying my best to get all thoughts about TV and Film out of my head and onto the interweb.