I mentioned to Adam that I'd watched The Devil and Daniel Johnston and he asked me if it was as good as New York Doll, and I honestly couldn't believe he'd asked that. New York Doll is far more than just a documentary, it's literally the chronicling of a Miracle and proof of God's existence, it's very possible that there will never be a documentary that can match it. Short of proving the existence of Bigfoot or Nessy, it's not likely to happen. By the same token there are things about The Devil and Daniel Johnson that make it unique. First of all, there is an astonishing wealth of video that Johnston or his friends shot, he literally chronicled his own life, which made for an amazing amount of really unique footage.

The film bounces back and forth a bit but mostly it proceeds chronologically, from his time as a backward teenager who excelled at art and was known for his peculiar drawings that he pumped out prodigiously. From an early age it became clear that Daniel was a savant of sorts, endlessly making short films, writing songs on the piano and drawing on anything and everything. His behavior, which was always suspect, began to show signs of manic depression and with it came the barrage of medications. None of the anti-depressants proved very effective, but they did manage to level the peaks and valleys – yet he rarely took the medications faithfully and suffered as a result.

As strange as Daniels behavior and appearance it was amazing how easily he was able to ingratiate himself with industry players, in spite of his often bizarre behavior. He literally talked his way on to MTV in it's infancy, as well as the Austin music scene and later the New York scene. Somehow he managed to befriend Butthole Surfer frontman Gibby Haynes (in the special features there is a fascinating conversation between Haynes and an acid-loopy Johnston.) He was also thrust into a somewhat fruitful collaboration between Johnston and Half-Japanese scenester Jad Fair. But during this period he stopped taking his meds and his legendary exploits on the lam in New York accomplished his goal of getting famous.

The film is endlessly fascinating and affecting as his parents unconditional love and support for their troubled genius of a son is touching. Daniel's father was a decorated fighter pilot and often flew Daniel back and forth when possible. During one flight an undermedicated Daniel grabbed the planes keys and through them out the window. He overpowered his father and soon had the Sessna in a tailspin. Luckily his father managed to wrest control of the plane and brought it to a crash landing in the trees. Daniel thought of his actions as heroic and was startled to learn that he was the only one of that opinion.

Daniel came upon his biggest boost when Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain began wearing a T-Shirt of Daniel's album Hi, How Are You, with the frog eyeball design and interest in Daniel went through the roof. Though Daniel never found commercial success with his music. One of the most endearing things about Daniel is that rather than duping copies of his first album, he would re-record all of the songs each time he gave or sold someone a tape. The artists who have covered his songs reads like a who's who of alternative rock and his own personal style can easily be seen in the approach of Connor Oberst (Bright Eyes). Daniel still lives with his parents, whom fear for what will become of their son when they die. Money isn't an issue, his collected works both music and artistically are sufficient to support him, but his psychological problems will probably never be very well stabilized. On his own he's never been able to manage. I found things about Daniel's that reminded me of myself, the profusion of art and lyrics and backlogs of scribbled hieroglyphs is something that I too have. It's really quite astonishing that Daniel ever found an audience, the chances of something like that happening now, is highly unlikely. Still the film is a fascinating in almost every respect, and you'd do well to experience Daniel yourself.