For all the fervor that surrounded (and still surrounds) the Andy Warhol legend, few from the collective of Factory hangers-on ever escaped the artist’s shadow to enjoy their own day in the sun. What this documentary posits, however, is that Danny Williams could very well have broken out and enjoyed critical favor in his own right … had he not disappeared off the coast of Massachusetts one evening at the age of 27.
Director Robinson never knew her uncle, and she cares little about the actual nature of his alleged death. Eschewing case files and police evidence, she maintains tight focus on family, co-workers and—cue the Velvet Underground—a host of Factory folk. It’s here that Williams’ own black-and-white short films juxtapose with wildly colorful (and often incongruous) testimony concerning everything from Who Was Really Doing Whom to What Exactly Was So Special About Those Exploding Plastic Inevitable Shows. It’s also here that any semblance of storytelling progression disappears in a haze of sex, drugs and strobe lighting.
On one hand, it’s a hoot to see these formerly vibrant Superstars sagging and occasionally absent-minded, yet still defiantly holding onto catty grudges. Where Williams is concerned, however, we get very little of the what—Harvard dropout, filmmaker, lighting pioneer, Warhol’s lover—and next to nothing about who he was personality-wise. As for the why of the apparent suicide, photojournalist Nat Finkelstein summarizes it thusly: “It’s about power.” Warhol may have artistically empowered others to some small degree, but he also deliberately fostered jealousy and encouraged rivalries for his attention. All sought glory, but he allowed only himself to achieve it. If Williams broke under the strain, most interviewees tend to agree, well, sucks to be him.
While the film is full of interesting faces and footage, Williams is lost in the day-to-day pettiness and jockeying for position in what Finkelstein terms the “cult.” As such, the film ends up less a portrait of the titular figure than an amphetamine-heavy, Campbell’s Soup-featuring Behind the Music episode. Much like the Factory itself, Walk is thoroughly engrossing, but ultimately for all the wrong reasons.
A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory
** 1/2
Directed by Esther Robinson
Not rated