Well, a couple weeks ago I watched Montage of Heck, which was promised to be "the facts." Both the director, Brett Morgan, and Kurt's daughter, Frances said that this film was going to be the most honest documentary about the late rocker, and that it was going to dispel all the myths... Boy, did that ever backfire!
I watched Montage of Heck twice because, for whatever reason, after the first viewing I still wasn't sure what I had just sat through or how I felt about. After the second viewing, however, my feelings and perception of it became crystal clear: it was a disappointing load of lies and BS.
*SPOILERS*
I don't know if a biopic about a guy that's been dead for 20 years can really have spoilers, per se, but stop reading if you don't want to know anything about it before seeing it.
First and foremost, Kurt's mother, Wendy, is a worse liar than Courtney Love, and her scripted and fabricated interviews ruined the movie more than any other single person in it, even more than Courtney. Anyone who knows a great deal about Kurt Cobain knows that he did not like his mother, or his father, nor did he have a good relationship with them. In fact, it is well documented that after he became an adult and moved out on his own, he virtually had no relation or contact at all with either of his biological parents.
In the book, Come As You Are, Wendy herself states that she did not support Kurt's music whatsoever; she did not believe he ever could become successful; and she did not feel that he owed her anything because of how unsupportive her and his father, Don Cobain were. This is just one of several sources that confirms Kurt and Wendy's relationship was strained, at best.
Well, in Montage of Heck, Wendy certainly changes her tune, and all the facts. Wendy comes across as a warm, loving, and supportive mother who always new her son was destined to takeover the world of popular music. She's also an obvious ham and drama queen. She even claims to have warned Kurt that he wouldn't be able to handle his fame, well before he actually became so famous, and it's easily the most obviously scripted, rehearsed, and fabricated story in the whole film. It never happened. Period.
The film opened with Kurt's sister, Kim, who seems like a nice enough lady, but whose inclusion in the film was utterly worthless. She basically says, "my brother was smart and I wasn't," end of story. Seriously, she was maybe in the documentary for five minutes at the most, and that's probably a stretch. We also see Kurt's father on camera for the first time -- to the best of my knowledge -- but he only mutters a few sentences about Kurt's mother, and then his step wife rambles on about things we already know or don't really care about, and it's radically clear that she's the last person on Earth that would get Kurt at all or have anything insightful to say about him.
This is basically how the movie flows for the first 3/4 until Courtney Love comes in, and in typical fashion, completely steals the show, much to the dismay of everyone watching. Like Wendy, Courtney is painted as warm, loving, and nurturing, except during her interviews where she is obviously trashed and aloof.
Kurt's first girlfriend, Tracy is also in the movie, and her segments are honestly the best, and she gives the only interview that is actually insightful and interesting. Krist Novaselic is also in it, and is his usual likable self, but his segments are choppy and rushed, and we don't learn much from him that we didn't already figure out on our own. I sense his interview was way longer than what we see, but the director cut it down to little pieces.
MURDER
So, what does any of this have to do with Kurt Cobain being murdered? Well, Montage of Heck has a strong and clear narrative: Kurt was an overly sensitive, suicidal person who was always likely to kill himself. And although the film self-righteously neglected to directly talk about Kurt's death or the aftermath, it had no problem illustrating -- literally -- other alleged suicide attempts, including a story Kurt himself wrote and narrated, that for all we know could be pure fiction.
MoH proves what conspiracy theorists have been claiming for decades: it's not hard at all to cherry pick his artwork and stories, and then use those selective bits to paint the picture of a man who was destined to kill himself, which got me wondering: did he actually kill himself?
Is every person with a dark sense of humor actually dark? Is every person who ever jokes about hating them self, someone who's eventually going to kill them self? I know there's truth in art, but sometimes there's just art in art, and nothing more. Remember when people actually thought Marilyn Manson was legitimately a dangerous, Satanic maniac, but then we all found out he was just a geeky dude who worked at the mall?
Or what about Metallica? They're easily as famous as Nirvana, and they wrote an album called, Kill Em All, so why aren't we all waiting for them to actually go on a murdering spree? Obviously artists can be macabre for creative purposes, but it in no way means that they really mean it.
Another Kurt Cobain documentary called, Soaked in Bleach is also coming out this year, and his has sparked a lot of debate between people who believe Kurt was murdered, and people who think those people are kooks. Soaked in Bleach is poised to be the complete juxtaposition of MoH. It's going to focus solely on the events that transpired right before and right after Kurt's death, and attempt to dispute any narrative of suicide.
I don't think it's "crazy" to think Kurt was murdered, and here's why:
First, let's compare the evidence for Kurt killing himself to the evidence for him being murdered.
Evidence for Suicide:
- Kurt's dead body was found alone in a partially locked room.
- He appeared to have shot himself.
- He appeared to leave a suicide note.
- He appeared to have injected himself with a lethal dose of heroine.
All of this evidence would definitively point to suicide only if there was NO evidence whatsoever for murder.
Evidence for Murder:
- No "legible" fingerprints were ever found on the shotgun.
- It would have been very difficult if not impossible for him to take a lethal dose of heroine AND shoot himself with a 20 gauge shotgun.
- His credit card was missing and someone else had been attempting to use it after he was dead.
Considering that on top of all this Kurt was a major celebrity with millions of dollars, I would say that is easily enough evidence to warrant a murder investigation, but that only scratches the surface...
- Shortly before his death, he expressed fear for his life. That could have been his way of convincing his friend, Dillon to buy the shotgun for him, or it could have been because he actually thought someone was trying to kill him.
- The shotgun was fully loaded with three rounds of ammunition, which makes little sense for a suicide. Did he plan on shooting himself three times in the mouth?
- His wife continuously lied to the private investigator SHE HIRED to find him. This is backed up by audio recordings revealing lies and inconsistencies in her stories.
- His best friend and live-in nanny also appeared to have lied during the investigation, both to investigators and the media.
- Him and Courtney were known to occasionally hangout with "low-life" and potentially dangerous people.
- His car was mysteriously found with a "for sale" sign on it in front of an acquaintance's house. How does a dad man close a sale on his car?
- A man who claimed Courtney hired him to kill Kurt passed a polygraph test with a 0.01 percent "chance of deception."
All of the above is just a short and generalized list of some of the many weird and bizarre things that were going on at the time of his disappearance and death.
Now let's compare motives...
Possible Motives for Suicide:
- Depression.
Depression is the only known possible motive for Kurt to commit suicide. He was not facing financial devastation -- quite the opposite --, he was not facing a life-long prison sentence, he was not caught up in a scandal that threatened to ruing his character or reputation -- it was already known he was a heroine user, and although he was not proud of it, he had no problem admitting it and talking about it...
So if depression is really the reason he killed himself, why was he so depressed? I think any answer to that question would simply be speculation and not much more. Maybe he hated fame, but he also sought it... Maybe he wanted to leave his wife, but all he'd have to do is divorce her... Maybe he was still upset about his broken family as a child, but then why wait until so many years later to let it push him over the edge?
For every reason you might be able to think of, one could easily insert a "but..." to counter it.
Possible Motives for Murder
- Kurt was a famous celebrity, and celebrities have often been the targets of senseless murders.
- Many people depended on Kurt financially and were upset with the future business decisions he was making at the time -- e.g., refusing to go on tour; ending Nirvana.
- Anyone close to Kurt who was involved in murdering him would stand to make a lot of money, especially his wife, Courtney Love, who would not benefit from a divorce since she signed a prenup.
It's far easier to think of strong motives for someone to kill him than it is for suicide. The main one, in my opinion, would be financial gain, which is statistically one of the main motives behind most crimes, especially murder.
For all of these reasons and more I think it is not "crazy" at all to buy into the idea that Kurt Cobain may have been murdered. Honestly, after reviewing all of this, to accept that he simply killed himself is a lot crazier. But nothing is crazier than the fact that a murder investigation was never carried out, let alone even considered by the police.
