Dir. Jon Spira
A documentary on the life of Christopher Lee and his transformation into one of the genre's greatest villains.
Christopher Lee lived an incredible life, in cinema and otherwise. The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee, the new documentary from filmmaker Jon Spira, tells the story of the horror legend through interviews with family members, archival footage, and animation techniques to give life to someone who brought so much joy through film. In fact, many of us grew up with Lee playing Dracula on our screens, the introduction to horror for generations of moviegoers. With interviews from people like John Landis, Peter Jackson, Joe Dante, and others, the documentary provides an incredibly in-depth view of a man who lived an impressive life on and off the screen.
The son of a war hero, Lee would become a hero himself as a Nazi hunter in World War II. He was involved in the assassinations of Nazi leaders, the sabotage of certain parts of the Axis powers, and was even injured in the line of duty when he was struck with shrapnel. After the war, he entered immediately into the British film industry, becoming a star of a second kind of theater. Despite gaining ground in the industry as a result of knowing the right people, Lee more than earned his way to the top, studying the Stanislavsky Method and delivering bit parts in the background of both theater and film, some even uncredited. His small timing would be short lived, of course, and he eventually become one of the best known faces in the entire horror genre.
The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee is cleverly told, with tons of great stories about the legend with narration from a Lee sound-alike told by a marionette of the actor. He was a brilliant and dedicated man, as evident by all of the amazing stories from the people who knew him firsthand. However, even as amazing as Lee himself is, Life and Deaths goes so much deeper than you would expect. As the documentary says, you can't tell the story of Christopher Lee without also telling the story of Hammer Films, the vehicle for his success and a legendary company in its own right. The same can be said about other legends of the screen, from Boris Karloff to Peter Cushing, all whose lives intertwine with Lee's mythical Hammer roles.
There are so many horror documentaries that are really only for dedicated fans of their subject. There aren't going to be a whole lot of fans of a documentary about Demon Wind that aren't already appreciators of the pile of trash from whence it came. This one, however, is a bit different, owing as much to the fascinating life that its subject lived as to the brilliant way in which it was told. Spira does a phenomenal job of making the entire film interesting, even when its just giving us background information. It's not just a good documentary, it's a good movie. It manages to hold the audience's attention throughout, a necessity that feels like it should go without saying but is often a failure of documentaries on specific films or people in the industry.
Even if you're not a fan of the old Hammer Horror films, and they can certainly be a hard sell for modern horror fans not used to watching black-and-white or classic films, Lee is a legend all the same. His performances are every bit as important to the genre as anything from Lugosi or Chaney, and they're a great introduction to the genre for folks not quite ready to dig into the more extreme side of horror. Working with everyone from Billy Wilder to Mario Bava, the man was an inspiration for all future performances of Dracula (and may well have even been the real-life inspiration for James Bond, a role he played opposite of in The Man With the Golden Gun). Out of every actor in horror history, it would be difficult to make the case that anyone is more iconic or as important to the genre as Christopher Lee. Spira's documentary gives him a life for younger fans who may not be as familiar with his work, and it's a must watch.
Who this movie is for: Lee fans, Horror movie historians, Heavy Metal Christmas fans
Bottom line: The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee is a fascinating exploration of the legendary Lee, and it's well done from start to finish. It's entertaining, with tons of great details that fans of his work likely have never heard, and it's an in-depth dedication to the legacy of one of horror's greatest actors. With some great interviews from other popular directors and stars, this is one that genre fans absolutely should not miss. If you're a fan of horror, documentaries, or Lee himself, this one is a must see.
