The Devil and Daniel Johnston: A Documentary Review

It is known that many of the most brilliant artists, musicians, and writers that have existed in history were also mentally ill. Such as Vincent Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sylvia Plath, Michelangelo, Charles Dickens, and people from the recent past, such as Kurt Cobain and Brian Wilson. Shall we add Daniel Johnston to the list? You be the judge.

This documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, covers the life of Daniel Johnston, an aspiring singer, songwriter and artist found in Austin, Texas, who happened to develop manic depression, known as bipolar nowadays. Countless footage clips of Daniel from a young child to an aging adult are shown in this film, along with various songs and art created by Daniel. After viewing the first ten minutes of the film, it is quite clear that Daniel was a very passionate and artistic young man. He produced and directed little films where he was also the actor at times. One favorite would be where he took upon the character of his nagging mother, constantly demeaning Daniel.

As a reclusive teenager, Johnston was clearly quite talented and obsessed with expressing himself through various methods, such as a cassette tape recorder, video camera recorder, playing on the piano, and drawing various comic-orientated styled art. He lived in the basement of his family's home and covered the walls with a great variety of pictures, art, and who knows what else, it is shown that as an adult he has essentially designed his current home the same way, covering the walls so well that you would have no idea what the walls actually looked like beneath all the items. His families were quite Christian, to the point where his mother would nag Daniel, saying that his art and music were not contributing God's cause at all. A big feature of the film also was how Daniel was madly in love with a girl, who was already dating someone, and it showed how in some ways, Daniel preferred to pine from afar. In fact quite a good amount of his songs is based on this girl, Laurie.

At a point during his late teenage years, Daniel randomly disappeared, the family later on found out that he decided to run away after buying a moped, joined the carnival, and eventually ended up all alone in Austin, Texas in the early 80's. It was in Austin where Daniel truly began his musical career. Daniel was a stubborn character, who recorded his folk songs on tape cassettes and would hand out to fans, friends, journalists and anybody he thought would find the cassettes useful and enjoyable. There, Daniel also managed to show up on MTV, making a dream of his own come true and also making a name out of himself. He was a local celebrity to the Austin scene. Unfortunately just as when things were starting to go really well, Daniel suffered a mental collapse which was perhaps triggered by taking LSD at a concert. His behavior became increasingly outrageous and disorientated to the point where he was taken to the mental hospital by his family and friends.

Thus began the lifelong struggle between sanity and insanity, constantly in and out of mental hospitals and being drugged on various medicines, Daniel never gave up on his craft. He kept becoming more well known in the music and art industry. Believe it or not, between stays at mental hospitals, he would perform live, usually going off his medicine a few weeks beforehand because he knew it made his performance just that much better. Even today while still living with his parents, he is in a band with several people who are at least half his age.

I find 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston' quite inspiring, just to see someone struggle all these years and still not give up on his passion to create, that speaks to me. People who are musicians, artists, or just ones who are fans of art/music, and people interested in mental health should watch this documentary. It's well worth your time.