The headlines about the Netflix biopic of Mötley Crüe say it all: The Dirt is endless sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. It also makes some serious points about the record business.
The Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt is a total time capsule from an era long before #METOO and #TIMESUP. Fans will delight in the dark and debauched exploits of the band – which says it has sold more than 100 million albums despite being the most “dysfunctional family ever.” The headlines about the Netflix picture say it all: The Dirt is endless sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. It also makes some serious points about the record business. Rock biopics are big business right now, with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Elton John’s Rocket Man also making the news. Still, record companies and managers may get wistful about the lucrative pre-digital times of the 1980s.
Some viewers are not so impressed with The Dirt and its treatment of women, who are rarely named and often seen naked – prompting criticism that the storyline crudely celebrates macho excess. There are endless shots of cocaine being sniffed, heroin injected and Bourbon being drunk like water, leading to suggestions by others that drug use is being glamorized. In reply, the band is insistent that the storyline is simply as accurate as possible and it is capturing a time long since passed. Mötley’s co-founder and bassist Niki Sixx says it is a cautionary tale of exactly what not to do. The movie captures the act’s early days and not the 20-year sequel since sobering up. Sixx, the author of The Heroin Diaries, has since devoted time to charities and educating people about the dangers of addiction.
After plenty of jokes from his bandmates about groupie numbers in orgies across America, the guitarist Mick Mars deadpans to his friends at one point: “I happen to have respect for myself and the females of our species, unlike you animals.” The line may be a joke, or inserted to placate politically-correct watchers in 2019, you decide. Any backlash will doubtless lead to more publicity, and if bad publicity is the best of all, it should boost the movie’s viewer numbers.
The film’s main themes include comedy, shock value, the record business and human drama, not to say tragedy.
There is an element of Spinal Tap or Bad News about the comedic bits, which are turned up to 11 throughout. For example, the drummer Tommy Lee appears in the family kitchen sporting some new pants, and his sister Athena Lee protests that they are hers. He replies: “What? They look so much better on me.”
The shock value is pretty extreme, and it is worth keeping in mind that there are many more scenes that are just unfilmable in the autobiography The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious RockBand, co-written with Neil Strauss. Even so, we get some gross-out moments. Enter an inebriated Ozzy Osbourne in a dress, upsetting Holiday Inn guests by exposing himself and sniffing ants rather than cocaine. At another point, Mötley Crüe is shown in a bar, with a girl under the table ready to pleasure anyone invited to join them.
One of those shocked by this is the talent scout Tom Zutaut (played as a geeky figure by Pete Davidson). For the sake of a smooth narrative, the band’s signing to Elektra is reduced to a brief bar meeting, and Mötley’s acquisition of its publishing rights is also kept simple and short. We are left in no doubt that this is a story from the days when physical albums sold well and large advances were common.
The band’s former manager Doc McGhee is portrayed a hard guy who would handcuff his charges to hotel beds at night so they did not get into more mischief destroying their rooms, setting curtains on fire or throwing televisions from windows. He says: “I have managed the Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Skid Row and KISS. But I have never been through what Mötley Crüe put me through.” The current long-term manager, Allen Kovac, makes an appearance as himself near the end, knocking on dressing-room doors.
