Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 29, 2021

Evidently there are people who don't have a clue who Harry Nilsson was. Just a few minutes after Tommy Smothers mentioned in this very appealing overview of Nilsson's life (and death) that there are basically two kinds of human beings in the world, those who know about and venerate Nilsson and those who react to his name with a shrug and a "Who?", my own wife walked into the room where I was watching the disc currently under review, asked what was on, and when I told her it was a documentary about Nilsson, she did indeed reply with a "Who?" We'll discuss the state of my marriage later (that's a joke, folks), but in the meantime, for anyone else with a lingering question as to who Harry Nilsson was, there's a brief summary in my The Point Blu-ray review of the quirky made for television movie for which Nilsson both wrote the story on which the screenplay is based and the whimsical song score (including the minor hit "Me and My Arrow"). That recap may provide a few basic facts about Nilsson's relatively brief but amazing success in the late sixties and early seventies, but Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? really delves into both the pluses and minuses of a titan of contemporary songwriting and singing whose legacy may be undeniable, but whose memory seems to have languished pretty considerably in the years since his untimely demise in 1994 at the age of 52.

There's a plaintive and sweet melancholy to Nilsson's voice, whether he's singing one of his own tunes or covering someone else's material (as I get into in the above linked review, Nilsson's music career was one of incredible irony, even within the often insane context of show business, where his biggest hits as a recording act were written by others, but where his biggest hits as a writer made the charts under some other performers' names). That initial sonic apprehension may have revealed one side of Nilsson's personality, but as many of the people who knew and worked with him get into in this piece, Nilsson had a much darker, maybe even slightly sociopathic, side that played out at various points and which in fact dealt a mortal blow to several relationships. In that regard, it's salient to note that one of the most important collaborators in Nilsson's recording life, arranger George Tipton, is nowhere to be seen in this piece. Others, like Richard Perry and Rick Girrard, both of whom had incredible impact producing Nilsson, seem positively bewildered (and in the case of Girrard, hurt) about the way Nilsson ended up treating both of them.

While there is a veritable glut of talking head material in Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? featuring such notables (no pun intended) as Perry Botkin, Jr., Mickey Dolenz, Yoko Ono, the Smothers Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, Paul Williams, Jimmy Webb, Brian Wilson, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Robin Williams, it may be the more "up close and personal" material relayed by Nilsson's relatives that really delve the most deeply into Nilsson's personality and psyche. Nilsson married three times, and while there's only a passing mention of his first spouse, his second wife Diane Clatworthy and their son Zak Nine Nilsson (who very sadly passed away from cancer just a couple of months ago) are on hand, as is Una O'Keeffe, whom Nilsson married after he had divorced Diane, and with whom he had six children, several of whom are also on hand here with reminiscences of their father.

If there's a slightly sad quality to some of Zak's accounts, the "later" Nilsson children seem to have a more cheerful set of memories, and that's no doubt due to the fact that, as the documentary makes clear, Nilsson sought to be a better, more involved and nurturing, father with his kids with Una. There are many interesting anecdotes offered in this piece, but there's also a kind of reticence on the part of several of the interview subjects to get too much into the weeds of the darker side of Nilsson. On a less important but still kind of fascinating note (again, no pun intended), there's a whole section of the documentary devoted to Nilsson's refusal to ever tour, which is ascribed at least by some to his fear of performing in public. And yet, there are at least a couple of rather charming live performances by Nilsson (including one that looks like it might have come from Playboy After Dark, with the "audience" just sitting all around him on couches and chairs while he sings in a virtual living room).

The result is definitely a "warts and all" look at its focal artist, and if there aren't definitive answers given for some of his more questionable behavior, there are at least hypotheses proffered in the form of some salient questions, going back to the fact that Nilsson felt abandoned by his biological father (as he kinda sorta alluded to in his song "1941"). But Nilsson ultimately seems to be yet another victim of the "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" lifestyle, albeit a victim who was able to at least partially recover from mistakes made earlier in life to achieve a certain stability later. In the interim, however, there was definitely a surplus of interpersonal mishegos and career missteps (at least perceived missteps, as various music industry types get into) which were capped by the realization that Nilsson's business manager had basically absconded with the millions Nilsson had accrued, leaving Nilsson bankrupt just when his health was seriously beginning to fail. That adds a certain bittersweet element to the story, something that probably makes that aforementioned melancholy in Nilsson's voice seem positively prophetic.

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.33:1. Some "small print" on the back cover of the release disclosing the following information:

"Who Is harry Nilsson?" master source was originally produced on standard definition video. This disc contains the standard definition movie re-mastered and upscaled to high definition, which was completed using an up-conversion process from the original 172,800 pixels per frame to 2,073,600 pixels per frame of full HD.

The results here are probably measurably better than a number of other upscales I've personally reviewed, but that doesn't necessarily translate into what some videophiles would consider a "true" high definition appearance. Signs of the upscaling process are pretty rampant, and are probably only exacerbated by some byproducts of the interlaced presentation. As such, things like stair stepping and combing artifacts can be spotted, but on the whole the imagery is decently if never mind blowingly detailed, and the color segments, some stills in particular, look reasonably well suffused. Kudos to MVD for being open about the source element and the upscaling process, though.

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? features a fine sounding LPCM 2.0 track. While there is a nice supply of Harry's also distinctive music wafting through this piece, it's often presented in dribs and drabs and as brief interstitials between the longer, less ambitious (from a sonic perspective), talking head segments. All of the spoken material is presented cleanly and clearly, though there are some clear fidelity variances in some of the archival audio utilized. Optional English subtitles are available.

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "Loneliness" Music Video with Introduction by Yoko Ono (480i; 7:01)


• Deleted Scenes and Extended Interviews (480i; various) offer a glut of additional content that didn't make the final cut.


• Trailers includes Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? (480i; 2:28), along with trailers for other releases from MVD Visual.

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? will be a great source of introductory material for those in that second camp mentioned by Tommy Smothers, and it will similarly provide enough of a context and biographical tidbits for longtime fans of this completely innovative and distinctive singer-songwriter. Video can't quite escape its upscaled presentation, but audio is fine, and even with the inherent technical limitations, Who is Harry Nilsson, (and Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? comes Recommended.