I recently saw this movie about Roky Erickson, the front-man for the seminal '60s rock group "13th Floor Elevators" who supposedly was the first person to use the term "Psychedelic Rock". I didn't know much about the Elevators or Roky Erikson when I checked out this DVD, except that they were one of the early "heavy" bands in the San Francisco scene, and that they fell off the map when Roky took so much acid he went crazy like Syd Barret. This movies chronicles Rocky's rise to fame, his acid years, his downfall, his long struggle with mental illness, and his comeback -- which includes a somewhat successful attempt by his younger brother to get Roky sane, healthy and performing again in his late fifties. It is quite the epic.
I personally love movies like this. I have met people like Roky in my life, people who were schizophrenic, manic depressive, or mentally unstable either naturally or due to long periods of drug abuse. It is interesting to see how long and how far Roky falls before his life gets turned back around in the last chapter. If you watch the DVD be sure to check out the postscripts in the extras to see how far he's come since the end of the movie (which was around 2003). He continues to perform and live a decent life despite being a burnout schizophrenic acid casualty for so many years. His family is a trip too. He definitely had a very fragile psyche to begin with; acid just shot him round the twist. This is a great film for fans of documentaries on the '60s, acid, and mental illness.
