Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (2012) User Reviews (10)

A Decent Doc about the Father of Shock-Talk

[twilliams76 · 6/10 · 1 November 2013]

Before reality television allowed just about anybody to say just about anything in front of just about any audience AND before polarizing radio/television personalities such as Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill Maher and Sean Hannity proved there is an audience that craves shock-talk when it involves putting-down and insulting others, the world had one person who did this on a regular basis and who was actually different than all who followed as he was an honest, equal-opportunity offender who spoke his mind and was not earning tens of millions of dollars from corporate sponsors by manipulating those dumber than himself to believe everything he said. Yes, sorry, but if the shoe fits one's left OR right foot ... wear it.

Morton Downey Jr. was a foul-mouthed, bug-eyed, chain-smoking hothead who had hoped to follow in his father's footsteps as a crooner; but as the intelligent man's talent wasn't in music he found a place for himself on television as a host of a short-lived yet notorious and controversial talk show that bore his name -- The Morton Downey, Jr. Show -- that aired in syndication from 1987 to 1989.

It was called "3-D television" by some because of the numerous quasi-violent outbursts -- flinging chairs! fistfights! shouting matches! -- that occurred on the show between the verbally volatile frequent and not-so-frequent guests such as Rev. Al Sharpton, Gloria Allred, Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Curtis Sliwa, Allen Dershowitz and some (ignorant) random klansmen. His show was also described as "rock and roll without the music" because of its attitude, pacing and aggressive format. Downey Jr. was "in your face" and rarely apologized and always had an opinion which turned off plenty of viewers although it revolutionized the television format/genre. It could be compared to Jerry Springer; but Downey Jr. emphasized politics and race and hot-button issues and did not openly embrace trashy topics like promiscuous married bed-hoppers or naughty male nurses or stripper mothers. He believed his show was important.

Downey Jr. had a very quick rise to his infamous fame but also had a very fast fall as a stunt of his backfired and he lost much support. Evocateur is at its best when it showcases the man's career rise and fall but also provides a bit of touching, human reality by including the man's late health scare and battle with lung cancer (he claimed to have smoked upwards of 3 packs a day at the height of his career and he openly chronicled much of his early cancer battle with various television audiences). The doc falters a bit when it mentions his late-life love story with his third wife that wasn't necessary for the film but perhaps the filmmakers wanted to show he had a heart and was capable of loving another.

His show aired in the late 80's and I remember it being on and hearing some of his more shocking claims ... that probably are not as shocking to an audience today as they once were. Evocatuer is an adequate tribute to a man who did revolutionize television even if the man never knew to what extent.

Without doubt, he did take things too far but he did speak his mind openly and honestly which is more than can be said about so many that have followed him and are doing so for larger paychecks (as it has become ALL about the $).

Bizarre Animation Filled Documentary Tells Story of Bizarre Argument Filled Show

[MackMonMay87 · 6/10 · 17 July 2013]

I had never heard of Morton Downey Jr. before this documentary, having been in diapers when it was on the air, and from the impression this documentary gave, I'm glad I was. Downey's show pre-dated the Jerry Springer madhouse-style talkshows that are fairly ubiquitous now and were absolutely huge in the mid-90's. Morton Downey's show only lasted a few years and was before the cusp of that type of T.V. becoming popular, it was well ahead of it's time.

One of the interviewees in the movie mentions, I think accurately, that it was America's first taste of the blatant rudeness and confrontation that reality TV shows like The Real Housewives of ( ) have on them.

The documentary itself has a bizarre, strange tone to it, critical of Downey, who was a polarizing figure, but not entirely hateful or against him. At points, it's view is like I mentioned, critical, but at others it's almost pitying, sympathetic, with interesting animated segments scattered throughout. I suppose the pity sensation was the one I felt the most after the piece ended, he was a man who struggled with many parts of himself but also did make something, whether that something was bad or good, of himself.

So if you can manage to be entertained by watching train/car wreck style stories (even though this is far from the worst of that type I've ever seen) and you're interested in the history and progenitors of a section of our current media culture, I would say that Evocateur is worth your time, but not quite a must see.

I am down with this one! So should you!

[meeza · 8/10 · 20 January 2014]

Some people have accused me of being a loud punmouth, and I let it just be; I guess. Speaking of loudmouths, in the late 80's there was a loudmouth that came to instant fame in the form of Morton Downey Jr.; whose talk show was not really much a talk show but more of a forum to defend Americans' injustices in front of a national audience. Downey Jr.'s bullyish "in your face" style was resoundly controversial but it got in the ratings. However, this Downey Jr. did not eventually show that he was the "iron man" of talk television as his show was cancelled in just two years mostly due to his unconventional actions. Nevertheless, Downey Jr's thunderous style did pave the way to what we call today "reality show" programming; and that is for real. Downey Jr's rise and fall is captured effectively in the documentary "Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie". It depicted Morton's madness, fervor, and resiliency in numerous arenas of his life with the primary emphasis being on his infamous show. So shut your mouth if you don't like this documentary, because I did!! Kidding! Just wanted to include some Mortonism in my review. So get your Morton motor running, and give this cool doc a try. **** Good

A forgotten man . . . . probably for a reason.

[The_Film_Cricket · 19 February 2014]

I have to admit that ever since new of his death from lung cancer in 2001, I hadn't given much thought to Morton Downey, Jr. I'm not being mean, but truthfully, there wasn't much to think about. Downey's legacy in television history is so forgettable that the subsequent generation has no idea who he was. If you've ever seen "The Morton Downey, Jr. Show" you probably have an idea why.

For 20 months from 1987 to 1989, Downey ran a self-titled TV talk show that was part-riot, part-circus, a little bit Jerry Springer, Rush Limbaugh and later Bill O'Reilly and Michael Moore. What would come of his show would be an example, not for others to follow, but for others to correct upon. His show was a loud, obnoxious and fairly monotonous platform of screaming and bullying. The format (he said) was to give a voice to the silent majority, but in reality it was a platform for propagating bad behavior. Downey screamed in the faces of a variety of guests from vegans to the gun nuts to the KKK and even celebrity guests like Ron Paul and Alan Dershowitz. Famously, he clashed with Al Sharpton. Downey's audience, comprised mostly of young college kids, behaved as if they were attending a hockey game.

The new documentary "Évocateur: The Morton Downey, Jr. Movie" examines Downey's brief rise and quick demise from television. This is a professionally-made, talking-head documentary that features interviews with former colleagues, family and friends who try to help us get inside Downey's head to figure out what drew him to become the screaming meme of late-night television and what personal demons drew him to television and what led to his eventual downfall.

We learn that he was a bitter man, the son of a celebrated Irish Tenor (whom his son loathed) who was a friend and neighbor of the Kennedys. The junior Downey grew up in the shadow of his old man, even attempting to launch a singing career of his own. His singing voice was competent but unremarkable. His looks weren't exactly top drawer either. He bore a strange resemblance to Don Knotts. Despite his familial legacy, Downey would become a walking irony. He would make his living destroying his voice, by screaming on television and chain-smoking four packs a day.

Downey would prop himself up as the voice of the angry right-wing Republican, sort of an Archie Bunker with a lectern - even down to the smoking habit and the white collared shirts. His show wasn't exactly insightful. Fellow talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael remarks that his show was "that prurient excitement of not-nice people saying not-nice things." His show would turn talk shows on their heads. The common thread of talk shows in the mid-80s was the polite, conversational style of Phil Donahue, Merv Griffin and a newly minted Chicago-based neophyte named Oprah Winfrey.

The difference between Downey and his contemporaries (even Springer) is that they stayed off-stage, letting the audience run the circus. Downey tried to play the role of the ringmaster, the lion-tamer and the lion, and so the show had nowhere to go. His singular quest was ratings and he got them, until the television audience grew tired of the act. The movie doesn't shy away from the facts of why the show – and Downey's career – came to an unflattering end.

The movie finds some measure of pity for Downey, but it never backs down from the fact that he was the propagator of his own downfall, particularly with the infamous Tawana Brawly incident in 1988 in which a black woman claimed to have been raped by six white man - an incident that was later found to have been staged. Later Downey would try to become the propagator of his own headlines by claiming to have been beaten up by skinheads in an airport men's room, which he staged to get himself one more headline. The result of this documentary is the pitiful, but not unmoving, story of a man who build his house on sand and got caught in his own trap.

*** (of four)

Entertaining Documentary That Offers Insight Into Today's Media

[teaguetod · 7/10 · 8 September 2013]

Morton Downey, Jr. was a kind of real-life Howard Beale (the mad-as-hell crazy anchorman from the 1976 classic "Network"), and his meteoric rise and fall parallels that of another fictional populist TV personality: "Lonesome" Rhodes, played by Andy Griffith in Elia Kazan's under-rated 1957 movie "A Face in the Crowd." But this story really happened, and Mort really existed.

Downey's New Jersey-based talk show was only on the air for two years, from 1988 to 1989. So why is he important? Why watch a documentary about a talk show that ran for just two years, 25 years ago? Understanding this story can help us understand how we got the media we have today.

Journalist William Greider called it Rancid Populism. This was the appeal of the Republican Party starting as far back as Nixon. The party posed as the voice of the "Silent Majority," the disaffected common man, while in reality it appealed to the angry, white working class who jumped ship from the Democratic Party following the Civil Rights movement.

White working-class people felt "their" country was going down the tubes, and they were partly right. There was a lot to be unhappy about: de-industrialization leading to the decline of manufacturing and the rise of the Rust Belt (go watch "Detropia" for that); the decline of working peoples' wages and the rapid growth of inequality and creation of a new Gilded Age in America. Politicians like Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Sr. were all better at tapping into this anger than the Democrats, making Republicans seem like the party of Joe Sixpack and Joe the Plumber -- instead of the party of Big Business, Big Money, and Wall Street (which is ultimately what both major parties became).

The Republicans also understood the marketing of this message better than the Democrats: tap into people's hatred of "the Government" and make the Dems synonymous with Big Government. (How many times already have we heard conservative politicians running for office who say they hate government? Then why run?)

The early 90s was when the right-wing Big Media really started up in earnest (what former conservative pundit David Brock has called "The Republican Noise Machine"). Rush Limbaugh, for example, got his start during the Clinton presidency. The Fox News Channel itself also started during the Clinton years, in 1996. Both were part of a generalized conservative backlash against a Democrat in the White House.

And this tactic of right-wing populism continues to work today (especially with another Democratic president to attack), and is bigger business than ever -- with billionaire Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel going strong, the Koch brothers' successful Tea Party movement, and all those TV and radio hosts like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity who are paid tens of millions of dollars to tell us they're speaking up for the "little guy."

Morton Downey, Jr. helped lead the way to this kind of TV "news" or "journalism," even if his show appears obvious and amateurish compared to the slick format and presentation we see today. But a figure like Bill O'Reilly, in particular, owes a tremendous debt to Downey's confrontational, damn-the-torpedoes style of doing "news" and interviews. At the same time trash-talk-show hosts like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich also partly owe their style of crazed three-ring-circuses to Mort. Even the Reverend Al Sharpton, perpetual African-American leader and professional racial ambulance-chaser, owes a debt to Mort, appearing on his show frequently during its short run.

The friendship between Sharpton and Downey (briefly shown in the film) offers a clue to the truth behind the image: Mort didn't really believe what he said on the air. Or maybe he did. Anyway, it really didn't matter: it was all just for ratings. Working the crowd into a frenzy, yelling at his guests, having a fight break out in the middle of the show -- Downey knew this was what made for great TV . . . or, at least, it got people's attention. (Most certainly, this is also the case of Bill O'Reilly today: he's a showman who stumbled onto a sure thing; about as authentic as a TV preacher.)

At the time, Downey was hated and judged by the "respectable" media. But give 'em a few years, and they'll come around: trash-talk-shows, "reality" shows like "Jersey Shore," Rush, Billy-O, "To Catch a Predator," etc. It's the race to the bottom, the lowest-common denominator, anything in the name of ratings. Entertainment, Infotainment, "News." Who cares if we believe it? Who cares if it's true? He who yells the loudest wins.

Mort's show was like an (un-)controlled experiment in pushing the TV talk-show format to its absolute limit, right up to the breaking point -- supposedly in the name of some Archie-Bunker, knee-jerk reactionary-conservative populism that Mort himself didn't even really believe in. Yet, people ate it up, it made him a star and a working-class "hero" almost overnight, and it set the stage for a lot what came later in TV "news" and opinion shows. That's why you should watch this movie.

Insightful

[toolooze · 7/10 · 9 December 2013]

Actually, the storyline was about what you'd expect, told in an interesting manner. Each narrator had conflicting thoughts about this tortured man.

The MDJ talk/insult show was a precursor to the brawls of today's reality shows. Downey also paved the way for the uncivilized anti-PC campaign of the 2000s. It was interesting to see Rev. Al Sharpton and Ron Paul making spectacles of themselves. What did they expect to happen? Or maybe that was the point. It is a fast track to celebrity status.

I unexpectedly enjoyed the narrative of Pat Buchanan, especially his characterization of the Tea Party members. If you like documentaries, television, or reality TV, this is a good one to see.

Not bad, but needed more insights

[TheBeardedWonder · 7/10 · 22 July 2013]

Like the other reviewer, I had never heard of this guy's show until this doc. I'd heard the name, but didn't know what it was associated with. Having seen this I can only say I wish it had more insights into WHY he's the man he is. It comes across as more summary than commentary, and that's always a shame to see in a documentary.

He didn't innovate anything, as we find out that they were just copying the format of an old 1960s show, so no points for him there either. With that gone Downey Jr is just another angry middle aged man ranting on TV against people who can't actually change anything anyway. Just like it still is, it was all about the ratings more than the content.

All in all, an entertaining movie for a mere budget of $300k, but could have been so much more...

A searing portrait of a deeply bitter, tortured, and self-destructive man who nonetheless made quite a mark on the 80's television landscape

[Woodyanders · 9/10 · 11 May 2015]

The Morton Downey Jr. Show blazed like an incendiary comet for about two years on television in the late 1980's only to crash and burn due to the all-too-human flaws and foibles of its exceptionally crude, rude, and abrasive host Morton Downey Jr. Notorious for the ruthless way he ferociously bullied and berated guests that he disagreed with, Downey Jr. played the role of the angry and abusive ultra-conservative right-wing wacko to the deliciously slimy hilt. Naturally, it was basically all a cunning and calculated act, but Downey Jr. still managed to achieve significant iconic status with a huge segment of the disenfranchised American public as a kind of say-it-like-you see it blue collar folk hero. Born to show business parents (his mother was a dancer and his father was a famous singer), Downey Jr. initially made an abortive attempt to become a singer like his much-despised father before going on to work for the Kennedy family as a liberal senator (!) in the 1960's prior to recreating himself as a hostile Republican loudmouth rabble rouser in the 1980's.

Fortunately, this documentary neither glorifies nor vilifies Downey Jr; instead it presents him warts'n'all as an extremely angry and insecure man whose fragile ego and continual desire for acceptance caused him to self-destruct in the most excruciatingly painful manner possible (Downey Jr. infamously staged an incident claiming that he had been attacked and brutalized by skinheads in an airport bathroom, which this documentary states for the record was an outright hoax concocted by Downey Jr. to get one of his wives to feel sorry for him). The clips from The Morton Downey Jr. Show are every bit as outrageous and hilarious as one would expect -- obnoxious gadfly Al Sharpton was knocked flat on his then fat pompous keister on one legendary episode which made the news -- while the latter footage of habitual chain smoker Downey Jr. transforming into a staunch anti-smoking advocate in the wake of being diagnosed with lung cancer registers as remarkably poignant and heart-wrenching. Mort's daughter Kelli Downey Cornwell and his best friend Lloyd Schoonmaker offer touching insights into the more human side of Mort while Chris Elliot, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Pat Buchanan discuss Downey Jr.'s legacy as a true trash TV pioneer who kicked politeness and civility out the door and replaced it with roaring rage and fury. Moreover, producer Bob Pittman admits he feels guilty about providing Mort with an ideal forum in which to bring about his own ruination while writer Jim Langan and bodyguard David Giegold tell some colorful stories about their wild ride working for Downey Jr. Although not without its flaws (for example, this documentary completely ignores the fact that Mort was a gay baiter who had a homosexual brother with AIDS who appeared as a guest on his show as well as glosses over Mort's subsequent career as an actor after his show went down the tubes), this documentary still overall sizes up as a fascinating chronicle of a singular 80's icon.

A Necessary Chronicle of an Influential Nutcase

[LeonLouisRicci · 8/10 · 24 December 2014]

"The Mouth" (Morton Downey Jr.), a Nickname that His Fans and Detractors Hung on the Controversial TV Personality, Aptly Described this Poser. A Self Proclaimed Spokesman for the "Little Guy", the Guy Without a Voice. His Right Wing Posing was Most Likely 90% Act and 10% Real.

But What You Discover in this Documentary About the Two Year Rise and Fall of a "Personality" that Hosted a TV Talk Show that Went From Obscurity to a Highly Popular Syndication and then as Quickly as it Arrived was Snuffed Out by its Own Inertia.

Downey, it Seems, was One of those Pop Culture Icons that Started to Believe His Own Hype and the Illusion Became the Man's Reality. His Off Screen Antics that were Absent Before He was On Magazine Covers and a Household Name, Became Part of the Man's Personality. He Embraced the On Air Shenanigans and Started Living His Life Like His "Character".

The End, in Retrospect was Inevitable. After He was Discovered Hoaxing an Attack by Skinheads, it was All Over. His Sincerity was Now in Question and No One Could Take Him Seriously. Not Even His Devoted Audience Nicknamed "The Beast".

The Show Devolved Into Circus Acts with Freaks and Strippers. He and the Show Never Recovered. It was a Two Year Pop Culture Comet that Crashed and Burned and Unlike it's Celestial Counterpart, was Not a Pretty Sight.

He Must be Given Credit (if that is the term) for Unleashing a Television Format of Divisiveness. Political and Social TV Shows of Varying Personalities and Style that Remain with Us Today. From Reality Shows to Fox News, and Right Wing Talk Radio, it was Mort that Made it All OK. It Sells.

Taking a Cue from Joe Pyne a TV Pundit that Came Before Downey, The Mouth just Amped it Up a Notch, Roamed the Studio Instead of Staying Seated, and Cursed, Spit, and Insulted His Guests Ad Nauseum.

Overall, the Documentary is a Good Chronicle of the Man and His Show and its Influence and is a Necessary Distillation of a Pop Culture Zeitgeist. The Residue Remains and this is a Good Place to Find Out Where to Put the Thanks or the Blame.

Mort's show was more entertaining than this

[asc85 · 3/10 · 24 August 2015]

When CNN advertised that they were showing this film, I was very interested and excited. I was in my late 20's when this show was aired, and thought it was terrible, but watched parts of a number of shows, as it was like watching a train wreck. Still, since Mort was so out-of-control, I thought this would make a fun and interesting documentary to watch. Uh-uh. About half way through, I was bored, although I continued to watch it until the end. At 90 minutes, the movie was way too long, and would have worked more effectively as a one hour show on HBO, or even CNN for that matter. There were weird animation scenes, and weird flashbacks, particularly of his father, who was a famous singer of an earlier era. In short, I didn't think it was possible to have an uninteresting, uninspired documentary on Morton Downey Jr., but guess what? That's what the filmmakers did.