The Mayor of the Sunset Strip

Movie Reviews

The Mayor of the Sunset Strip
Rating: 4/5

Would you rather be extremely rich, or extremely famous? I'm sure we have all been posed with this question at one time or another. The documentary "The Mayor of the Sunset Strip" is a bout a man who has chosen the latter.

Meet Rodney Bingenheimer. Who? Don't feel bad, I didn't know who this guy was either. Rodney is the man behind the scenes. He has brought almost every modern rock icon to the mainstream. In his words "I am the designated driver between the famous, and the not so famous." This man introduced America to David Bowie, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Blondie, Oasis, Coldplay, and Nirvana to name just a few. He is personally credited for creating the LA scene in the 60's and 70's. He had befriended the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Beachboys, Sonny and Cher, and The Doors when he was just a teenager.

The Mayor of the Sunset Strip attempts to tell the story of the now older man who has been through every bit of the dirty rock n' roll world and has come out of it with his innocence still in tact. From living on the streets, to starting a club, to becoming a writer, to being the biggest DJ in K-ROQ history, Rodney has done it all.

The film spends a lot of time showing the seedy underworld of modern music and some of the unsavoury characters that lie within. Plenty of time was spent with Rodeny's "friend" and record producer Kim Fowley to illustrate this point. It is my personal opinion that this man deserves to be in jail. It frightens me that people like this exist!

We also see the people who genuinly seem to be appreciative of what Rodney has done for them and appear to be his friends. This is a very small circle however. Even some of these people come off as using Rodney for their own personal gain.

At the end of the day, we see this person who is surrounded by so many glamorous people go home alone to a crappy appartment. The only thing Rodey really has to show for his life is the impressive memorbilia that he has collected and hung on his walls.

Although the fim has been shot and edited in a way to portray this man in whatever the director's vision may have been, I feel that it is landing pretty close to the mark. Rodney Bingenheimer's sensitive and loving personality had shone through any filmmaking tricks that are being done, and I really got a sense of who this man is and was. This is a man who did not dedicate his life to a career for money, but instead for love. This move is a good counterpoint to the axiom "Find a job that you love and you will be happy."

We are left with the King of K-ROQ being bumped to the worst time slot on radio (sunday nights 12am to 3am), then being rejected by the woman he loves, and visiting his father who has hung pictures in house of everbody but his own son.

Truly a sad look at a man who deserved so much more.