Sr. (2022) - full transcript

What do you think we should do?

- Us?

- Yeah.

See, if you could get this,

like a close-up or maybe from here up.

- Yeah?

- You got it going?

Well, no. I'm wide right now.

No, I would get in tighter

'cause it'll be a cutaway.

Yeah, you're gonna want this tight.

We might as well get that insert now.

- Let us know when you're rolling.

- Rolling? Let's start again.

First, it's not moving.

You say, "Oh, this is bullshit."

- Yeah, yeah.

- Then it starts moving.

"Wait a minute."

"Maybe that serpent's

not full of shit after all."

- Dad, can I give it a spin?

- Yeah, do it, please.

This might be

our first coproduction here.

Nice. Nice!

Hey, it's nice!

It needed your touch.

Where would you go next?

- After this?

- Yeah.

We're not even halfway

to any ideas like that.

We're just having fun

and getting started.

Steady on those steps.

- Oh my God.

- Give him a hand, Rogers.

- I got it.

- Let's not lose our principal.

I'm very interested

in who my dad is just in the here and now

because no one knows the hour and the day.

We never know how much time

we have with each other.

I think, also, to me, like, he was

just always this kinda looming figure.

Like, I was just

Bob Downey's kid for a long time.

Success may burst

like a clap of thunder

over his head if he isn't careful,

and he's a talented underground filmmaker

named Robert Downey.

Do you feel a little compromised

by being here

on a network television show?

No, because I know

if the film doesn't open,

and it doesn't do well,

I won't get to make another one.

I knew the minute I started

fooling around with this stuff

that it was better than working a job.

Shouldn't you be in school?

Fuck you.

And fuck the establishment.

And fuck you people

who are trying to make me

part of the unestablished establishment.

I was raised in this family

where doing underground films

was the norm.

It was very natural to have no interaction

with mainstream anything.

What was the first film

you were in? One of your dad's projects?

- It was.

- What became of you then?

Then he became

the highest-paid movie actor in the world.

- That's what he decided to do.

- Yeah, I guess, Dad, come get your cut.

That's a shot

with Robert and I ages ago.

And the photographer says,

"Why don't we each have

you guys have chainsaws?"

And Robert said,

"Get the fuck out of here."

Uh, we still... We're still happy

with the title "Sr.," are we not?

Yeah, I like it,

but we can... we can do better.

Oh.

- Where is Sr.?

- The back house.

Yeah, let's go walk out there. Come on.

You will presently witness

the offspring of Sr.'s offspring.

Don't throw water balloons

at the, uh... at my crew.

I like that that's his kid,

and here's his daughter.

Good shot.

Great. Movement.

Nobody's sitting.

Hey, have you seen

any of Grandpa's movies?

No, why?

Because they're awesome.

Do you wanna see 'em someday?

- Uh, maybe.

- Just a maybe.

Dude, if you're gonna throw

a water balloon, hit me with it.

That's good.

Avri, give us a wave.

That's all we need.

Just give us a little wave. Ah, Christ.

Get... You need to get

those hairs wet.

Jesus H...

Don't you hit me again. I swear to God.

Don't... don't get the camera wet.

Quit it. Sr.?

Your grandson is boundaryless.

This is like growing up with my dad.

"Hey, whatever you do,

don't get the camera wet."

- Did you get it?

- We got it.

We don't have anything usable yet,

except Exton provided some... some action.

- You mind if I switch out real quick?

- No.

Thanks.

I just wanna show you

something before we do anything.

- Just me?

- No, Rosemary and you.

Here she is.

Robert had an idea

of doing a documentary about his dad

and about their history

and their life together.

You know, so many people,

they know Robert Downey Jr.,

but they don't know Robert Downey Sr.

And he just wanted to,

for the record, correct that.

We're just finding

our way into something

that we hope winds up being interesting

and not the usual

and a bit of a foray

into that crazy thing,

you know, of trying

to understand your dad.

Do you feel

like you understand him now?

I have a feeling I'll know a lot more...

...when we're done.

You come back,

which is probably where we'll start,

to Robert and Rosemary on the couch,

and we go from there.

Look, we'll do the same thing,

except we'll do it out there.

Yeah.

- "How long have you two been married?"

- That's me, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

How long have you and Pops been married?

Fifteen hundred years.

See, I think this... We should switch seats.

You should. Let's get her in the middle.

Oh yeah.

How long have you guys been married?

Fifteen hundred years.

- Oh boy.

- Mm-hmm.

Did that go better this time?

She looked up in the middle

of something up... up that way.

You're right. Let's do it again.

Take three, opener.

He would rather be doing

a film about something else

than allow a documentary

to be made about him.

So the middle ground has been

he's doing his own version.

How long have you two been married?

Uh, fifteen hundred years this July.

- Oh my God.

- I know.

- Oh wow, happy anniversary. Almost.

- Thank you.

- Fine by me.

- Okay.

By the way, that's his directing style.

So then I put it

to him this way. I said, "Dad,

the legitimate documentary

we're making about you

is kinda what's covering the cost

of this art film that you're making."

And he seems agreeable to that.

Whoa!

You got it? That's good.

That's worth the whole day.

That's funny.

I'm thinking any visuals

that you must like goes on file.

And you never know.

It could end up right somewhere

where you didn't expect it.

What's the guy who said,

"One picture is worth a thousand words"?

It's one good picture.

Sr. would be one of the best people

to caption photographs or street scenes

that you will ever meet.

In a more of a typical, mid-century,

male, butch way though.

Oftentimes it's, "Look at this douche."

Look at this group.

- What's going on over there?

- AA meeting.

"Let's go have a drink. Nobody'll know."

Look what's going on in that window.

There should be somebody on the other side

performing a wedding ceremony

for somebody outside.

Maybe.

Well, here's the corner,

and this used to be an apartment building.

This is it.

I don't know what you're thinking,

but maybe

you start on that

and then hear the dialogue

and come over and show this.

Okay.

116 University

used to be, uh, three lofts,

and we were on the next-to-top floor,

the second one up.

Nothing's left.

Did you feel pretty grown up?

Y'know, you had kids.

No.

No, that might be the problem.

I don't know what Robert thought,

but it was different.

Were you making a film

while you lived here?

Oh yeah.

"Downey film short"?

I don't know what that is.

I can get rid of all these.

I'm just thinking

that I wanna go through my films

and pick out scenes that I know will work

in what you're doing.

That's actually more important

than anything.

Oh, this is interesting.

Let's start with this.

Mmm...

There it is.

Love you, Walter.

I'll see ya later.

I love you more

than anything else in the world.

I love you too, Mother.

That's good.

- Did you write that?

- Oh yeah.

This is how we got started.

Your career?

The whole fucking thing.

You know, Walter, you can have

whatever you want in this life.

I guess the only thing I really want

is you.

Chafed Elbows is a film about an oddball

who marries his mother

and goes on welfare.

It is an ode to Oedipus.

My mother, she didn't appreciate

Chafed Elbows, I'll tell you.

Jesus.

I said, "It's only a film."

She said, "I don't care what it is."

"How dare you."

We were having fun

figuring out how to focus a camera.

None of us thought we were doing something

that had an audience.

I know I'm robbing the cradle,

but at least it's my own.

Then suddenly, I got

this little review in The New York Times.

The next morning,

there was a line around the corner

for this little film in 16-millimeter.

What was inspiring you

to make these movies?

It was unique.

It was different.

I mean, where else could you be

doing something like making a movie,

and you've never made one before?

Can you hear that?

It all fits.

- What, the siren?

- Yeah.

Okay, okay. Did people

try to ascribe meaning to your movies?

Oh my God. I hope not.

Would you people mind

if I joined you?

- Come on, baby.

- Oh yeah?

Let me get my duds off here.

Move over, champ.

- Lemme in there, huh?

- Mmm.

We didn't know what

we were doing, but suddenly the films

started getting better or weirder.

After Chafed Elbows,

Sr. and Elsie, my mom,

they were just always writing.

I think it's been a very creative day.

There was

this flow of people through the house

for dailies and writing sessions.

The time spent with him

was perfectly, wonderfully,

deliciously insane.

I'm in the middle of a nervous breakdown.

Well, do it somewhere else.

We're busy in here.

With an odd, odd sense of humor,

he is so much his own man,

so much his own artist.

There's a kind

of benign nihilism through his work.

Just the freedom of it.

You didn't know where

the story was gonna go.

You didn't know if there was a story.

There was a sense that each moment

was allowed to play itself out

until you're hysterically laughing.

They'd moved whatever little crib I was in

into the area adjacent

to where they were screening dailies.

So I got very used to falling asleep

to the sound of clapboards.

It's almost like I was being programmed.

This one is Robert in a crib.

- Did you put him there?

- It must have been me.

And I just remember

that cacophony of creativity.

Lots of cigarettes and weed and booze,

but mostly laughter.

If you don't give me those 12 H-bombs,

I'm gonna drain your gold for ya.

That's right, man, 12 H-bombs,

or I drain your gold for ya.

One of the things I liked best about him

as a filmmaker and as a director,

he'd just let me go wild.

I might add a few improvised words

or gestures, and I remember him saying,

"I don't know what it means,

but I love it."

I don't know how

he came up with his casting ideas.

I couldn't figure it out

'cause they didn't seem like actors.

I didn't know what they were.

It's like he went down

to the Bowery half the time

and just picked up people

who were half in the bag.

But they were wonderful,

just a wonderful bunch

of un-actory-looking people.

What's going on?

You gotta draw the line somewhere.

If there was

one undercurrent that was really shifty,

it was either, "We're flush,"

or, "We're broke!"

It was never like, "We're stable."

By "flush," I mean 500 bucks in the bank.

We're ready to roll over here.

I made one with just stills almost

'cause we couldn't afford film.

You can't direct nothing.

If it wasn't for me, you'd be

on unemployment with the rest of the scum

of the underground cinema.

The early ones,

I made so cheaply.

Just working a job somewhere,

I could get it done.

Things were

just grounded enough

that a very charismatic guy

who had different ideas and curiosity

could create a new standard of filmmaking.

And I think he's someone

who has preserved that curiosity

well into his autumn years.

There it is. There it is.

See it?

It's kinda reassuring

to be in a city and see this, huh?

If you had to introduce this scene,

I wonder whether you would come down

or pan down from a building to this

or pan up from something here.

I don't know. Both, maybe, right?

That's an interesting image there.

Wow. Like a Western.

Look at 'em all.

There are nine of them.

How could they have all come out

of one duck?

Look at Mom, perusing the whole joint.

- Remember the ducks you shot?

- Yeah.

They've grown. They're big.

We'll see 'em this afternoon if you want.

They're big.

I hope you guys are as happy

as I am with this footage.

I think you need stuff

other than about movies, for balance.

So it's not

just about the films?

- Right.

- Who is this guy?

Exactly.

Who is this guy?

Uh, I'll never know.

There they are.

Oh my God.

Wow. Heh!

I've never seen this thing

with a real tiny one and a big one

all within a lifespan.

- Boy, I'm getting dizzy.

- Oh shit.

- Whoa.

- Can you go to the bench?

- Yeah.

- All right.

- Oh my God. Oh boy.

- That was a close call.

We gotta figure out

how to get him back upstairs.

- No, I'll be all right.

- You'll be able to walk up?

As long as you stick cl...

- relatively close, I'll be okay.

- Yeah.

I... I think I have to face

the, uh, idea of my problem

and just cut away

to the shakes that I get sometimes.

You just see that going on.

And Rosemary, when it happens

in a restaurant or something,

she just... she'll just go over

to me and go...

...and it calms down.

- Yeah.

- What is that?

The Parkinson's.

I just thought...

...you know...

...there's a certain way I have to eat now.

Otherwise, the shit's all over the floor.

So,

let's face it.

Good morning.

Hi.

- How are you?

- Sometimes I wonder.

Tell me everything. How ya been?

Um, okay.

Okay.

Is it a struggle?

Is it challenging?

Is it weird? Is it scary?

On a certain day, any of those.

You know, I do think that that should...

that should be part of the film.

Oh.

- I like that you have this project.

- Me too.

I don't know why. It's... it's creative

and, uh, soothing to me on so many levels.

Oh, yeah.

It's exciting

because it's not like anything else.

Okay.

With Parkinson's, you lose

a little bit of something every day.

But he's so fully focused on this film.

It's obviously energizing for him

and exciting for him.

It'll be on the left

if it's on this street.

This might be it.

Looks like it.

Could be.

- Bob, where are we?

- Great Jones Alley.

Not Grace Jones.

We paid a bum $50

to lay down in a heap of depression.

And then we did the scene.

And he said, "Let's do it again,"

when we finished.

That was nice. I do remember that.

Wow.

What was the scene?

It was a scene where there's...

She's doing a commercial for...

Actually, she's just so great-looking,

nobody cared what it was.

You can't eat an air conditioner.

When I decided to make

a film about an ad agency,

I think this is the quickest

I wrote anything.

I was having so much fun.

If we use c-c-creative foreplay

before we penetrate,

we'll b-b-b-b...

Bypass?

- B-b-b-b...

- Looks like.

- B-b-b-b...

- Sounds like.

- B-b-b-b...

- How many syllables, Mario?

- B-b-b-b...

- How many syllables, Mario?

- B-b-b-b!

- How many syllables, Mario?

B-b-b!

It's about a white ad agency

where the head of the agency dies

and has a heart attack.

His board of executives

take his rings and watches and so forth,

and they have to vote in

a new chairman of the board.

The rules are you can't vote for yourself,

so they all vote for the one Black guy

in the ad agency,

thinking nobody else will vote for him,

and he's elected.

- Swope.

- My father would have wanted it this way.

He dug you very much.

Your father was a horse's ass.

He goes up to the head of the table

and says, "The changes I'm gonna make

will be minimal."

I'm not gonna rock the boat.

Rocking the boat's a drag.

What you do is sink the boat!

Cuts over his back,

and there's 40 Black people sitting there,

and the movie starts.

I hear the film is really funny.

I would say that anyway, even if I hadn't.

- But, uh... but I really do.

- I hope the film's more than funny.

- Do you?

- I hope it has some sting in it too.

As a window cleaner, forget it.

Put soybeans in it for protein,

and we'll push it as a soft drink

in the ghetto.

There is no revolution

the way you're running this joint, man.

Now, when is something gonna happen?

Putney was

right in the middle

of all of that civil rights turmoil.

How did that concept come to you?

- I was working a job.

- Mm-hmm.

And the Black guy

working next to me said,

"You make more money than I do,

and we're doing the same thing."

- Right.

- That did it for me.

If I give you a raise,

everybody's gonna want a raise.

And if I give them a raise,

we'll be right back where we started.

I didn't think

anybody would come see it, but, boy,

I... I didn't know shit.

It seemed

there was something going on

that hooked into whatever

was socially going on

and what the movie was.

So it was a nice mirror.

♪ In whatever comes our way... ♪

It wasn't really

about the movie

as much as it was about society.

♪ Take the world in a love embrace... ♪

If everybody

could get turned on

to having a sense of humor

about themselves,

I think we could get over a lot of things

that we take very, very seriously.

We could approach the serious matters

in a different way,

like war and poverty

and all the things that are going on.

♪ Yeah, darlin', go and make it happen ♪

♪ Take the world in a love embrace... ♪

"Robert Downey

makes vile movies."

Life magazine. Oh, really?

- What'd you make of that?

- That sounds all right.

And this, did you get that one?

Putney Swope was inducted

into the Library of Congress?

That was wild that that film got in there.

That's usually Hollywood films.

What did that mean to you

when you started getting

the approval of the filmmakers

that were, for lack of a better word,

important in that generation?

That must have meant something.

Yeah, it meant

that I could do another film.

Kinda like you belonged

and you were being validated in some way?

Well, that's a pretty interesting theory.

Nice deflection.

He knows that I'm attempting

to understand something

and that I'm turning a camera on him.

What he's trying to do is turn the camera

onto what it is he's trying to say.

What that is remains to be seen.

What a bay over here, my God.

It's beginning to look like Rockaway.

Bob, why did you

wanna come out here?

When I was 15,

I used to come here in the summer.

It was known

as the last stop on the subway.

Oh my God, you've gotta get that.

This is great.

Boy, that was wild.

Can we say "cheese"?

My friend.

My nutty friend.

How long you guys been married?

Fifteen hundred years.

Do you ever feel

like you're living in one of your films?

Right now.

Were your films this loose?

Sometimes, yeah.

But this has been the freest.

Yeah.

Everything turns into everything

sooner or later.

Things will turn into something else,

which turns into something else.

And then something doesn't work.

You throw that out.

It's called "follow the film."

I still feel, on some level,

like he's fucking with us.

He knows that there's a bit of interplay

between capturing a story about him

and also him keeping

himself interested in the process.

And cut.

Wow! No transition required.

- What's the difference?

- I know what you're doing now.

- What?

- I know.

And because I believe he is connected

to some sort of creative deity,

my job is to figure out what it all means.

What's this scene

we're watching?

It's just, uh, the walk

towards the, uh, door,

the out... outdoor door.

- How does it fit in the movie?

- Who knows?

You directed this one.

What's the po... What's the plan?

Yeah, your plan

is what we need to hear.

Uh, I think we should split

into two camps,

and both editing things

are leading towards the same thing,

the editing of this film.

But you might get something out of one

that you won't get with the other.

I think I should rent an apartment

in this building

and get some equipment in here.

Let's go.

You like the idea of getting

a shot of the gate opening, right?

If we can.

I think we can.

We're gonna go down the road here.

I'm taking you down

the garden path, Father.

And the farther away you are, the better.

Did you guys...

Did you take a road trip together?

Yeah,

across the country once.

- From Santa Fe down to LA.

- Yeah.

What was that like?

I was in charge of the hash pipe.

That was interesting.

I don't know

if it belongs here, but I like it.

Uh, we need

a Jack Nitzsche cue right here.

So, from that,

would you go into one of your films?

We could, or we could stick

with this a little longer.

- Don't go too fast.

- Whoa, wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Jesus.

His cut

is very much a work in progress.

It is not all that linear.

It's like if you give

a director no deadline

for when his project

is supposed to be finished

or really any narrative

for what it should be to begin with,

it can be a little, uh, kooky.

Fourth floor.

Solarium, aquarium, sanitarium,

drunk tank, celebrities,

children's diseases, going up.

Bob doesn't seem to be

that worried about confusing the audience.

Um...

And that's why it's great.

There is a kind of pattern

to the way that he does things

and that you either get with or you don't.

But, man, I'm, like,

you know, smitten with it.

You know,

Paul, he loves films

more than most people I run into.

When I met him, I couldn't believe

he knew the '60s more than I know.

And he's a wonderful writer.

Action.

Come on, come one, come on! All right?

All we need is the tapes, Burt.

No.

He asked me to pop in one day

and fuck around on camera, and I did that.

We can't pay the price of the demo tapes

unless we take the demo tapes

to the record company and get paid.

Hello? Exactly!

That's not an MP. That's a YP,

your problem!

I had fun with Paul Anderson,

doing it. That was fun.

It's no mystery that Paul Thomas Anderson

is probably the son

my dad wishes he had had,

and they like to rub that in my face.

Paul says

something something,

and I said, "I gotta get out of here.

I gotta go to my train."

And he said, "I'm coming with you."

And I said, "What?"

Was this for a documentary or...

You never know

with him what he's doing.

He might have been doing

something like that.

I haven't heard about it since.

Let me get another battery

before we go up.

For my pacemaker?

I mean, if you hang around

with Bob to get to know Bob,

he's got the most fantastic sense

of humor,

and he just has this incredible confidence

to just commit to his rhythm

of telling a story.

And so, as another filmmaker,

it's invigorating.

And it reminds you, like,

to have that confidence,

to have that trust in yourself.

It's hard to walk,

never mind hold the camera.

Dad used to take the train.

Last ride you did was with PTA?

But since, none, and no flying.

Yeah,

I don't fly anywhere. I'm paranoid.

He was sensitive to the train.

He was sensitive

to getting on and off the train.

He was sensitive to weather.

Are elevators

still a problem?

Oh yeah.

- That's some... Don't...

- Oh shit.

I told you I was stuck in here

for an hour and a half one night,

and I couldn't get out.

There was a Russian guy on the elevator.

Kept saying, "Are we gonna be all right?"

I said, "How the fuck do I know?"

Do you think

all these neuroses, ultimately,

are part and parcel to creativity,

or do you think they're just a drag?

- Little of both.

- Yeah.

- I think we have some new characters.

- Yeah.

The hour before the crash landing,

it was scary.

Not the landing. We... we made it.

But ever since then,

I haven't been able to face it.

So what are

the chances you're gonna get

in two plane crashes in your life?

I'll never find out.

I'm too scared.

That crash landing,

that... that happened

when I was in the army.

We were on a C-47,

which is a two-engine plane.

And about an hour or so in,

one of the engines stopped.

And a lot of us were really young.

Every time we'd see something

coming close to the window in the plane,

it looked like the end.

It was a tree or something else.

And finally, this sergeant guy

started saying,

"I don't wanna die.

I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die."

And we're looking at him,

like, "Are you fucking nuts?"

"You're supposed to be helping us."

Anyway, the plane landed, crash-landed.

Nobody died. Nobody got hurt.

Just banged up a little.

He walks off the plane

like nothing's wrong.

We started calling him

every name in the book.

So he got a hold of me

and put me in the stockade.

Were you always a troublemaker?

Yes.

And so why did you think

going in the army would be a good idea?

Who knows?

I used my stepfather's name

to go in the army underage

with a fake birth certificate. Downey.

Elias is the actual blood name

of both my dad, Robert Elias,

my dad's dad, my grandfather,

also Robert Elias.

He changed it because,

when he joined the army underage,

he did not feel that having

a Jewish-sounding last name would be good,

whereas an Irish last name should be fine.

You spent a little time

in the stockade here and there

'cause you can't stay out of trouble.

What would you call that chapter?

"The Beginning."

- Really?

- Yeah.

Tell me why.

The boss

in the stockade said,

"Don't just sit around here."

- "Do something."

- Yeah.

And he said, "Here,

take this pad and write something down."

Wow.

So I just started scribbling,

and suddenly, some of it made sense.

A random act of kindness from your jailer.

You started writing.

Yeah, that's right.

Did any of that wind up being

the beginnings of any of your early work?

Yeah.

I had no idea.

Why do I have to die?

I never hurt anybody.

In Pound,

there was definitely

a more dramatic backdrop.

Yeah.

Eighteen dogs waiting in a pound,

and they have an hour to live.

If people are playing dogs,

then really the movie is about people.

Me, him, and Fido

are gonna bust out of here.

Who's joining me?

It had a lot of tension

in it too, which was great.

In hindsight,

turned out that it was

much better than I thought it was.

Seeing as how Pound was my official debut,

I think it's your most underrated of all.

♪ Don't ya say hello ♪

♪ Hello... ♪

Is this the picture

Bobby Jr. made his debut in?

That's right.

- At the age of what? A baby?

- Let's see. It was 1970.

So... five.

I... I think we asked him to do the part

'cause we couldn't get a babysitter,

and we knew that part was coming up.

And we, uh, summoned him. It was easy.

That tornado scared me so much,

it made my hair disappear.

Have any hair on your balls?

I'm afraid to look.

I didn't know what the line meant,

that I was asked to say,

which is, "Got any hair on your balls?"

- Oh, to the bald guy. Bald-headed dog.

- To the bald guy.

- He was playing a Mexican hairless, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

He seemed a little shy when he said it.

It almost... But it worked beautifully.

You know, there was

no need for a second take.

Gimme that.

When you first put Robert

on screen, did you recognize that he was...

Everybody did.

Everybody was saying to me,

"Oh, where'd you get this guy?"

It's that first time that's everything.

You could tell

that he knew what he was doing.

He didn't need my help. He was possessed.

He was tap dancing

in the driveway out there,

and subconsciously,

I knew he never had to go to school.

This guy's gonna be an actor.

When I saw cameras,

I perceived it as it's time with my dad.

Sometimes, like, I...

He would be walking by,

and he went out and grabbed the camera

and said, "Don't move."

I was like, "Whoa!"

It probably felt to me

what it felt like to Exton,

running around in the background

and hosing me down with pool water

and, you know, asking,

"Are we shooting the movie

again tomorrow?"

That's Robert

and his sister fighting in the kitchen.

I was just there with the camera

on the other end of the thing,

just thinking of nothing,

and this broke out.

How was Sr. as a father?

Um,

complicated in that most of his attention

was on the process of chasing the muse.

I knew that we were not like

the other families.

I used to like to take him to films

that I thought would be interesting

and not think about, "He's a kid."

In fact, they wouldn't let me

into a film...

Oh, La Grande Bouffe.

Four guys

in Italy get together every year

and start feeding each other.

It gets so out of control.

It's disgusting.

I forgot that Robert was with me,

and I went to go see it,

and the person taking tickets

says, "He can't come in."

"This is X-rated."

I said, "Come on."

So I called the distributor,

and he says,

"Put that guy on. How dare he."

Blah blah blah blah blah.

And the ticket-taker takes the call

and says, "You can go in now."

I'll put it this way,

we weren't watching Fantasia.

In fact, I took him to see

The Harder They Come.

We went in,

and it was raining that day,

so there were leaks in the theater.

And we were sitting

on the back of the seats.

And when we left there, we said, "Wow."

"There was nobody else

in the theater but us."

And that, somehow, made it even better.

I remember a lot of theaters

that were greasy and weird,

but it was this idea

that films kind of brought us together

and, to this day, still do.

I got... I got plenty of that.

Let's see if he doesn't hang himself

on his sound wire first.

Do you mind if we show the crew

in the documentary?

- Not at all.

- How come?

Because it lets everybody know

we know what we're doing.

Right.

They might not like it,

but we know what we're doing. Yeah.

It's pretty clear

we know what we're doing here, right?

We have to know something.

Here's where we can talk

about, uh, three generations of, um...

Bug jobs.

Of bug jobs.

What is it that I say to you

when you're getting on my nerves?

Hey, hey, don't be a bug job.

- And that comes from Dad telling me.

- Don't be a bug job. Hey!

For the very first time,

you tell Pop to not be a bug job.

- Hey!

- Mean it.

- Hey, don't be a bug job.

- There it is.

You don't be a bug job.

What we're gonna do is we're all...

the three of us

are gonna have a quick espresso.

I... I drink coffee.

You can have a little sip of mine,

but don't tell Mom.

I never tell Mom.

Here's a good one.

Sr. as I remember him circa 1971.

So I would be Exton's age.

That's Pop, and that's my mom, Elsie.

And then that was another take.

This is from Greaser's.

That's from Greaser's Palace, yeah.

Most holy one, let me see.

Messiah. Messiah.

If you feel, you heal.

I can crawl again!

I can crawl again!

What was

the genesis of Greaser's?

Well,

this lady wanted me to make a movie.

She said, "What do you wanna do?"

I said, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

pop into a Western."

She said, "Fine. Go write it."

She gave it to her husband,

who had a lot of money.

He read it, and he said to me,

"Is this gonna make any money?"

I said, "I don't think so,"

and he said to his wife,

"He's charming. Give him the money."

At least he was honest

about what he really was thinking.

It didn't look like a Christ figure

parachuting into a Western

is gonna make a dime.

This time you got

to really take advantage of the landscape.

The cinematography

starts getting pretty lush,

and you have stunts,

you have wagon wheels,

and you literally built Greaser's Palace

and then blew it up.

Do not make us doubt and speculate.

Say to us why you are here.

I know you like leaving

the meaning up to the audience,

but there's

deep, deep, deep spiritual messaging

in that movie

that even as a grown-ass man,

I'm still trying to figure out.

I'm glad you said it.

Bob, how are you?

I'm all right.

We know him as a provocateur

and stirring the pot with his films,

but is there something surprising,

as a sister, your take on him?

I always say that he's an innocent to me.

He's an innocent.

- That's a new one.

- And a purist.

- It's good.

- No, it's true. You are.

Even as a person, you are.

He's irreverent in his humor,

but he reveals so much. He's so honest.

Give me a hug.

Mmm.

When you saw Robert Jr.,

did you see

similarities in father and son?

Oh yes.

You know, I feel like Robert

got a lot of his humor from his dad.

Yes, but also, his mom was a riot.

How are ya doin'?

Are you the Virgin Mary?

Just call me Mary.

Elsie Downey was a great actress,

who could have done

incredible things on her own,

but chose to work with her husband.

She was extremely talented, lovable.

The sweetest person you'd ever wanna meet.

The only thing

about these low-budget films

is that all the action

is behind the camera.

With Elsie,

was it clear right away

that, "Hey, we're gonna actually

make these films together"?

No, I met her way before I made films.

Just off-off-Broadway plays.

When they met, it was like...

It was over.

They were just... they got each other.

They would laugh.

They would have us laughing.

I mean, she was just

such a natural comedian.

So for Robert, coming from this couple,

he had to be who he was.

Did you feel like you learned

from your mom as an actor?

Pretty much everything, yeah.

Seeing her being directed by Dad,

she was wildly devoted

to whatever creative stream

of silliness he was onto.

And I remember

when we were doing Greaser's Palace,

like, she was climbing up

these sand dunes over and over again.

She had no problem

doing something that's exacting.

- Did you put her in a lot?

- Anything we could.

'Cause she'd do anything.

She'd try anything. She knew what to do.

Oh, there's the moment

when she discovers her son is dead.

And that's Elsie

as the mother in Greaser's Palace.

She can't find her son, who's Robert.

I played a boy

who got his neck slit by God,

whose mother finds him.

At the end of the film,

he's brought to life again.

And I think he was so excited

to do a scene with his mom.

Greaser's,

I had a lot of pride of

'cause I was old enough

to know I was in it,

and I'm starting to feel like

a little bit of a movie brat.

And it was a good time.

I mean, I wanna thank you.

You got us out of town.

That was fun. That was fun.

- Was that a happy time?

- It was.

And then it all fell apart.

Whoo! Ah!

Ah!

I comes to a fork in the road...

...with a spoon in my nose.

What advice would you

have given yourself at that point?

Don't touch drugs.

I have a job for you.

Two tons of turquoise to Taos tonight.

The title sequence

looks almost like a heist-type thing.

And all these characters

are getting together,

but one guy walks in

wearing a full wet suit.

As he's unhooking

his weight belt, he goes...

"What about Larry? He's into tacos."

And he snaps his belt open.

It was trying to transcend

even being something

that people could say was a movie.

You basically said that the plot

was Sanborn's saxophone...

...which, to me,

is so next level.

- That's true. You do follow the sax.

- Yeah.

If you wanna hang on to something.

Let your mind go.

Let your body go.

Let your wallet go.

On this one,

it was such a weird, disconnected thing.

I would maybe shoot for an hour

and go home.

You know, 'cause I was tired

or fucked up or whatever.

I think the goal pattern

was in a really weird place,

and so maybe

that was justifying the usage.

My dad was

down in the basement with his editor

seemingly for two years,

and I was like,

"That seems like a long time on post."

You know, we knew what

was going on down there.

Was that era fun?

Was it a struggle?

I was a drug addict.

Mainly cocaine and, uh, marijuana.

Total, total insanity.

All right!

I knew that the work

had kind of started becoming

more of an excuse.

And then it wasn't but shortly after that

that my folks broke up.

Turn around.

Wave goodbye at the door.

You're all fucked up with your umbrella.

Say goodbye, and go inside. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

- Have a nice nighty tonight.

- Have a nice nighty tonight.

Yeah, even though

we split from each other,

we spoke to each other a lot.

- Good night.

- Good night.

- And have a nice nighty.

- Have a nice night... Oh!

Yeah, it does bring back big memories.

Deep breath.

And reach. Reach backwards.

And pull again.

You're breathing, right?

I hope so.

Yes.

When I first came here,

it was, like, a little tight.

Yeah, that's a good way of saying it.

We call on God a lot, right?

Like, God this

and, "Oh, God, one more squat."

"Oh, God, another celery."

It's really funny.

- Where is this guy?

- We still haven't seen him.

No, every time I read

the front page of the Times,

I say, "Where is this fucker?"

- That's pretty good.

- It's great.

Then where? We have freedom.

Is there anything

right wh... where you cut out?

Here we have...

Well, Robert must have thought something

because he... he's a total workout guy.

Maybe he thought,

"I don't wanna end up like my father."

That ain't bad. That ain't bad.

Add it?

Yeah.

♪ You've got all that is really needed ♪

♪ To save a dying world

From its funkless hell... ♪

See, who knew we'd cross the bridge

that I hadn't crossed today

because I thought I could get away

without walking, and now look.

Do you love New York?

Oh yeah.

I get inspired here.

How do you make a film in Los Angeles?

We've seen every possible shot.

The same corner. The same freeway.

It's all different out here.

♪ You've got all that... ♪

Look at this over here.

Jesus.

Look at the light now.

My God, that's wild.

I guess this is crying out for a 360.

Wrong tripod.

The other good thing

about any project in New York,

if you wanna go that way,

is to, once in a while,

bring in the real sound we talked about.

Turn it up. Don't say a word.

Just happens.

Where do you go from there?

I'll look in here...

...and see if there's anything.

Maybe... We'll... we'll see.

Maybe, um, we break

into the middle of Robert and me.

- Mm-hmm.

- Maybe.

Yeah, let's try it.

Hi, is this Dad?

Yeah.

Is this Sonny?

This is Sonny Boy.

Hey, man.

So,

what do we wanna talk about?

Let's talk about LA today.

- Oh my God.

- I'm sorry.

We're gonna do it all, baby.

Oh my God.

When you first get there

and never been there,

it's kinda romantic

because of all the literature.

But you soon find out

it's a lot of lip service about,

"We really wanna make

a film with you," and this and that.

"Let's see how it goes,"

and that kinda stuff.

The first question they ask you, usually,

out there, when you make a film,

"You think it'll make money?"

You know, friends of mine

would say, "You're doomed."

You're outcasts,

embarrassments to your families

and your communities.

Disgraces.

Something wrong with you, boy?

No, it's just a little chilly in here.

Don't you mean,

"It's just a little chilly in here, sir"?

- Yes, sir.

- Well, say it.

It's just a little chilly in here, sir.

- Say it again.

- It's just a little chilly in here, sir!

- Say it again.

- It's just a little chilly in here, sir!

That's what I thought you meant.

Was Up the Academy ostensibly

the first studio movie you ever did?

Yeah. Disaster.

And I was thinking, "Get me out of here."

Tell me everything.

It was supposed to be

a military academy for kids.

The script was about 16-year-olds.

It'd simply be more effective

if they're ten years old.

He said, "All the kids should be kids.

We shouldn't be casting teenagers."

Now, that would have been a nightmare,

and it was very impractical.

Was the studio gonna let it happen? No.

They said, "Are you insane?"

I said, "What do you mean?

I just wanna change the ages."

"Well, you're not gonna do that

around here."

I learned how to get along with people

by doing what was asked of me.

No shit.

Up to that point,

he had kinda been protected.

People knew he was special,

and you wanted to help him

do the next version of him.

And I think the one real

studio-film experience he had,

where the studio kinda tells you

what you can and can't do,

if you're an artist, it's crushing.

And I think he thought,

"Great, let's party."

You're gonna get

the Robert Downey movie you deserve.

Some guy said,

"If you keep talking like this,

we're gonna fire you,

and you're not gonna get final cut

no matter what happens."

I said, "Okay, that's fine by me,

just as long as I get

final cut on the cocaine."

And that was almost

the end of me out there.

- You did not give a mad fuck, did you?

- No.

How would you describe

that period of time?

Fifteen years

of total fucking insanity.

Boy, man.

You know, I think we would be remiss

to not discuss its effect on me.

Yeah, boy, I could sure love

to miss that discussion.

When I did Less Than Zero,

that was right around the time

that I began.

It was obviously not

autobiographical for me,

but certainly what was similar

was young folks, drugs, the '80s.

When you heard he was doing

that film, what was that like?

He was funny. He said,

"I got a part

in a legitimate film."

You can't stay here. Live your life

anywhere you want but not here.

- I'm your son. I'm sleeping here.

- Get out. I'll call the police.

But I loved it.

It's a tough one, but it's great.

It was just a wild era.

That whole world

gets tied in with creativity.

We were all altering

our consciousness with substances.

I was just kinda playing a game

of just wanting to self-soothe

or just stay loaded

rather than deal with the fact that things

had gone off the tracks a little bit.

And, honestly, more than anything,

I look back and go,

"It's shocking

that a single movie came out finished."

But that didn't stop we Downeys.

Hey, Reed!

Will you stop with the food?

Rent is due. We gotta go to work. Come on.

- Work before we eat, all right? Come on.

- Okay. All right!

- I just made that salad!

- Enough with the salads!

The movie

wouldn't have gotten out without him.

That's reality.

Yeah. I mean,

he's become a big movie star.

- Yeah.

- He still takes direction?

Well, he loves fooling around.

Yeah, he does.

Whoo!

Whoo!

- Gotta go, Ma.

- Okay, honey. Do what you have to do.

There was certainly

a sense of... of family,

that people are having fun,

and it's... it really translates.

Good, I'm glad 'cause it was,

and it was a very good period of my life

'cause I met Laura.

I am hip to your shit, shithead.

I think Sr. was afraid

I would be a terrible actress,

so he thought, "Throw an accent on,

and maybe they won't notice."

That's not true.

Thank God for Laura Ernst.

Yeah, I agree.

She showed up, and I feel like it was

just the kind of energy you needed

at that point in your life.

Mm-hmm.

And it seemed like you just got healthier

and started kinda taking care of yourself

and settling into and away from

that whole drug-culture life

that we all got stuck in.

- Hi, Dad.

- Hi.

And I remember it

very, very, very profoundly.

A lot of us did things

and thought it would be hypocritical

to not have our kids participate

in marijuana and stuff like that.

So we thought it was cute

to let 'em smoke it and all that.

It was an idiot move on our parts,

a lot of us,

to share that with our children.

I'm just happy he's here.

That's all.

Ever worried

he wasn't gonna be here?

Many times.

Even though

it took me another 20 years to get

my own shit together,

you and Laura became

this very, very, very stable force for me.

What is your memory

of those years with Laura?

A lot because, uh, sh... she got sick.

And were you with her when she got

the diagnosis for Lou Gehrig's?

Yeah.

How does one process that

with your... with your life partner?

It was... it was time to grow up,

to think of somebody else first.

We spent some time

with him and his wife, Laura.

He was as loving and tender

with her as any human being

I've ever seen.

It was a lesson

in how to deal with

somebody who's... who's passing.

I sometimes think of...

...any of the stuff we feel guilty about

or what we did in past relationships,

and then to be able to have

an opportunity to, um,

make that living amends

so fully to... to... to a partner

and to completely commit

to being by their side

through every step

of a devastating illness.

And, uh, it's crazy. You really showed up.

I hope so.

What I have

is not contagious.

What is it?

ALS,

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,

also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

I love you.

Just another one of God's little victims.

Like me.

Very much like

when Chaplin lost a kid,

and then the next movie he made

strangely was titled The Kid,

and it was a way for him to process

the grief in his personal life.

That's exactly what you did in Hugo Pool.

You're gonna beat this.

I like the way you think.

Your movie

was representing everything

from Laura's illness

to my addiction to your turnaround.

Since you're gonna outlive me,

will you forgive me for all the drugs

and bad examples that I'm leaving you?

It's a collage of pain.

And so you... you try

and go through it the best you can.

When you lost her, you stayed clean,

and I was still out there,

and you were just telling me

to stay on the planet and stay vertical

and not give up and all that stuff.

You weren't exactly some karma-free man.

Let me not fucking... You know.

Let's not stretch the truth here.

But that was kind of

a super significant thing.

Well, it's nice to hear it that way.

You deserved it

with what you went through.

Yeah.

All right. That's worthy

of an evening's nonsense.

After the bad films

that I directed out in California,

friends of mine would say,

"Get out of LA now."

Did I tell him to get out of LA?

But it didn't mean he couldn't visit.

Now he doesn't even come and visit.

He won't get on a plane.

♪ What I feel ♪

♪ I can't say... ♪

Between New York and LA,

there's no question he should be...

...in New York.

I think he's happier for being out of LA.

I think everybody's happier

when they get out of LA.

The land of broken dreams.

And it may be that New York

is sufficiently complicated

for somebody to be their unique person.

He was born, you could say,

to be in New York.

♪ ...without your love ♪

♪ Tell me who am I ♪

♪ Without you ♪

♪ By my side ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

Aw.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

We'll call him Bob Sr.

♪ Happy birthday, Bob Sr. ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

Exton, how's school?

It's good.

- Oh. Oh! He's taking a sip of my coffee.

- Hey, guys.

Hi, Susan.

Hi. Happy birthday.

Thank you.

Are you properly celebrating, Sr.?

He is. He's got some friends

and close associates over.

They're having a ball.

We might wanna get

a couple of women in this film also.

Yes.

If Susan would do it,

she could play your wife.

I'm pretty serious about giving

as many people an opportunity

in that casting as I can.

But we'll see.

I mean, we can always come back

around to the house favorite, yeah.

By the way,

every day I think about your dad.

Thank you. Me too.

Me too.

Yeah, it was a tricky first Father's Day

without a father.

Boy, was he funny too.

Yeah.

You look good, Pops.

I'm glad there's some levity there,

and you're surrounded

by good people, and...

I don't know any of them.

Now, say we wind up

out in the Hamptons again together.

Are there any scenes to be shot

or images of stuff you want

that you're not seeing

in the project right now?

That German folk song.

I knew you were gonna say that,

so I'm gonna have to get

an accompanist to learn that song,

and we're gonna have to figure out

where to shoot that.

- Hello?

- Hey, it's me.

Pop, this is for you.

Just, let's try it from the top again.

It's just coming a little...

When I was 15,

I entered the Kiwanis solo festivals,

singing Schubert's "Fischerweise,"

and it was the first time that Pop

ever noticed something I was doing,

outside of his movies, had some merit.

Or I think I got an honorable mention.

And, uh... and then it's been something

I've returned to several times.

And tell us what his reaction was.

He seemed pleased.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

And how did that

change your life going forward?

There's something

nostalgic about it.

There's something beautiful

about the song.

And then there's

my dad's oddball point of view

of all the things

he could have pulled out or remembered

that he would want me to repeat

40 years later.

Uh, it will really help

the film tremendously

when, suddenly,

you just come out from behind a tree...

- Yes.

- ...and sing this thing.

Let's do it again.

♪ ...my life ♪

♪ Go... ♪

- Here we go.

- I'm gonna nail it this time.

It all looks

sweetly narcissistic.

Do you see

a place for this in our cut?

Absolutely.

- Can you do that a little more?

- Like, repeat it?

No, I'm just being happy.

Let me try.

He completely focused

on the edit.

He sat up for hours and hours,

which was something

he hadn't done in a long time.

It's just a big source of joy for him.

You know, it really is.

It's... it's everything for him.

- That's pretty good, dude.

- I just wanna see it again.

Let's see.

Have you changed as a filmmaker,

or do you still make stuff the same way?

That's a good question.

I really don't know.

What was

the last film you worked on?

It was a documentary

down in Philadelphia

that I'm very fond of.

It's about a park

called Rittenhouse Square.

After I sat in the park

and saw all the weird characters,

I said, "I'm in."

And we spent a year in there

to get the different seasons,

just studying people.

The one thing we learned was

trust anything

'cause anything will happen.

And sure enough, the first day,

we ran into a ten-year-old violinist,

who was great,

and she became the main focus

of the whole year in the park.

How did making the documentary

compare to, like, your other films?

Well, I like... as I said earlier,

I like the idea you don't know

what's gonna happen.

Sr., you know,

he's battling a horrible, horrible disease

that I had to see my dad go through.

And so at this point,

it's all just love

of the time we have left.

And I don't know if Sr. has come to terms

with some of his behavior from back then

or how it relates to Robert.

But what I know now is, you know,

this is somebody who loves his kid.

It's

the quintessential Sullivan's Travels.

Setting out to do

something real and important,

and what if what we'd been doing all along

was every bit as important

as it needed to be?

For me, this feels like

trying to close the circle

on that whole patriarchal thing.

And making peace with all the

upside and downside of it

and sideways-ness of it.

And then saying,

"Okay, you're a grown man now."

Lean and mean, Bob. Lean and mean.

That's a whole new pass, man.

Well, you don't have to worry

about when you're coming back now.

It's whenever it happens, it happens.

Thanks for doing this. It's big deal.

Great. You did some great work.

Yeah.

Looking back...

...he says it's been a great experience.

His definition of a producer

is a guy who gets stuff done.

Yep, yep, yep.

Heading the 90 miles in town. He's pumped.

This is year three

of shooting the Daddy doc.

I'm excited to see Grandpa.

♪ Well, I left my happy home ♪

♪ To see what I could find out ♪

♪ I left my folk and friends ♪

♪ With the aim to clear my mind out... ♪

The plan for today, we're gonna

keep shooting the "Sr." documentary.

The main reason I wanted to be here

was because I wanted to see Grandpa.

So, I wanted to see him

so we could, sort of, have memories.

And... so when he passes, I can say

I got to spend some time with him.

♪ Na, na, na ♪

♪ Na, na, na ♪

♪ Na, na, na ♪

♪ Well, in the end I'll know ♪

♪ But on the way I wonder ♪

♪ Na, na, na ♪

♪ Na, na, na ♪

♪ Through descending snow... ♪

Hi, thank you, sir.

We're here for Downey. Thank you.

♪ Na, na, na ♪

♪ Na, na, na ♪

♪ I listen to the wind come howl

Telling me I have to hurry ♪

♪ I listen to the robin's song ♪

♪ Saying not to worry ♪

♪ Ah-ooh ♪

♪ So on and on I go ♪

♪ The seconds tick the time out... ♪

Hi, Dada.

Whenever, uh, you'd rather

we're not rolling, just let us know.

Otherwise, we're in your face

all day, all the time.

It's good

to see you in person, man.

Is it... is it warm out?

Cold. Cold and rainy today.

Ooh, well, that's

good... good for photography.

Exy, when you're ready.

We're gonna

give you three takes

at asking him the question, all right?

So you'll hit... come here,

hit him with the line.

- Hey, Exy.

- Hi.

Okay, he's ready. In three, two, one, go.

Hey, Sr.

Have any hair on your balls?

Would you repeat that question?

Have any hair on your balls?

Perfect.

Now, give him

the answer line one time, Dad.

Exy, hit him again, and then you do

Larry Wolf's "I'm afraid to look."

Hey, Sr.

Have any hair on your balls?

Do I what?

He refuses to do his own answer.

- All right, you are free.

- That was very fun.

Exy's having a ball, dude.

This is, like,

the best trip he's ever had.

It's definitely

up in, like, the top ten.

You need anything?

Where are we?

This is the last day, uh,

that I'm likely to see him for a while,

so what's my move for him, for me,

just to kinda...

You know, it's weird

because I know that I'm...

uh, capturing it.

Oddly, it's sort of like

what your family does.

You guys make art of your lives.

It's weird. It's natural.

Like, it brings me back where it's like,

whatever's unfolding, funny or tragic,

it's happening

with a 16-millimeter camera going,

and, uh, we can reflect on it...

...40 years from now...

Yeah.

...when somehow or other it makes sense.

But then there's some part of me

that feels like I'll...

I'll miss something.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

You know, just 'cause the window's

closing a bit, it seems.

Is there anything

that you feel like you need to process

in relation to the possibility

of not seeing him again?

I just don't know, to be honest.

- Yeah.

- You know?

Um, it's kinda disorienting,

but, uh...

...dude, it's a lot.

It is a lot, man. It's a lot.

Well, the nice thing is

I haven't had this appreciative

an experience of New York in ages.

And getting to see it

through Exton's eyes,

the third-generation POV,

is pretty cool, you know?

Yeah,

but I can't help but also notice

the difference between

the reliability of his support system,

you know?

Your dad rebelled against something

that needed to be rebelled against,

and then you were raised

in that rebellion.

Yeah.

Letting you

use drugs as a child.

And it's like... it's kinda fucked up!

Battered but not broken.

Yes. And then here we are.

It's like, "How do I go out

without feeling like I missed something,

you know?"

Is there anything you need to say to him?

I just... I don't want to...

- I don't wanna do the wrong thing.

- Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Papa.

Give us a... give us a "one, two, three,"

so we can check your mic.

- Who?

- "Who." Great.

Perfect.

While we're still hanging out

and seeing each other,

I just wanna try to stay close

and get closer and closer

and closer and closer.

- Yeah, great idea.

- You know?

I was gonna ask you

all these questions about just...

- Any... anything.

- Um... Yeah?

I don't really even know

how to talk about this, but I just want...

your point of view, um,

before we are done.

Is there anything

you want your kid to know?

What's so funny?

Well, in the Hamptons,

my kid has a house and a kid.

Like, two kids, three kids.

And, uh, we... we find if we pick

days when the light's not great,

that's good for us.

Right.

'Cause by the time you shoot it...

it's a good time to make

any kind of film you wanna make.

When you're not here

in the here and now,

where does your mind go to most?

Is there a period in time?

Or is there something

that's occupying your thoughts?

From what I can remember,

before I answer your question,

I would say the...

Charlie Parkinson's disease.

I have this here dream

where I'm working in this here jazz group.

And right in the middle

of a very groovy set,

just as I'm starting my solo...

...I keel over

and die from Charlie Parkinson's disease.

You called it, baby.

Is there a pen over there?

A pen? You want a pen or a pencil?

Pen.

Yeah.

Ah, the old pen.

You love a bit of pen-and-paper action.

I can pop it for you if you want.

Here.

Thank you.

- Are you scribbling?

- Yeah.

Nice.

Oh, and Robert...

had been a...

a little nervous 'cause he has

all these other things he's doing too,

but you can see

what he's focusing on is this.

When he called me up to ask me to...

He says, "Go slow."

Had you two met before?

You mean Jr. and I?

Yeah.

Yeah,

we're getting to know each other.

♪ A day once dawned ♪

♪ And it was beautiful... ♪

So we'll probably head back home

in a little while.

Even though Sr.'s just kinda napping,

should we just go sit in there

for a while before we cut out?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

♪ Then the night she fell ♪

♪ And the air was beautiful ♪

♪ The night she fell ♪

♪ All around ♪

♪ So look, see the days ♪

♪ The endless colored ways... ♪

So we'll probably let Sr. rest, and...

and then we'll see him, uh,

down the road a piece.

Yes.

♪ And now we rise ♪

I love you, Pops.

♪ We are everywhere ♪

♪ And now we rise from the ground ♪

♪ See she flies ♪

♪ She is everywhere ♪

♪ See she flies all around ♪

♪ So look, see the sights ♪

♪ The endless summer nights ♪

♪ And go play the game that you learned ♪

♪ From the morning ♪

We had

no overt agenda with this project.

I had a sense of what it might be,

and I knew that part of it

was always going to be

the end of his life.

Is it a father-son story?

I don't think so.

Is it about what it is to be an artist?

I don't know. Maybe.

Is it a contemplation of death?

I think it's kind of turning into that,

and not in a morose way,

but just in a "we're here, we do stuff,

and we're gone."

And, um, I love him for what he did.

I love him for what he didn't do.

Ah.

He has come!

I bring you a message.

Exactly six miles north of Skag Mountain

in the Valley of Pain,

there lives an evil devil monster.

His name is Bingo Gas Station

Motel Cheeseburger

With A Side Of Aircraft Noise

And You'll Be Gary Indiana,

and he loves to hurt people.

The last time I saw Bingo Gas Station

Motel Cheeseburger

With A Side Of Aircraft Noise

And You'll Be Gary Indiana,

he told me what he wants to do.

He wants to come down here

and kill each and every one of you.

But I said to him, "Bingo, wait a minute."

And the reason I said that

is because I believe in you people.

I believe you can do the job.

I believe you can help each other.

I believe you can make this world

a better place to live in.

That's it.

♪ When I think I've got it figured out ♪

♪ Pressure reveals unexpected routes ♪

♪ That lead back into agony's core ♪

♪ My peace of mind is a civil war ♪

♪ I'm getting ♪

♪ Closer to the day I'm gone ♪

♪ You know life goes on ♪

♪ I'm getting ♪

♪ Closer to the day I'm gone ♪

♪ Until it's ♪

♪ Over ♪

♪ You know life goes on ♪

Take a card, Mr. Greaser.

All right. Put it back anywhere.

- This it?

- No.

- This one?

- No.

- That one?

- No!

- This one?

- No!

- That one?

- No.

- That it?

- No.

- That one?

- No!

- This one?

- No.

- That one?

- No.

- This one?

- No!

- This it?

- No.

- That it?

- No!

- This one?

- No.

- Here it comes!

- No.

- This one?

- No.

- That one?

- No.

- This one?

- No.

- Is that it?

- No.

- This one!

- No.

- That one?

- No!