I never watched the Morton Downey Jr. Show as I was growing up.  I heard about it, but my first real introduction to Morton was through his short lived talk show SHOWDOWN on CNBC and his roles in a few movies like PREDATOR 2.   EVOCATEUR chronicles the events that went into the rise and fall of the Morton Downey Jr. Show which only lasted on the air for two years.   EVOCATEUR tells the story through clips, interviews with the people that knew him (friends, his daughter, and the show's producers), guests on the show, and others like talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael, Pat Buchanan, and lawyer Gloria Allred, and animation to fill in the gaps to illustrate events happening in Mort’s life.   It gives insights in the type of confrontational conservative talk show hosts that Mort Downey Jr. helped inspire (in addition to trash television shows like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich (to a lesser extent)) and how Mort pushed everything to the breaking point on that show.  

 

Was his life a result of trying to live up to a father he hated and never knew, or did his life just spiral out of control due to the popularity he received form that talk show?    I would have loved to seen more clips from the show itself as EVOCATEUR paints a portrait of the rise and fall of a talk show and how that had an impact on one man’s life and the people who were fans of his show.  It reveals a man who wasn’t in control of himself and how that lead to his fall in addition to showing how he got to that point.   I just wish they dug a little deeper into the enigma of who he was and let the documentary breath for 20 to 30 minutes longer.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio Commentary with Directors Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger as they talk about the making of the documentary, the events in the documentary, going through hours upon hours of tapes from the Morton Downey Jr. Show, and the mood of some of the people interviewed.

 

MEMORABLE MOMENTS highlights clips of some of the celebrity guests on the Morton Downey Jr. Show in addition to some of the most emotionally charged moments on the show, but too bad it is only six minutes long.

BEHIND THE ANIMATION has an interview with the guy who created the animation sequences and shows the more racy material that was cut from the final film.

AN EVENING WITH KELLIE EVERTS has an interview with one of the show’s guests as she goes on the prowl to bars to find young men to have sex with.

 

Theatrical trailer for the documentary and trailers for other Magnolia Home Entertainment releases including SYRUP and HAMMER OF THE GODS.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  EVOCATEUR is an interesting portrait of a controversial man who would influence today’s talk shows like Jerry Springer.  I wish they had more extras focusing on clips from the show.

 

This Blu-ray review is (c)9-10-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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