As a millennial, I didn't know Jimmy Savile for his public persona. He only really came to prominence in my mind after his public outing as a controlling and deranged sexual predator.
Even with that bias in my head, I tried to watch this documentary objectively and it becomes immediately clear that Savile is a dark and depraved character merely from watching his actions in the documentary. His public personality was a mere front.
This inner darkness is obvious from the moment Theroux begins talking to him. He speaks in bizarre riddles, none of which are particularly amusing or witty, obfuscating any real details about his personal life behind his "humour". When asked if he has relationships, he immediately begins complaining that women specialise in "brain damage", repeating this misogynistic mantra as if it should be hilarious, to the clear discomfort of Theroux.
Things get worse as the documentary goes on. Theroux politely says that "reality isn't always positive" when Savile begins saying that TV programmes should show things in a good light.
Savile responds with a thinly veiled icy threat that Theroux seems to awkwardly mistake for a joke: "Make it as negative as you like. I'll take you to court, take your money. Money has no conscience."
The way he talks so casually about legal action and these threats, framing himself as "The Godfather", discussing "his boys", saying "I can get anything" and "I have everything under control." ...it frames a picture of a man nothing less than a psychopath.
If you have the stomach to observe such a wretched man behaving in such an unnerving and unpleasant manner, this is a reflective expose of a man who in only a short decade would become publicly reviled.
Even with that bias in my head, I tried to watch this documentary objectively and it becomes immediately clear that Savile is a dark and depraved character merely from watching his actions in the documentary. His public personality was a mere front.
This inner darkness is obvious from the moment Theroux begins talking to him. He speaks in bizarre riddles, none of which are particularly amusing or witty, obfuscating any real details about his personal life behind his "humour". When asked if he has relationships, he immediately begins complaining that women specialise in "brain damage", repeating this misogynistic mantra as if it should be hilarious, to the clear discomfort of Theroux.
Things get worse as the documentary goes on. Theroux politely says that "reality isn't always positive" when Savile begins saying that TV programmes should show things in a good light.
Savile responds with a thinly veiled icy threat that Theroux seems to awkwardly mistake for a joke: "Make it as negative as you like. I'll take you to court, take your money. Money has no conscience."
The way he talks so casually about legal action and these threats, framing himself as "The Godfather", discussing "his boys", saying "I can get anything" and "I have everything under control." ...it frames a picture of a man nothing less than a psychopath.
If you have the stomach to observe such a wretched man behaving in such an unnerving and unpleasant manner, this is a reflective expose of a man who in only a short decade would become publicly reviled.