'Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck' Reaction: Cobain's Family Furious at HBO Documentary
"What mother would want to see her child on heroin?"
This was the immediate reaction of the mother of Kurt Cobain after watching the HBO documentary "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck," according to Brett Morgen, the film director.
Interviewed by Huffpost Live's Ricky Camilleri, Morgen described Cobain's family's negative reaction when they first saw the documentary film. He related how Cobain's mother and sister were furious. Morgen said he warned them beforehand that there would be things in the movie that they would have a hard time seeing.
Morgen's documentary is winning excellent reviews for its extremely intimate depiction of Kurt Cobain, portrayed through journals, home movies, artwork and audio recordings from Cobain's personal archive, including vintage concert clips and TV interview footages.
But the film might have been too much for Cobain's mother, Wendy, and sister, Kimberly.
Both admittedly had seen Cobain high, but to see it all played out in film, knowing the entire world would see it, affected them extremely. Morgen remembered Kimberly telling him that Kurt was embarrassed by his own heroin use and most probably wouldn't have wanted it flaunted on film.
In response to Kimberly's concern, Morgen said he told her: "You know, Kim, the one thing you've always told me is that Kurt's biggest fear was that he was gonna inspire or influence kids to do heroin, and not only is this not a romanticized image of it, I actually think there may be one person out there who would be deterred from, turned off from doing heroin. And what greater legacy is there in death, 20 years after he died, than to save a life?"
Other revelations from the movie are as follows:
● Kurt's slacker image was a myth – he actually wanted to be a success and worked hard to achieve it.
● Kurt attempted to commit suicide after being taunted in high school. In one instance, he lay down on train tracks, but the train went another route.
● Kurt considered the band's first gigs to be played before "two locals who hated out guts."
● Nirvana was almost called "The Reaganites."
● Kurt was devastated by the band's first review in 1988; he hated being humiliated.
● When Kurt's mother Wendy first heard "Nevermind," she cried...out of fear – she knew it would change everything and she wasn't sure Kurt was ready for it.
● The film's most personal footages were filmed by an unlikely cameraman – Eric Erlandson, Courtney Love's ex boyfriend.
● Kurt's mother confronted him about his heroin use.
● Courtney Love claimed her thinking about cheating led to Cobain's Rome overdose.
● "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck" first aired on Monday, May 4, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.