I’ve long maintained that the most effective form of gospel teaching — whether in the form of scriptural references, Sunday School lessons or church talks — involves personal experiences rather than reciting hard doctrines. Doctrine has its value, of course, but hearing someone tell us what we should be doing is not nearly as useful as someone showing us, instead.
This simplicity is part of the triumph of New York Doll, a documentary about former New York Dolls bassist, Arthur “Killer” Kane, which succeeds because it shows instead of tells. Arthur struggled with drugs and failure early in his life, leading to more drugs, the disintegration of his marriage, and finally a failed suicide attempt. Having hit “rock bottom” (in his words) he then discovered the Book of Mormon and with it the restored gospel within the LDS Church. The purpose of Arthur’s post-baptismal life was not to preach to other people what they should be doing, and neither is this film. Rather, New York Doll works as a spiritual tract because it shows the gospel taking effect within Arthur’s new life.
Actual LDS doctrine is kept to a bare minimum with Arthur’s musical background providing the main focus of the documentary. And yet, you can’t separate Arthur’s musical career and his Church service, because Arthur’s conversion is vital to who he is. He does not need to directly proselytize the people he meets, because his demeanor and humility do that for him without speaking a word. The best scene in the movie takes place before a big concert when Arthur gathers the other performers around him and offers a group prayer. Whether the other people present believe anyone above is listening to the prayer or not, this scene presents a powerful testimony simply because it’s obvious to all that Arthur really believes what he is saying. When the others applaud him after the ‘Amen’, you know they’ve been moved by his sincerity and spirit, and whether or not the content of the prayer ever comes to pass is essentially irrelevant.
I don’t particularly like the music of the “New York Dolls”, nor, in fact, any of the bands that were directly inspired by them. You might not either. (Ironically, I listen mostly to the ‘prog rock’ genre that gets rudely dismissed by many of the talking heads in this documentary…) That’s irrelevant, because New York Doll isn’t about the music, it’s about the person behind the music.
There are a few filmmaking decisions within the documentary that I might take issue with: the important discussion of the deaths of some of the other original NYD members due to drugs are oddly held over until almost the end of the movie, instead of at the beginning where they’d make more sense within the history of the band, for example. In the end they are all minor. This is a good, simple, and positive film about a good, simple, positive man who found peace in his life — in both spiritual and secular ways — and provides a powerful example of the converting power the gospel of Jesus Christ can have in a person’s life, more so than any dozen average Sunday School lessons…
Final Grade: A-
Analysis and Other Comments (possible spoilers):
(1) The ‘Unholy Trinity’ of adult material consists of profanity, sex, and violence. However, there has always been a push to have ‘drug use’ added to the mix more equally. I’m skeptical of the ‘inappropriateness’ of depictions of drug use as compared to the other three categories, but it has not really been an issue because movies that have any appreciable levels of drug use tend to also have lots of profanity, sex and/or violence, so it has little impact on the final rating. I would think for most people–regardless how they feel about smoking and drug use–it is still a weaker sibling to the “Big Three”.
New York Doll is the first film I’ve seen that is actually PG-13 for no other reason than ‘drug use’. In fact, I’m surprised even at that — because the depictions of drug use within NYD are extremely limited. This is EASILY a PG movie, viewable by everyone in the family (subject matter aside).
Curiously, though, I noticed in a variety of articles about NYD that it was listed as “PG-13 for drug use AND profanity”. I heard exactly zero swear words or profane language throughout the movie, and wondered where this had come from. A Motley Vision seems to have the answer here, saying there are multiple DVD versions of New York Doll out there–one with some profanity and a ‘clean’ version without any. As it happens, my DVD (through Netflix) seems to have been the ‘clean’ version, and who knows–perhaps some of the drug use was eliminated as well.
In any case, pay no attention to the PG-13 rating — this movie is as clean as you can get…
(2) One subtle lesson that can be gained from watching New York Doll concerns home teaching: Greg Whiteley (the director) met Arthur when he was assigned to be his home teacher. The movie mentions (conveniently, for non-members) that home teaching involves a personal visit at least once a month, and in reality the ‘once a month visit’ (if that) is all it becomes. And, yet, it is obvious that Greg did more than just drop by once a month with Arthur — he got to know him. He learned more about his background, which hatched the idea to film a documentary of Arthur’s life in the first place. Arthur doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would let just anyone follow him around with a camera all the time, so it seems clear that Greg became a close friend of his as well, enough that he was willing to share the details of his life with him. The relationship between Greg and Arthur is not a focal point of the movie, but there are some good lessons to be learned here about effective home teaching for those who think about it.
(Incidentally, there’s no way to know if Greg and Arthur would have become friends without the home teaching assignment. Possibly not, and perhaps that’s one advantage of the home teaching program. No one wants “assigned friends”, of course, but sometimes the assignment allows you to meet people whom you wouldn’t normally have considered as ‘friend’ material, and then some surprising friendships result — the equivalent of a non-sexual “blind-date” for men, if you will. Mission companionships often turn out the same way.)
(3) Another lesson from the movie concerns missionary work: sharing the gospel through missionary work is difficult–no question. Yet, oftentimes we make it sound more difficult than it actually is. We can see from the movie that Arthur, without really trying, was a good missionary. He (1) lived his life openly and honestly such that people could see the person he had become post-baptism, (2) he answered questions about the Church and its doctrines directly when given the opportunity, and (3) took advantage of opportunities when they developed to allow others to partake of the Spirit. His pre-concert prayer is a perfect example: I don’t know whose idea it was, but representing everyone in a group prayer is undoubtedly one experience that everyone else is going to remember for a long while. That may have been the first time some of them had been involved with prayer their entire lives, and who knows what will happen if one or more of them hit ‘rock bottom’, as Arthur had, and think of his example as a possible path to redemption in their own lives. In basic terms, Arthur was a good missionary because he lived what he believed and everyone could see it. Sometimes that’s all it takes…
(4) Arthur mentions early on in the film in passing that he was having some “problems” in the Church that his new calling at the Los Angeles Family History Center helped to alleviate. These “problems” are not expounded upon, but if I had to guess, I would suppose that Arthur felt isolated within the LDS community. It’s quite possible that — other than presumably his home teacher — many of the other members in his ward didn’t know how to deal with this single, middle-aged, former punk-rocker in their midst, and ended up shunning him for not fitting the ‘normal’ image of a Latter-Day Saint. Indeed, if this is the case, then let New York Doll be his testament to all members about repentance, humility, finding peace through the Atonement, and how the Lord “looks on the heart”. Certainly, all members can learn a thing or two from Arthur’s example.
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