There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Jason Becker. I certainly hadn’t, but he is considered one of the greatest guitarists who has ever lived. A child prodigy who was playing Eric Clapton solos at age six and was signed as one-half part of Heavy Metal duo Cacophony at age 16, he was gifted with preternatural skill and an innate understanding of music and confused his cock-rock compatriots by listing his greatest influences as Mozart and Bach.
In 1989 he was just about to break into the big time as ex-Van Halen singer David Lee Roth recruited him for his new band. Tragically, this never came to be as the wunderkind was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a hideous and incurable neurodegenerative disease that left Becker almost entirely paralysed, only able to communicate by blinking and moving his chin. His dreams were crushed and he was condemned to a life that most would find unbearable, and this is what makes Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet such an emotional and ultimately uplifting documentary as its subject is a hugely likeable and inspiring figure who hasn’t let a little thing like total paralysis change him as a person.
In fact, as the title suggests, the whole idea of the film is to make the world aware that he’s still ticking as huge swathes of his own fan-base apparently think he died of his disease and are constantly bombarding Heavy Metal message boards insisting he should be known as the greatest guitarist of all time, “If only he’d lived.
The first part of Jesse Vile’s film documents Becker’s evolution from child genius to young man on the brink of superstardom and it would be interesting and gripping even if it wasn’t for the tragic events that were to follow. I’m no fan of 1980s big-hair heavy metal but it’s still inspiring stuff as various musicians, producers and high school music teachers talk about how their minds were blown by the young star. And there is footage of a 15-year-old Becker competing in his school’s talent show, which demonstrates how his insanely complex compositions transcended the unimaginative sweaty bellowing that heavy metal is known for.
The man himself doesn’t appear in person until towards the end, when the story of his downfall has already been told and despite the fact that, in footage of him in his younger years, he comes across as incredibly laid back and egoless you’re still expecting to be confronted with a broken shell of a man. So it’s a shock to realise that he’s still a man living life to the full, he’s able to communicate with his parents and carers using a system of blinks and eye movements that they call “vocal-eyes, and he’s even able to come up with new compositions with help from his father and technology that coverts his facial movements into music. In one of the most moving moments his carer relates the moment a doctor very seriously asked Jason if he still wanted to live and, using vocal-eyes, the musician answered simply, “Hell, yes.
There are a lot of moments like that and although Jason is clearly a huge inspiration to everyone he meets both for his resilient spirit and musical genius he insists the last thing he wants is to be seen as is some kind of guru and he hopes the film will reveal that he’s still the same shallow rocker he always was. It’s strange to describe the true story of a man whose ambition was ripped away from him just as it was becoming reality and who is now trapped in his own body as a feel good film, but that’s exactly what this is and if you don’t walk away from it feeling inspired then you’re probably dead inside.
Overall Verdict: This film is the epitome of the expression “triumph of the human spirit; it’s massively inspiring and will make you feel guilty for ever complaining about anything.
Reviewer: Adam Pidgeon