There may have been no singular Anthony Bourdain. At least there was not one type of person he seems to have been, despite what so many of us saw and enjoyed from television and books. Lucky St. Louis chefs got a good look at one part of his persona when he was in town on a book tour, reading at Left Bank Books. It was a Monday, and a group of them carried into Duff’s for an impromptu potluck dinner in his honor. I recall sitting down next to him at the otherwise empty bar and we had a quiet talk. He was so different than how he presented in his best-selling book, Kitchen Confidential, stunningly so. Later, well-fed, he gave a rousing speech about high-quality food and how chefs have a duty to educate as well as feed the public. The night is still remembered warmly.
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain has opened here, and make no mistake: This is not a movie about food; it’s a movie about him. Is it about his death? It has to be, whether or not it was meant that way.
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Yes, he began as a line cook and then a chef (although he was writing, primarily fiction, before Kitchen Confidential came out). But food played a smaller and smaller part in his life as it evolved. Directed and produced by Morgan Neville, the film brings together people who knew him well: his brother, his wives, television producers, chefs, artists, and friends. It includes clips with his friend Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, with whom he was filming in Alsace when he died, as well as Iggy Pop sitting in a diner and having a sentimental heart-to-heart.
Bourdain’s trajectory in the public eye seems to reveal a man who grew over the years. It appears that he couldn’t stop evolving, even at what seemed to be very good situations in his life. It makes you think of vines that look great when they’re pruned, but left to their own nature can grow over the things they’re supposed to adorn. He seems to have known it, and there’s a number of clips that indicate he didn’t necessarily like it.
Since this is a CNN/Focus Films release, there’s plenty of expected footage of the early decades. Neville also indicates that a turning point in the star’s thinking came in 2006, during a visit to Beirut while filming for the show. Bourdain and his crew were stranded as war broke out between Hezbollah and Israel; they watched from the swimming pool of their high-end hotel as the city was bombed. Bourdain’s social awareness zoomed, and his show’s content changed considerably.
Bourdain was always driven. From the drug use in his youth to his inability to relax and enjoy his family for very long, it appears to have been a permanent part of his character. The film also gives glimpses into the chef’s struggles with depression. His inability to appear in public without being recognized and approached weighed heavily on him as well.
The film’s post-production insertion of using artificial intelligence to create a version of Bourdain’s voice to read an email written shortly before his death by suicide has caused some furor. That’s an entirely separate issue from the question of the quality of the film itself.
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain provides a portrait of a man who wrestled unsuccessfully with his issues but who gave many people pleasure and knowledge. Perhaps that’s his enduring legacy, not our memory of his death.
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