Vincent Van Gogh, A Stroke of Genius, an A&E Biography
Holds Your Interest: 4
Presents/Explains the Issue Clearly: 4
Contains New Information: 5
Replayability: 2
Is Entertaining: 4
Overall: 3

I love Van Gogh's work. He is by far my favorite artist, a fact that should be obvious from the header images on every page of this website. So trust me when I say that I wanted to like this documentary going in, and that I was disappointed when it was boring and unimportant. If you've ever wanted to know just how fucked up Vincent really was, exactly how many letters he wrote his brother asking to come and live with him in Paris, the names of every doctor who treated him, every family he boarded with, every asylum he stayed in, and every whore he contracted a venereal disease from, this is the documentary for you.

If, on the other hand, you are interested in his art, what sort of techniques he used to paint them with, how the world's art scene was at the time of his life and death, and what changes occurred over time that elevated his work from unsalable and worthless to priceless... keep looking. You won't find out jack shit about any of those topics from this show.

It's not that I don't enjoy hearing about the tortured artist, and how like a modern rock star some of the 1800s painters were in their drinking, drugging, and whoring habits... it's just that my interests go a lot deeper. I want to know about the work of great artists, what the art world was like in their time, who liked them ahead of their time, and how things changed. I know much of that with Van Gogh (I've read several biographies), but that doesn't excuse this documentary from covering some of what I find most interesting about him. Hundreds of thousands of artists (and millions of non-artists) over the past two centuries have time have been drunks, hired whores, and tried/succeeded at killing themselves. About a dozen of them have gone on to become world famous and universally-regarded as revolutionary masters of their craft. Perhaps we should focus on that a bit too?

I'm not saying they can't delve somewhat into the tabloid details of VVG's life, but when that's practically all they do for the entire 50 minutes, hardly show any of his art, never say a word about why it's so valuable and sought after now, and scarcely give a hint as to why he had painted over 700 canvases before his art dealer brother managed to sell a single one of his paintings... well it's just not an acceptable approach to take in a documentary on the man's life. We'll watch VH1 Behind the Music specials on Mötley Crüe and other forgettable rock bands if we want to hear about "artists" whose only newsworthy contributions are stories of mental illness and debauchery.