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Roadrunner: A film about Anthony Bourdain Documentary
Rated: R
Running Time: 1 h 59 min Director: Morgan Neville
If you have never seen an Anthony Bourdain travel film then this documentary of his life probably will not mean much to you. But if you are a fan of this unique man, I hardily recommend this thoughtful look into parts of him only his closest friends and associates knew.
Anthony Bourdain was a chef, traveler, and gifted writer. For years I watched his travel documentaries: The Layover and No Reservations. Each episode showcased Bourdain’s perspective on the people, places, and food he experienced. His curiosity was infectious and as a viewer I felt enriched every time I watched one of his episodes. He never just gave you pretty pictures for the sake of pretty pictures. He told the truth about all his experiences. At times, the stories were raw and showed the dangerous places of the world filled with political unrest and poverty. Yet, other times you were shown exquisite locations filled with interesting people eating sumptuous food. Bourdain could speak with anyone about any subject. He was as comfortable interviewing heads of state as he was a villager in the Congo. This film shows how everyone who met him felt like they knew him.
When Bourdain died in 2018 by suicide, I was shocked and saddened. He was a person who seemed to have it all. He was able to travel anywhere in the world he wanted to, meet anyone he wanted to and do anything he wanted to. I knew in his youth he had been addicted to cocaine, heroin, and LSD but he had kicked the habit for many years and was clean when he died. So why? Why did he do this?
What this sensitive documentary shows is the struggle with depression Bourdain suffered from his entire life. Many of his closest friends and family are interviewed and they share their insights into the person he was that most people did not know. But the greatest of all the interviews came from Anthony Bourdain himself. Morgan Neville does a masterful job editing hundreds of hours of film to document the sad, brilliant, funny, difficult, warm human that was Bourdain. The film does not candy coat anything. It takes on his death as much as it takes on his life and I think Anthony Bourdain would approve this honest depiction of his time here on Earth with all of us.
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