Today, William Shatner turns 94. Most celebrities never reach that milestone and those that do seem to live a quiet life where they slow down. Next to June Squibb, Shatner seems to be one of the hardest working celebrities in their mid-90s with no sign of slowing down.
You Can Call Me Bill, written and directed by Alexandre O. Phillippe, avoids many of the usual tropes and structures of the usual documentaries about someone’s life where there’s a lot of talking heads praising them. No, the only person interviewed is Shatner himself who seems to talk more conversationally with the filmmaker off-screen.
Shatner has been working ever since the early 1950s and he’s had many highs and lows throughout that time. Even after the original run of Star Trek, he still struggled to find work appearing in those low-budget horror movies, The Devil’s Rain and Kingdom of Spiders, and Roger Corman-produced exploitation movies like Big Bad Mama.
There’s a reason why Shatner has had so much fun making fun of himself around Star Wars fans in movies like Fanboys and the AFI Lifetime Achievement: A Tribute to George Lucas. Star Wars in 1977 helped revitalized an interest in Star Trek. And while Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a disappointment, his career as Capt. James T. Kirk bounced back with the franchise following by a new TV role as T.J. Hooker. Shatner even became very friendly with Carrie Fisher and as her health was failing, he turned to social media encouraging people to think of her and pray.
In his 50s at a time in an era in which most people his age were accepting roles as fathers and grandfathers, Shatner was able to take on a new medium as a writer with the TekWar series, even though the books were mostly ghost-written. Shatner seems to have enjoyed more popularity as he’s gotten older thanks in part to the mainstream rise of fandom and Trekkies. And then came his hosting duties with Rescue 911 and several other TV appearances as a spokesperson with Priceline.
Philippe doesn’t address issues such as Shatner’s behavior which according to George Takei paints a negative picture. Yet Shatner has explained in other interviews that he and Takei have never been close outside of work. Shatner talks about his life growing up being bullied and comments on his “acting style” which he never noticed until people started parodying it. He takes it with some great spirits.
If you’re expecting to hear more about his relationship with other Trek actors and creator Gene Roddenberry, you’ll be disappointed. Sometimes you don’t need a lot of talking heads to dish out the dirt. It feels more like Philippe just set up a camera and just let Shatner speak his mind. He talks about how he admired Sir Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando when he was starting out. He mentions how he wanted the death of Kirk in Star Trek: Generations to end, even though it’s been controversial for the past 30 years.
Kirk has always seemed the perfect character for Shatner and the one he’ll be remembered for. I look back at Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan which was in production when Shatner was 50. Tom Cruise is 62 and hangs off tall buildings in his movies. While Wrath of Khan doesn’t have much action for the actors, it was more of less a philosophical meditation on accepting your limits but realizing you still go so much life to live regardless of your age. That’s why Kirk says at the end that he “feels young.”
This documentary is mostly for Shatner fans. Philippe is known for making documentaries that seem a little different. I remember when I started watching Memory: The Original of Alien, I thought at first it was something different. The documentary aesthetic has become stale in recent years thanks to many streaming services overdoing it.
You Can Call Me Bill is like a reflection and some people have even called it a self-eulogy. Despite his behavior, Kirk admits he was homeless living in a truck after the Trek series ended his run. And while he initially blasted the Trekkies, he now supports it. Some topics, such as the drowning death of his third wife, Nerine Kidd, is too hard to bring up especially since it’s been many years since she’s passed so why pick at old wounds.
We’re not all perfect and like the documentary Val about Val Kilmer, you see a more impersonal look at someone when the cameras stop rolling.
Happy Birthday, Bill!
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 