What can I say other than this is one of the most entertaining, powerful, poignant, and, all in all, GREAT documentaries I have ever seen (and I've definitely seen quite a few). Everything about 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston' is executed perfectly. In terms of editing and structure and pacing and even camerawork and cinematography it is far and away superior than your average non-documentary. And, if there ever was a fascinating subject to spotlight in a documentary, it's the legendary Daniel Johnston, whose story sounds like much taller a tale than it really is. It's all true, and much of it sounds like legend. Johnston is portrayed sympathetically, his music is praised (as it should be), but there is also heavy focus on his own extreme mental illness(es) and how his complex and challenging manic-depressive state has infected his life in a way that produces great art and great suffering, but Johnston's life story isn't depressing either. It's funny in parts, too, and heroic and happy in others. It's intense and haunting and ridiculous and inspiring and it's all true and it all focuses on the story of an artist like no other. An artist whose talent gladly continues to only grow in popularity and public awareness, an artist who's none other than Daniel Johnston.

What an amazing/ sad story! Great doc! I would love to get my hands on all his tapes. He is a master poet and very talented piano player! He has completely opened his heart in his music. Everyone should listen to "Hi, How Are You" to get a sense of this. You can definitely tell he was ahead of his time when he wrote and recorded his music.I would like to know if he had done the animation on "Story of an Artist" in the documentary. The character in the animation is exactly the same style of sketches he uses on all his albums.Has anyone approached Sam Rockwell to do a Biopic on Daniel Johnston? I think that would be amazing!Def recommended for all music lovers!

The struggle of an artist battling against his own demons has long been played out in both the movies and reality. Musicians such as Ray Charles, Johnny Cash and Jim Morrison fought against drug and alcohol addiction and led to their lives being played out on screen. They suffered for choices they made. Daniel Johnston, a cult figure and genius songwriter, battled with mental illness for most of his life. His art both benefited and suffered for his affliction. But Johnston was helpless of his fate. His mental instability deepened as his fame grew, and it's all captured in detail in this wonderful documentary.Daniel Johnston was always a strange child, growing up with a seemingly obsessive compulsion for art, and later to music. He was vastly creative, inspired and individual in his output. When he decided that he wanted to be a musician and be famous, his produced an album on tape, and advertised his work to producers and writers, and blew everyone away. Always influenced by his muse - a girl he fell in love with at college and never saw again - his songs were tortured and heart- rendering, yet joyous and upbeat. But his increasingly unstable mental state put his career on hold. After indulging in marijuana and LSD, he was submitted to a mental hospital after attacking his friend with a lead pipe. And so began Daniel Johnston's tragic public decline, as he alienated himself from his family and friends, and intensified his obsession with God, and ultimately, the Devil.I had never heard of Daniel Johnston's music before this film. His music is not for everyone's taste - his voice is high-pitched and unbalanced, and his techniques non-conformal and almost old-school - but no-one could deny the tortured genius behind it. Seeing him go on stage for the first time, all skinny and uncomfortable, glancing nervously at the camera every now and then, there was something awe-inspiring about him. It makes it all the heart-breaking to see him now, bloated and old, physically damaged by his mental illness. And yet his thirst for art remains.There are plenty of bio-documentaries and music documentaries out there that are capable of blowing you away (Gimme Shelter and The Last Waltz come immediately to mind), but although this is a great music documentary, it just as brilliant as a serious portrayal of the devastating effects of mental illness. As Johnston had the nack of recording practically everything he did on tape, we get to witness almost first hand his life and breakdown. There are early tapes of him arguing with his mother, and phone calls asking him to wash the graffiti he did on the Statue of Liberty. We also hear troubled calls from his loved ones and friends, and hear the effect it was having on them. One friend states that the troubled genius's of the past, like Van Gogh, are fascinating to read about and amplifies their God-like status. But no- one living has ever had to live with them, and witness it unfold before their eyes.An excellent documentary that really gets to the heart of it's subject. And I'll definitely be hunting down Daniel Johnston's work.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

I watched this knowing that I am not a big fan of the music of Daniel Johnston, but found it ceaselessly moving and fascinating. No just because of Daniel's unstoppable creativity and heartbreaking slump into ever increasing circles of mental illness, but because of the honesty of people around him. Saying that they were scared, that they just wanted him to go to hospital and get better, the truth... I really thought this film would be a bog standard "worship the romantic tortured genius" thing, but it actually gave you a really authentic feeling of how terrifying and uncontrollable mental illness truly is. Also, let's see more Daniel Johnston cartoons, the bit with the eye ball flying out of the head on the stack of comic books was absolute genius.