Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

This is a 2004 documentary about an interesting channel and an interesting human being: 

Watching this documentary fulfilled a promise made on Letterboxd… this past fall. A mutual left a comment on my review for Heaven’s Gate that he learned about HG from this documentary, and he recommended I check it out. As it’s me, last night was finally the occasion for me to learn about a famous cable channel from the past.

Z Channel was in the Los Angeles area and ran from 1974 during the early days of cable to 1989. They became famous after Jerry Harvey was hired to program its schedule and due to his incredibly eclectic tastes ran everything from Rocky and Rear Window to foreign films, obscure or famous. Plenty of motion pictures later to be part of the Criterion Collection were programmed, which was great for film buffs. Most importantly, he championed for the original cut of Heaven’s Gate to be played, which is how that finally found respect after it was savaged due to its all-time terrible production woes. The channel’s impact can be appreciated by all us dorks on Letterboxd, especially those that watch obscurities which probably deserve more attention in the community. A tastemaker for movie nerds, he proved to be.

It also demonstrates what a troubled person Jerry Harvey was. He had his personal demons and those weren’t always dealt with well. There were also problems with various women; the documentary documents this far better than I could in this space. He ultimately lost that battle with those demons and without giving it away, the circumstances of his death were rather awful. At least this piece was honest in displaying the negatives along with the positives.

The documentary is presented in a standard way: talking heads (some of whom like Tarantino and especially James Woods aren’t always looked at now as well as back then) discuss the channel and not only are vintage clips shown, footage from films that Z Channel played is also presented to demonstrate the eclectic playlist that those in the area were lucky to see for years. Even specific niches-such as a love for Jacqueline Bisset-was discussed for a few minutes. The downfall of Z-the channel, not the documentary-was not only Harvey’s death, but also them showing sports, along with WWF wrestling.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession was a fascinating look by Xan Cassavetes-the daughter of John-at a topic of interest to me which I knew little about. As I learned quite a bit and everything was presented well, I’ll deem this a success. I won’t name the person here who made the recommendation but I’ll thank them for doing so; apologies for taking so long to fulfill that request.