“John Healy is our jaunty, gleeful tour guide and messenger from hell” – Daniel Day-Lewis.
We’ll take Daniel’s word for it. The man clearly knows what he’s talking about, he has won three Oscars after all.
Having known next to nothing about John Healy before watching Barbaric Genius, Paul Duane’s documentary opened our eyes to one man’s incredible and unique story, as Healy went from juvenile delinquent to homeless wino to chess genius to bestselling, award-winning author.
The phrase “you couldn’t write it” comes to mind.
Irish distribution company Wildcard Distribution have made the film available to stream and download from anywhere in the world at www.barbaricgenius.com and, to whet your appetite, you can check out the documentary’s trailer here:
Born in London in 1943 to Irish immigrants from Sligo, Healy left school at the age of 14 and joined the British Army. However, following a dishonorable discharge due to a combination of going AWOL and drunkeness, he entered the incredibly violent world of London’s homeless community, drinking heavily the entire time.
In and out of prison over a period of 15 years, Healy eventually swapped drink for the game of chess. After being taught the basics of the game by his brilliantly-named cellmate Harry ‘the Fox’, he soon realised that he actually had an incredible ability to play the “blood sport”, especially when it came to taking on and defeating multiple opponents at the same time.
The Grass Arena, an autobiographical masterpiece followed in 1988 and was hailed as one of the greatest memoirs of the last 30 years by Healy’s publishers Faber and Faber. Today, however, relations aren’t so good between the author and his former employers following on from a supposed axe-wielding threat – a particularly ambiguous anecdote that director Duane does his best to get to the bottom of.
The filmmaker casually follows Healy around, documenting a man who is very obviously uncomfortable speaking in front the camera but, what this ultimately results in, are intense, personal moments of brutal honesty coupled with beautiful, quiet insights into the more vulnerable nature of the genius as he attempts to “transcend the rational mind.”
The fighter writer is a brilliantly-spoken character as he constructs his sentences in beautifully poetic ways, even when describing the violent horrors of the London homeless scene – one memorable description of a murder scene in a city park becomes a “primitive Colosseum” through the eyes of the author.
The “smiling psychopath” is full of surprises over the course of the documentary and Barbaric Genius is well worth checking out to see one man’s journey from nothing, to everything, and back to nothing.
If anything, Barbaric Genius reminds us that, when it comes to filmmaking, you really can’t beat a good old fashioned story – Hollywood take note.
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