User reviews

I had never heard of Beuys before seeing this film. Not sure what that implies. Anyway, despite being initially skeptical when I learned that he was injured several times while flying sorties for the Nazis, I ended up finding him to be quite an interesting character. The film does a good job of portraying the artist as philosopher. But he also seems to be a provocateur, which is how he became famous during his lifetime.

Physically, his appeal may have derived in part from his resemblance to a B-movie detective character not unlike those portrayed by Humphrey Bogart. Looking at the works presented in this film, there can be no doubt that Beuys influenced later generations of performance artists.

Amazing film about an amazing artist with a huge personality and a lot to say. If you like the doc about the performance artist who stares into people's eyes, art in public life, dada and so on--or fishing jackets (not explained in the film) go for it. Also see public debates on art where Beuys destroys academics and students etc.

Beuys is clearly a film whose success is completely reliant on the skill of the editor, and the editing was very sloppy. The filmmakers could not figure out how they wanted to approach their subject and the resulting approach is all over the place. The film starts off with a non-linear narrative driven by topic before suddenly shifting to a chronological structure. The film initially follows Beuys' development as an artist before becoming a character study half way through. While the style of the editing and the use of archive was interesting, the lack of focus made it impossible to get invested in what I was watching. This film did an especially poor job of explaining why any of his art is important. We are continuously told that Beuys wanted to "expand the meaning of art", and the film certainly acts as though Beuys was a visionary for believing this, but without properly explaining what that means or what any of his art means, there isn't a lot to keep the audience from thinking that Beuys is just a pretentious man. It's not until at least an hour into the film that an interpretation for one of his works is given, but by that point, the film had exhausted all the good will I had to offer.