ABSTRACT
Lauren Lazin's Tupac: Resurrection (2003) and Brett Morgen's Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015) are elegiac, hagiographic documentary films about American male musicians whose untimely death shocked the world. Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) committed suicide apparently overwhelmed by his sudden fame, whereas Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) was murdered by an unknown assailant in an act of personal vendetta possibly connected with his thug life. Lazin's and Morgen's films are documentaries authorized by the families of their respective biographees, families who opened to the filmmakers the vaults containing multiple documents about and by the dead musicians. In both cases, an interested selection of the more favorable mementos, coupled with a biased editing style, results in a rather uncritical portrait. As regards masculinity, Lanzin celebrates Shakur's hypermasculinity, downplaying his conviction for sexual assault, whereas Morgen minimizes Cobain's dependence on women. The urge to endanger their lives both men indulged in is bypassed to focus instead on their artistic talent, though paradoxically little attention is paid to their music.
