Let's Get Lost (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Mar 06, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Bruce WeberRelease Date(s)
1988 (January 7, 2025)Studio(s)
Little Bear Films/Zeitgeist Films (Kino Classics)- Film/Program Grade: A-
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B+
Review
A fascinating if not entirely satisfying documentary about Chet Baker (1929-1988), Let’s Get Lost (1988) is two hours of great music as it attempts to explain Baker’s decades-long decline, from one of the all-time great jazz trumpeter/vocalists ever to a heroin-addicted near-derelict. Dominating the film is its shocking contrasts of Baker in his prime, lean and handsome, the jazz equivalent of James Dean or Montgomery Clift, to craggy-faced, almost-toothless bum, just 57 but looking at least 20 years older.
The film was directed by influential fashion photographer Bruce Weber, best known for his suggestive, sometimes homoerotic and usually black-and-white photographs for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and others, though in recent years also for more than a dozen sexual assault allegations made by various male models.
What became Let’s Get Lost was originally intended as a short film, but Weber and Baker enjoyed each other’s company so much the project was expanded into a self-financed feature supposedly costing upwards of a $1 million. Likewise filmed in black-and-white, much of the film has Baker and Weber tooling around Los Angeles, Baker often in the back of a convertible with sexy women under each arm, or frolicking along the beach in Santa Monica. A party/wake atmosphere dominates.
Naturally gifted, Baker learned to play the trumpet in a matter of weeks while still a child. Both Charlie Parker and Stan Getz recognized Baker’s talent early on, and by 1952 he joined the innovative Gerry Mulligan Quartet (minus a piano), becoming a major player in the Los Angeles jazz scene. He left that group, forming his own quartet and recording albums during 1953-56—Parker only in his mid-20s—so popular he won reader’s polls in DownBeat and Metronome magazines, beating out Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Clifford Brown, and actually sharing the top spot with Nat King Cole as Best Vocalist. He became an idol with jazz-loving teens disinterested in the emerging rock-‘n-roll phenomenon, and appeared in the movie Hell’s Horizon (1955), a Korean War B-movie starring John Ireland.
But by 1957, possibly years earlier, Baker started using heroin, leading to multiple arrests and significant prison time. In Italy he recorded the “Milano Sessions” (later recording with Ennio Morricone) and appeared in an Italian youth musical, Howlers in the Dark (1960), but the paparazzi luridly documented his many arrests and open infidelities. Returning to the U.S., there was further decline and yet more arrests and prison time, including multiple charges of prescription fraud. In 1966 he was beaten in Sausalito, his teeth kicked out, and for a time Baker was unsure if he’d ever be able to perform again. He made a comeback of sorts from 1973, eventually recording scads of albums for small labels and touring. Even in this greatly diminished state, Baker’s vocals still impress.
The movie contrasts older film and video clips, along with archival photographs—many taken by William Claxton, who appears in the film—with the later heroin-addicted Baker, sleepily spinning tales from his life that are challenged by others, particularly jazz singer Ruth Young, his partner during the lowest part of Baker’s life, c. 1973-83. Young’s accusations of Baker as a shameless manipulator and habitual truth-twister was heavily criticized at the time but she comes off as more believable than hedonist Baker does.
Let’s Get Lost covers a lot of ground but Baker himself remains something of an enigma. His still-living mother declines to discuss her disappointment with her son; other ex-wives and lovers are torn between Baker’s selfish behavior—when asked, he refused to get in touch with a hospitalized son—while still hoping to see him again, in some cases, possibly to provide financial support. Regardless, his personal relationships with ex-wives, ex-lovers and offspring is a tangled, depressing mess Weber can’t entirely unravel.
The wall-to-wall music is unmissable, however, a mix of ‘50s and ’60s material with newer recordings from the 1980s, Baker accompanied on these by Frank Strazzeri on piano, John Leftwich on bass, and Ralph Penland and Nicola Stilo on drums.
Kino’s new Blu-ray of Let’s Get Lost is an impressive restoration. Though shot in 1.33:1 black-and-white 16mm, it looks great even on big projection systems, and it appears for material originally filmed in 35mm (like Baker’s movie appearances, and even some newsreel footage), those working on the restoration found prime HD video masters to work with, so even that looks great. The audio has also been remixed for DTS-HD 5.1 surround (a 2.0 stereo track is also offered), which benefits the music greatly. Optional English subtitles are provided on this Region “A” encoded disc.
Supplements include a trailer (for the remastered re-release) plus six short films by Bruce Weber: Backyard Movie, Beauty Brothers, Gentle Giants, Liberty City Is Like Paris to Me, The Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society, and Wine and Cupcakes.
Chet Baker didn’t live to see Let’s Get Lost’s release; he died in Amsterdam on May 13, 1988 at 58 in what was probably a freak accident, falling from a second-story window, Baker apparently trying to get back into his locked hotel room from the outside. As for the movie, it leaves the viewer wanting, with so many questions left unanswered (at least satisfactorily) but it’s a fascinating film nonetheless and recommended.
- Stuart Galbraith IV