Hot Rod hero, car customizer, pop artist and merchandise maniac Ed Roth has had such a deep and wide influence on modern culture, his legacy is long overdue for a deep and serious documentary retrospective.
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Thank God this isn't it.
Because while Roth was intense and intellectual about what he did, he was also, above all things, irreverent. Tales of the Rat Fink—directed by Ron Mann (Comic Book Confidential, Grass)—smartly follows this spirit, bucking the form of most documentaries. Instead of the typical testimonials from experts and fellow travelers, Rat Fink mischievously tells Roth's story from the perspective of cars themselves (both Roth's unique creations and other vehicles of various vintages), voiced appropriately by fans like Jay Leno, Paul LeMat (American Grafitti), Ann-Margret, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Smothers Brothers, Z.Z. Top's Billy Gibbons, Beach Boy leader Brian Wilson, author Tom Wolfe (who first lionized Roth in The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby) and Life In Hell/The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. John Goodman does most of the narration as Roth himself from beyond the grave (he died in 2001, but an included interview—see below—reveals that Goodman is an aural dead ringer).
And the tale is a continuously astounding one, of an average Southern California kid who got caught up in the late '40s hot rod culture and catalyzed it into both big business and a revolutionary stance. We are taken on a pedal-to-the-metal ride from the post-WWII era, when the return of automakers to civilian production created an instant surplus of old cars for kids to soup up; to Roth's accidental entry into the pinstriping business (alongside another legend, Von Dutch); to his making of the first illustrated T-Shirts and the legendary anti-Mickey Mouse "Rat Fink;" to his truly custom car creations in the early '60s (innovative both artistically—combining various car parts and unique fiberglass bodywork—and mechanically); to his remarkable models for Revell (whose suggestion that Ed clean-up his image led to the "Big Daddy" tag) and own merchandising manufacture—promoted with ads drawn by a young Robert Williams).
The DVD includes a rare '80s vintage video interview with Roth by Domenic Priore (recent author of "Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece") and footage of a 1983 paint-jam reunion between Roth, Von Dutch and other customizers. A "virtual art gallery," interview with Ron Mann, deleted sequence, music video by soundtrack artists The Sadies, and booklet notes by Pat Ganahl ("Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth: His Life, Times, Cars & Art") round out the package nicely.
At 74 minutes, Tales Of The Rat Fink is nicely paced (with animated Rat Fink moments between "episodes"), always fun, and never insulting to the subject or viewer. Wolfe's performance is particularly droll, as he plays his own car; Groening's appearance denotes not only his love of Roth, but the avowed influence of Roth's "Rat Fink" on arguably his greatest creation, Bart Simpson. And the archival Roth interview reveals that the maverick really knew what he was talking about, in terms of design, technology, and the young rebellious mind.
Conscious that his legacy deserved preservation, Roth donated most of his vehicles, with names like "The Outlaw," "The Beatnik Bandit," "Mysterion," "Orbitron," "Road Agent," "Surfite," and "The Rotar" hovering car, to museums such as that of Harrah's Reno (now the National Automobile Museum; see www.automuseum.org ) rather than see them tampered with in any way. At time of writing, LA's Petersen Auto Museum (www.petersen.org ) is hosting a new retrospective of Roth's work, through May 2007.
Though only one Roth innovation—the 3-wheeled motorcycle—ever crossed over into mass production, Roth was an innovator not only in looks but in function (just for one example, he presaged the modern GPS system), and his creations will undoubtedly go on to influence many realms for generations. The ultimate message of Roth's story though, comes from a fan letter he received back in the heyday: "You made being a weirdo cool."
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