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The El Duce Tapes Blu-ray unearths a volatile, disturbing, and strangely revealing portrait of one of underground rock’s most infamous figures. In the early 1990s, aspiring filmmaker Ryan Sexton hauled a bulky camcorder into the sleaziest clubs and most derelict apartments of Hollywood, capturing hours of raw VHS footage of shock-rock provocateurs The Mentors and their notorious frontman El Duce. Long forgotten and never seen by the public, these tapes resurface three decades later through the team behind The Nightmare and Room 237, along with the editor of Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist.
As the footage is pieced together, The El Duce Tapes Blu-ray reveals a tragicomic, unsettling study of performance, provocation, and the man beneath the executioner’s hood. Moving somewhere between The Decline of Western Civilization and Crumb, the film interrogates what El Duce’s willfully offensive persona, self-destructive worldview, and cultural impact can still tell us about America today. Hailed as essential viewing and praised by John Carpenter as “dark and irresistible,” this documentary is confrontational, uncomfortable, and impossible to ignore.
directed by: Rodney Ascher
starring: El Duce, Ryan Sexton, Steve Broy
2019 / 104 min
The El Duce Tapes [Blu-ray] w/slip
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Brand new audio commentary with The El Duce Tapes crew
• The Ryan Sexton Tapes – 34-minute illustrated audio conversation between Ryan Sexton and producer Tim Kirk
• The Nilbog Tapes – video of the band recording the original score
• More El Duce Tapes – alternate assembly of unused material
• Tape 2: Hollywood Reservoir – raw tape offering behind-the-scenes insight into the shoot
• El Duce Stories – cut-up montage of El Duce’s rambling anecdotes
• Return to Rape Rock Mountain – new interview with Steve Broy aka Dr. Heathen Scum
• Reality Check – performance by the all-female tribute band The Womentors
• Reversible sleeve with newly commissioned artwork by John Pearson and reverse art by Benjamin Marra
• First pressing only booklet featuring new writing by Manish Agarwal