The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Phil Spector

Produced for the BBC, this documentary builds on an exclusive interview with Phil Spector during his first trial—the one that resulted in a hung jury—for the shooting death of Lana Clarkson. Not surprisingly, Spector complains in a half-paranoid/half-legitimate fashion about the unfairness of public perception. (Regarding that infamous photograph of Spector donning an electro-shocked ’fro, he claims it was a misconstrued tribute to Detroit Pistons center Ben Wallace. No, really.) But mostly, Spector and the movie make a case for Spector’s legacy as one of the great musical geniuses of our time, the mastermind behind the multi-layered “wall of sound” that elevated the role of a producer in studio recordings—in his case, above the artists themselves. 

Updated 09/29/2010