Recently, I attended a
regional premiere of I Am Thor; a
documentary about the life of Jon Mikl Thor as he struggles to achieve fame in
his music career. Yes, long before there
was Chris Hemsworth playing Thor in The
Avengers, Jon Mikl Thor lived as Thor
the Metal Avenger. Thor wrote and
starred in the film Rock ‘n’ Roll
Nightmare, a campy B-movie classic.
As a fan of cult movies, it is one of my personal favorites. All in all, I am very glad I did because, not
only is the film fantastic, I ended up meeting Rusty Hamilton at the screening. If you don’t already know who that is then
you will learn shortly.
The film opens with Thor
talking about his early life as a Canadian youngster and about how he always
wanted to be a superhero. Nothing
surprising there, as most kids love superheroes. He would wear a Superman outfit under his clothes
at school and take them off to be Superman.
Interesting, but nothing too crazy yet.
But get this, at recess he would get the other kids to throw bricks at
him in order to show off his superhuman invulnerability. Thor recollects how after getting struck in
the forehead warm blood gushed down to his eyes. Holy shit!
But even with this juvenile head trauma (or some might argue because of)
he never gave up this desire and it would go on to help define his later life.
Young Jon Mikl also learned
accordion from his family which served as his musical introduction. With the advent of the Beatles and rock music
he ditched what must have seemed like a painfully uncool instrument at the time
and learned bass guitar. When his older
brother introduced him to weight training and bodybuilding he used rock as his
prime motivator and he attributes the music to pushing him forward and helping
him do the sets and reps that built him his award winning physique. While still a teen he had won numerous bodybuilding
competitions including Mr. Canada and Mr. USA.
The audience learns how
he worked as a nude waiter for a period of time, during the free love era of
the 70’s. He was the most popular
waiter, with all the ladies fawning over him, until eventually his muscular
body was overshadowed by a new waiter who was just an ordinary guy who was hung
like a mule. According to someone who
had seen an earlier version of the film the first version didn’t feature the
nude picture of Thor from those days that made the final cut. I’m not sure why they bothered to censor the
picture in such a half assed way. The—ahem--
hammer was censored with a black bar but you get to see all of his pubic hair. Eh, I can’t claim to be that shocked or
scandalized. I had already seen Thor’s
ass in Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare.
John Mikl formed an
ill-fated band named Body Rock which
broke down because some of the other members hated each other. When one of the ladies of the group hit a
male member over the head with a chair the band came to a dramatic end. But from the demise of Body Rock came the emergence of Thor, the rock warrior.
While working in Las
Vegas as a performer, Thor appeared on the Merv
Griffin Show and seemed prepped for a meteoric rise. With his new Thor
alter ego he assembled a band and released his debut album Keep the Dogs Away. He
combined his music with some showmanship tricks he learned as a bodybuilder and
on stage he would regularly bend steel bars between his teeth and pop hot water
bottles through sheer lung power. This brought him to the attention of Rusty
Hamilton, who simultaneously worked as both editor and model at Cheri magazine. Rusty and Thor fell in love and she joined
the band where she worked as bandmate and manager using her magazine
connections. The two wed and made for an
awesome rock star couple.
Now is the part where the
story gets weird. As Thor seems ready to
be the next big thing, he gets a new producer, the man responsible for getting
Bruce Springsteen on the covers of both Time
and Newsweek at the same time, a feat
unheard of up until then. His ascent to
fame seemed all but assured. The only
problem was the guy was a nutcase who was a part of some strange new age
religion. Out of the blue, the guy
decides that Thor needs to rewrite all of his songs because the god Seth told
him to. Thor and Rusty were
understandably not too enthused to hear this.
I am not sure the movie
ever said who the producer was but I checked and his name is Mike Appel. He even still has some classic Thor songs on
his official website. From my research,
he also was the producer for another of my favorite bands Sir Lord Baltimore and wrote the lyrics to their songs. Old Seth was apparently no slouch in the
lyrics department, I will give him that.
Appel may have been a lunatic but he helped write the amazing Kingdom Come album. Learning this blew my mind! But Appel is clearly
not squeaky clean: when Bruce
Springsteen sued him he opted to settle out of court.
While the movie never
makes it clear by who exactly (you can probably guess), Thor and Rusty were
kidnapped at gunpoint, held captive for a year while being forced to create a
rock opera. The production looked
incredible-- chariots on stage, Amazons, little people, and other wonders. They were released before its completion, but
this ended the possibility of the rock opera ever seeing the light of day. Even worse, now that they had been targeted
by some sort of organized crime, other producers were afraid to work with them. No charges were ever pressed. His career went up in flames.
Thor tried for a period
of time to live a normal life and just be Jon Mikl once again. But he learned that he couldn’t hang up the
hammer that easily. Eventually the
desire to return to music overcame him.
Rusty, however, couldn’t deal with it anymore. Frankly, after the crap she had to go through,
I understand completely. She had once
been the biggest supporter of her husband’s aspirations but now launching a
comeback of a career which had brought them so much pain and turmoil proved too
much for her. After two decades the
couple separated.
No longer at his youthful
peak of fitness, the older Thor reunites with his old bandmates guitarist Steve
Price and drummer Mike Favata as they chase the fame and recognition that they
had never received. In spite of no
longer looking the part of a rock god Thor still proves capable of putting on a
very entertaining show. In an uncommon
turn of events, Thor has actually gotten heavier over the years subverting the
usual course of rock bands take as they age.
A large part of this is Thor’s voice deepened substantially since his
glam rock 70’s era and instead of ineptly trying to sing in the same manner as
he did then he simply went in a more metal direction.
The band resumed but played
in venues with very limited people.
Those that show up get their world rocked but still no acclaim. Thor has a nervous breakdown and suffers from
depression. He speaks very openly and
candidly about this time which I thought showed real courage. If even the one true wielder of Mjolnir can
speak openly about mental illness then I think we are doing well as a society
and more people have a chance to genuinely beat it.
But through the fog he
reemerges just as determined as ever. If
Thor has a true superpower it is his force of will. You just cannot keep this man down. Over the years he has tried to give up
numerous times but he always ends up going back to chasing his dream. Even having a heart attack didn’t permanently
deter him. Even as his career takes a
toll on his health he keeps soldiering on. Thor is doing better now and has remarried.
The film ends with Thor
on tour in Finland and Sweden where they receive a much better reception than
in the U.S. In other reviews of the film
they attribute this to Thor simply being popular there. While I personally am a fan of Thor I saw
this final bit a little differently.
People were rather indifferent to seeing Mike Favata at first because
the majority were unfamiliar with him.
It wasn’t until they saw the show that they started losing their
shit. Sweden is a pretty metal country
and Finland is probably the most metal of all countries on Earth. Let’s see, Finland has Hanoi Rocks, Stratovarius,
Sonata Arctica and Children of Bodom. Those are just Finnish bands they have that I
can think of off the top of my head.
Thor wasn’t phenomenally famous there it is just at the end of the
concert he had won them over. Trust me,
this was something he damn well deserved to happen. The man even spat out several of his own
teeth on stage while trying to bend steel in his mouth but he still finished
bending it just because he refused to let down the crowd! He was passionate
about what he does and there the fans are truly passionate as well. Since so many more people who love metal
there than in the U.S. he was just beginning to reap the benefits of potential stardom.
Overall, it was a great
film. I would have liked it to talk a
little bit more about Thor’s film career as it is only briefly touched upon but
thematically it was the right choice as it would just bog down the narrative. My biggest complaint is just the fact that
Thor hasn’t yet fully received his happy ending. Thor’s music and theatrics may not be for
everyone but I know that there is a larger audience out there for him.
After the showing I spoke
with Rusty. She seemed surprised I
recognized her, which I thought was very modest. She is out of the music business today but
had nothing bad to say about her ex-husband.
Sorry for those out there hoping for an in depth tell-all about how big
an asshole Thor is. It seems he is, in
truth, a great guy. Buff guys tend to
get seen as dumb meathead bullies. But
Thor is a polite, warm guy who is himself a comic fan and has more in common
with them than jocks who would denigrate them.
Mike Favata compares him to a puppy.
One fan was impressed that after making breakfast for Thor and his band
Thor was so appreciative that he insisted on doing the dishes for him!
Rusty also told me some
other interesting tidbits. For example,
she used the name Pantera while a member of Thor’s band before the band Pantera
came about. She was sure the band hadn’t
done this intentionally, and she had used so many other stage names anyway, she
was fine with letting the band use it. She
also admitted that she had never seen a picture of Thor’s new wife until seeing
the movie. Another surprise for her was
seeing Thor drink a beer in one scene because she said when he was young he
would never touch alcohol, even when he was working in Vegas where everyone
would offer you free drinks and be offended if you turned them down.
To anyone who likes
underdog stories, band documentaries, or just rock/metal music in general I recommend
you check this movie out. It was worth
the 15 years it took to finish it. When
it comes out on DVD I advise you to ride your chariot to the store and buy it.
