Declaring Yourself: A Review of Man in the Camo Jacket
“Declare yourself an unsafe building.” I can’t get that line from The Alarm’s 1981 debut single, “Unsafe Building,” out of my head. The lyric and its sentiment of acknowledging weakness in order to rebuild are the strongest threads through Man in the Camo Jacket, director Russ Kendall’s documentary about Alarm frontman-turned-solo artist Mike Peters. The film could have easily focused on Peters’ rich musical career. But it transcends the predictable Behind the Music-style drama of many music documentaries to become a portrait of hope. We are privileged to tag along on Mike’s several journeys of reinvention, from resurrecting his career after leaving the Alarm to his battles with cancer. The first step toward any reinvention, we learn from Mike, is having the strength to let yourself fall apart.
Cinephellas 