Crazy Legs Conti: Zen & The Art Of Competitive
Eating (Special Interest
Documentary/Blue Underground DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C+ Film: C+
Danielle
Franco and Chris Kenneally do their best to make Crazy Legs Conti: Zen & The Art Of Competitive Eating (2004) an
interesting look at the eccentric window washer who does a bunch of other odd
jobs and participates in other odd moneymaking endeavors, but especially
establishes himself as one of the most successful competitive eating contestants
around. They squeeze (no pun intended)
as much as they can in 72 minutes and end while they are ahead.
Between
nude modeling (he is not in the best shape) and sperm donation (ditto) for
starters, this plays out the organic nature of everything Conti does and all of
its incoherence and obvious incompatibility showing how unorganized and wacky
his existence is. Are they suggesting because
he has no opportunity that his only options are all not pretty or is it
something more profound about how screwy life in America can be? It could have with more time, but it tries to
capture the man’s life in honest terms and is not bad as a result. Good, but not great because it never breaks
out, the emptiness of Conti’s life may just be reflected by the subtitle of this
release derived from Robert M. Purzig classic book Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.
The 1.33
X 1 image is often soft and edits various forms of analog NTSC video, though
even the new footage can be softer than expected. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is varied and is
monophonic more often than expected.
Extras include extras scenes, a Taste-O-Vision section and full-length
audio commentary by Conti and the co-directors.
- Nicholas Sheffo
