Who Killed the KLF? (2021) User Reviews

Botched Ending...

[Carlineus · 7/10 · 9 April 2022]

I'm a fan of the KLF, and was pretty excited to watch this. For most of the run time I was mesmerized; I caught tidbits that I already knew and saw many more that I didn't know about. Understanding the KLF is sort of like nailing Jello to a tree, mostly pointless. I appreciate the music, tolerate the "art", and deal with how it all ended.

I was just as disappointed with the ending to this film. While I wouldn't call WKtK an all consuming encyclopedia of things KLF, I was a bit confused by the omission of 2K, the Band that released "F*** The Millennium". Why not mention this? It was clearly a part of the Cauty and Drummond timeline, and could have filled the "23 year gap" a bit. I'm guessing that by leaving it out it served the not talking about the Million Pound burning for 23 years plot point a bit better. Sloppy.

The film also seems to paint the duo as geniuses that the rest of us just couldn't quite understand, but the reality is that they met their goal and became so "quirky" that it was impossible to understand them. (My regret is that their goal could have been a bit loftier.)

Not bad

[haniltonscott · 6/10 · 20 May 2023]

Well can I just say that to the people who are complaining about the documentary not being good enough and not what they expected from the klf well to be fair they didn't want this documentary aired at all and started legal proceedings against the producers who actually made this documentary which I believe had something to with James corden's production company so yes there was alot of things in it that maybe didn't make much sense and wasn't what alot of people expected from this pair of guys who were behind it but as I said before it wasn't them who actually wanted it aired and would almost certainly have done it differently so maybe take that into account.

Witty, thought provoking story

[cleonidou · 8/10 · 1 July 2023]

If you loved the KLF and their antics, this is a great film to watch. If you're not sure who they are, this is a story about a great friendship and the twisted surreal path they took in the 90's. It ask what real success looks like? Questions the power of money? Media? Also , what is art and who decides it's value? How easily an industry can be manipulated? This film may leave you with more questions than answers, but I found it a delight to watch with details about the duos exploits I did not know and to gain an insight into what influenced their ethos and their actions. This is truly independent film!

Beyond needed

[BandSAboutMovies · 10/10 · 2 October 2021]

Any time I think that this world is meaningless and doesn't make sense, I remember that it should be meaningless and not make any sense. After all: "The belief that "order is true" and disorder is false or somehow wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the Eristic Illusion."

So then, who are the KLF? The Kings of the Low(er) Frequency? The Kopyright Liberation Front? Kool Low Frequency? Keep Looking Forward? Kevin Likes Fruit? King Lucifer Forever? Or the JAMs? Or the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" Or The Timelords? How about 2K, The K Foundation, The One World Orchestra or The Forever Ancients Liberation Loophole?

What time is love?

"In the year of our Lord Nine Ninety-Two, the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu set sail in their long boats on a voyage to rediscover the lost continent. After many months on perilous, stormy seas, their search was fruitless. Just when all seemed lost, they discovered AMERICA! The music you are about to experience is the celebration of the one thousandth anniversary of their founding of this great nation."

Who would start a song like this? Who would claim that a car wrote their greatest hit, then get on Top of the Pops and then write a book that explained to other bands just how easy it is to make a hit record*? Who would spend all the money they made on an Italian western-influenced movie called The White Room** that was never released, but would lead to the evolution in their sound that would create the hits "What Time Is Love?" and "3 A. M. Eternal?"

And then the KLF became the biggest band in the UK. And maybe soon the world.

But was it what they wanted?

So after the Brit Awards, in which they took the stage with Extreme Noise Terror, the KLF shut itself down. A note would follow: "We have been following a wild and wounded, glum and glorious, **** but shining path these past five years. The last two of which has led us up onto the commercial high ground - we are at a point where the path is about to take a sharp turn from these sunny uplands down into a netherworld of we know not what. For the foreseeable future there will be no further record releases from The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, The KLF and any other past, present and future name attached to our activities. As of now all our past releases are deleted .... If we meet further along be prepared ... our disguise may be complete."

They then deleted their entire catalog. Their Best British Group award was buried near Stonehedge. And thus followed art adventures, as detailed in the film, which I believe shows that they were completely in the right as to burning a million pounds. They also bought a submarine. Drummond also took Zodiac Mindwarp to the North Pole to bury a photo of Elvis to create peace in our time.

But anyway, there's this documentary by Chris Atkins, who made Star Suckers, which was all about man's need to be famous. Does he answer all the questions, which this piece is full of? No. And he shouldn't. He doesn't need to. KLF didn't need to answer why they did their art projects either - they tried - and they still don't.

Alan Moore says in this film that "Our best actions are those which are without lust of result. Our purest actions. Where you've got no result in mind. You're just doing it because it has to be done."

All I know was that I was six minutes into this movie and it had already reduced me to tears. At one point, Drummond and Cauty say that they would often step outside themselves and ask, "What would the KLF do?" And then they would do it.

Damn if that's not the best advice I've heard in my life.

This isn't just the best movie I've seen at Fantastic Fest. It's the best film I've seen in decades.

*To wit: Drummond would write, "Basically it said you had to be on the dole, watch Top of the Pops every week and if you had any instruments you had to get rid of them." Austrian dance band Edelweiss followed the lessons in The Manual and did it; other influenced bands include one-off artist Milton and the Klaxons, whose "Atlantis to Interzone" posits a next century-friendly version of the lessons of The Manual as member Jamie Reynolds would say that he "took direct instructions from it... Get yourself a studio, get a groove going, sing some absolute nonsense over the top, put a breakbeat behind it, and you're away! That's what I did! That's genuinely it. I read that, I noted down the golden rules of pop, and applied that to what we're doing and made sure that that always applies to everything we do. That way, we always come out with a sort of catchy hit number." Chumbawamba member Boff Whalley was also photographed reading the guide; how else can we figure why "Tubthumping" is unlike any song they did before or since? Nobody really reads the real lesson Drummond wrote: "If you wanna have number one...you can have it. It won't make you rich, it won't make you happy, but you can have it."

**According to the essential KLF Online site, the band received plenty of weird mail, the strangest coming from someone who referred to themselves as Eternity who wanted them to sign a contract that would determine the future of their career. This is not covered in the film, but the first term of the contract required the band to make some kind of art that showed the members on a journey to a place called The White Room. There were no rules other than that, but if they created this art, they would be given access to the real White Room.

So they made a movie.

And their lawyer worried - what the hell kind of contract did these guys sign?

Contracts are a big part of the KLF, including ones written on cars and shoved off cliffs.

Although The Contract was between The JAMS and Eternity, Eternity had no address and would not negotiate. Eternity did inspire lyrics and art; the so-called Liberation Loophole that their lawyer discovered would also free them from the contract which is in the movie.

This is the Inner Film. There's also an Outer Film. There's also a segment that connects the two films together.

Yeah, being a KLF obsessive leads one down some rabbit holes.

"Still I'm seeking something And there's something that I'm seeking"

Not bad but a missed opportunity.

[torrascotia · 5/10 · 9 April 2022]

I was keen to see this in the cinema but it didnt really appear anywhere that I was able to attend so it was a surprise when this arrived online. Its been a while since I last thought about it I had to check this was the new documentary and not just a re-release of the burning of the cash film.

These style of docs seem to be made from offcuts of recorded dialogue and archival footage, which on the basis means they can be made by anyone at anytime about anybody, with little input from the bands. As such its basically a montage with some structure while emotive music plays in the background with the odd scene of actors pretending to be the band in unusual places.

The pros are that we get some new information about the band, which is pretty much it.

The cons are greater in number. For a start the documentary is apparently suggesting the KLF were the first to use samples, in 1987, as if hip hop didn't exist. Hip hop was almost entirely samples based music with a few drum machines. Those that were not like stetsasonic were rare. When the band actually state they were trying to make a hip hop record.

There is some background info on their philosophy but like almost every topic its very surface level, the interview footage doesnt go into any great depth its mainly soundbytes.

And while that is the main issue, lack of depth the other is it entirely fails to provide an explanation for anything, in particular the burning of the million pounds. This appears to be a deliberate act of self harm on the part of the group and they obviously have never recovered from it. The telling statement that one of them was prone to thoughts of self harming was their idea of chopping off their hand to throw on the audience which is documented in this title. There is no psychological analysis of the pair which is exactly what this documentary lacked and probably what both of the guys needed to come to terms and gain insight into some of their self destructive actions. To simply put it down to art is lazy as well as an avoidance of accountability.

In terms of burning the cash however, cash is burned on a daily basis when it reaches its end of usefulness, which kind of undermines their act of burning their money. It would have been burned anyway.

The ending brings this all home as it basically ends without resolving anything, it seemed to end 15 mins too early.

I am sure this is a better doc to be made about the KLF however this one will have to do for fans for now.

Apparently the KLF are quite happy with this doc, most likely because it doesnt actually answer anything......which suits their agenda quite well.

Lacks focus and the bigger picture

[eanzalone · 5/10 · 4 June 2022]

Being a KLF admirer since their inception, my biggest problem with this movie starts with the title itself. Everyone who only knows the basics of the JAM's, knows that Drummond and Cauty were always in full control - so, if anyone could have killed The KLF, it would have been them. And hey, guess what the movie concludes.

Then, I wonder why it is even important to ask this particular question. The ending is less important than what they created while the duo was active - yes, this documentary dives into many facettes of their creations, ideas and ideologies behind - but not thoroughly enough.

If you have combed through the internet for any information about the KLF, many segments seems very familiar, as they have been used almost unedited from the original source. Instead of adding more original material, the makers decided to shoot scenes of things that "could have happened this way" in an attempt to create a more immersive experience. But quite frankly, these parts didn't really add to the story, they were actually just a visual filler for the off-text of "re-discovered tapes" where the duo explains certain processes and decisions. And this leads to the most important question: Why weren't there current and exclusive interviews with Drummond and Cauty? Quite simply put: because they refused to work with the filmmakers. This is a reverse domino effect which makes this movie pretty much "unofficial".

So, why 5 stars. Let's be fair: there a few chapters that explained certain actions and events really well. The cornfield actions, the building of a myth (White Room movie, Rites Of Mu, Extreme Noise Terror performance, etc), in general, the whole PR capabilities that came with The KLF - pretty well done.

But it is all rather blurred and leaves out very important key facts, stories and backgrounds - but most of all, it loses focus quite often, and therefore actually becomes boring at some points. And then, when it is focused, it puts the eye on elements that are not really vital and of very economical nature: money, commercial exposure and market value (again and again underlining where they stood on the charts internationally). Those are exactly the elements that didn't matter to Drummond and Cauty, yet, the film dedicates its whole third segment to the (not true) fact that The KLF are remembered as "the band that burnt a million pounds" while, at the same time, stating that not enough people even took notice (many contradictions).

The KLF (co-) invented Trance, Chill Out and Stadium House - but not intentionally. This is being loosely touched upon: the freedom that they had AND made use of. Just when those sparks are about to ignite, they are being extinguished by statements and turns that come from an economical standpoint. Why? Why is so important to always talk about the money - who made it, who lost it and who could have benefited from it? It just misses the whole point (-> money was just a vehicle for the two - they used it to get their works across - and then again made it from just that - there are much deeper lessons and interpretations from this, but the makers decided to not dive any deeper into this).

Instead, the film prefers to ride the "band that had it all: the skills, the tools, the money, all that prospect, yet, wasted it all"-train. While creating certain sympathy with the protagonists, it always represents the viewpoint of the masses. And I believe that exactly that ruins this documentary all the way through - but then again, it has sparks of inspiration.

Once again, let's be fair: "Who killed The KLF" brings up many interesting facts and events, and sometimes puts them into wonderful context. But overall, it misses the actual point about Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty.

It is an ambitious attempt to document the achievements of a creative duo whose impacts can neither be understated nor ignored. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver the full picture, important connections and most of all, the true spirit that Dummond and Cauty brought (and - VERY important - still bring) to the table. Particularly the ending felt very empty and a bit soulless.

I value the attempt - but the real KLF documentary is yet to come (to quote Bill Drummond in a more recent interview: "The best music is yet to come").

Messy, pretentious, unconvincing.

[duncan-160 · 4/10 · 8 July 2022]

I don't believe a word of the 'put together from previously unheard tapes' claims and am hugely suspicious of the provenance of this film, some of the participants claims, and some of the footage. It feels like an attempt to retrofit legendary status to a band and art movement that never really fortified its message, I suspect by the band themselves...but perhaps that's the point.

Having spent four years at art school in the eighties and danced through the nineties in my twenties I don't recall The KLF as much more than a curious novelty act who also happened to have a couple of decent tunes, and certainly not 'the hottest band on the planet with the music world in their hands' as this film claims. The horns, the wheelchairs the money burning etc always seemed an eye-rolling-inducing cry for attention to me, but like all art, good or bad, that's a bit subjective I suppose. I certainly don't remember them being the legends that this film claims them to be, but perhaps that's the point too.

The world definitely needed the KLF and their kind of pop-situationist nihilism should always have a place in the world but they were definitely of their time and this film is too meta to draw any reassuring, or even insightful, conclusions. Perhaps that's the point too.

So I can't help feeling cheated and slightly insulted by this film. They were good, but they weren't THAT good; after all these years, and in a more self-referential and cynical world, I think it would have been more interesting to get something a little more witty and perceptive from Drummond and Cauty rather than an exercise in trying (and failing IMO) to galvanise the myth, and the 'legend', especially when they seem to be saying ultimately, through a haze of regret (whether real or unreal), that their modus operandi was without purpose or any real meaning. The idea of sowing chaos, for instance, is a lot more interesting when viewed though the prism of today's world, but this is never explored.

A missed opportunity, but maybe that was the whole point. Either way, I hope the re-released back catalogue gives them a bit of a pension; just try not to 'burn it' this time.

Boring

[nirvairsr · 1/10 · 13 July 2022]

I don't understand the point of this documentary, it brings nothing new and is just boring. Your better off reading on wiki about the band and your find in 5 mins of reading. Why we're your time watching this for 1hr 40 mins you'll never get back.

Cringe inducing nonsense.

[mic67-136-405068 · 3/10 · 9 August 2022]

I dont get it. I was there at the time and I think the KLF only meant something to the indie music press because at the time the indie music press just didnt get the rave scene. They could latch onto the KLF, but on the acid house/rave scene KLF were a bit of a joke. We all remember them as the wacky guys that burnt a million quid, well thats a bit embarrassing now isnt it? This documentary is just hyped up nonsense. A sort of 80's/90's Spinal Tap, but not funny.

They were already dead.

[TheOneThatYouWanted · 1/10 · 20 September 2023]

Is this movie worth watching? No.

How was the plot? Boring.

Was the budget enough? Yes.

What is this movie saying about our world? Stop techno.

What is your emotional response to this movie? Yawn.

What did this movie make me feel? Bored.

What moments, character, or ideas resonated with me while watching this movie? The end.

What thoughts does this movie spark in me? Run.

What themes are present in this movie? Greed.

Why would someone want to watch this film? Because they didn't change the channel fast enough.

What is one good or cool thing I could say about this movie to someone else? It is in engineering.

What does this movie have to say about the big story we are in? Stop watching movies.

What does it make me think about? Going home.