Secret Lives of Bill Bartell, The (Blu-ray Review)
Director
David MarkeyRelease Date(s)
2025 (February 24, 2026)Studio(s)
We Got Power Films (MVD Visual)- Film/Program Grade: A
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B+
- Extras Grade: B+
Review
Bill Bartell was California’s 70s punk scene’s Zelig. He was everywhere, touched everything, knew everyone and did everything from playing in punk bands (as Pat Fear in White Flag), writing music, writing reviews for the fanzine Flipside, producing and publishing up and coming bands, on to (maybe) being a cop and definitely being a bull rider. But, unless you had met him, you’ll have no idea who he was. And the irony is, even those who met him had no idea who he was. The Secret Lives of Bill Bartell tries very hard to uncover Bill’s truth, but it fails—spectacularly.
We need more Bill Bartells in this world. People who love things so hard it creates multiverses around those things. For good and for bad. One of the best examples of “for good” starts this film. Bill loved Os Mutantes (a Brazilian 60’s tropicalismo band) so much that he would try and turn everyone on to them, handling out discs and tapes. We see at the start of the film, Kurt Cobain talking about his friend Bill while holding a set of Os Mutantes CDs. This led to Bill’s band with Redd Kross (The Tater Totz) covering their music on the 1988 album Alien Sleestaks from Brazil. Which led to Beck (who wasn’t a Bill fan but still knew a good thing) doing his own tribute with his song Tropicália from his album Mutations and on to David Byrne becoming a fan and putting their work out on his label. He did the same thing for Shonen Knife. One of the best “for bad” was that he was a huge fan of the British punk band Generation X and he wanted them in America so bad he talked KISS’ manager Doc McGhee to go there, sign them and bring them to America to tour. So, Doc went to England, saw them and immediately grabbed Billy Idol from the bad and managed him as a solo artist, breaking up the band. You have to be careful how hard you love something; you may end up breaking it. This film covers all this and more, told by the people who loved Bill, hated Bill, put up with Bill and couldn’t believe the things he said and did. You’ll walk away with a lot of information to process. This is a good companion piece to the other documentary about this period with a lot of the same people interviewed and a lot of alternate takes of some of the same stories—you can read my review of Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story here.
Video is overall 1.78:1 anamorphic, but similar to Born Innocent, there is a lot of vintage/archival video of varying degrees of quality—but the transfer looks good and the film is very watchable. Sound is 2.0 stereo which sounds fine. English subs are available.
There are three extras on board. What the disc calls a Bonus Feature Film which is really just a lot of additional footage from the film—it’s a little less that fifty minutes and compliments the film very well. You’ll want to check it out immediately after the feature. There’s a featurette entitled Slamdance 2025 Q&A, which is a Q&A with director David Markey at the premiere screening where he explains away one of the film’s biggest complaints—that the mysterious Bill wasn’t interviewed. Turns out Markey was making this film back in the mid-90s when Bill was alive and Bill refused to cooperate in any way, which slowed things a bit. Once Bill died, it set a fire to get back to it. And there is a theatrical trailer, which is basically the film’s Cobain cold open. There’s a lot of material here about a man who lived a life fit for the pages of a bestselling novel’s main character—and a blank cover.
- Todd Doogan