Should Nick Cave Stop Making Films and Stick To Music?

Since kicking off his musical career 30 years ago, Nick Cave has made a point of churning out a novel or screenplay every couple of years. He hasn’t been shy of getting in front of the camera either. While some have been better than others, the King of Goth has ensured that’s he never far from a film set or screenwriters meeting.

The Bad Seeds/Grinderman front man is the subject of 20,000 Days on Earth, a new film which takes both a fictional and nonfictional approach to life. Directed by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth it’s a pseudo-documentary that puts together fictionalized, mostly unscripted scenes from Cave's 20,000th day walking around being Nick Cave. Cave narrates the film, which has him watching Scarface with his kids, hanging out with Kylie Minogue and Warren Ellis and doing some quality brooding.

With 20,000 Days on Earth upcoming release we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the key Cave films.

Ghosts… of the Civil Dead (1988)

Director: John Hillcoat

Screenplay: John Hillcoat, Evan English, Gene Conkie, Nick Cave and Hugo Race

Cave’s first screenplay was shelved in the early 80s for being ridiculously elaborate. A few years later he was invited to partially script Ghosts… of the Civil Dead, about the brutal decline of a correctional facility. Inmates with cool tattoos watch porn and take smack, but things turn sour when their freedoms are slowly stripped away. Stylistically it’s a cross between Orange Is The New Black and Bad Boy Bubby, but just not as good. Cave stars as the psychopath Maynard and screams racial slurs and paints his cell with blood. Apparently he got no coaching, but obviously took acting tips from the straight-jacketed weasel from Toon Patrol.

Johnny Suede (1991)

Director: Tom DiCillo

Screenplay: Tom DiCillo

A virtually unknown Brad Pitt dons a six-inch pompadour to play a guy who thinks all his prayers have been answered when a pair of black suede shoes fall from the sky. It has Jarmusch pacing and never really goes anywhere, except for following the vacuous lead around as he makes crappy decisions in his quest to be the next Ricky Nelson. But it’s definitely worthwhile, even just to see Cave in his fleeting role as an albino guardian angel called Freak Storm, who flies in with an equally impressive pompadour to hand Suede a musical career on a greasy platter. It gets bonus points for the musical score by guitar legend Link Wray.

Rhinoceros Hunting in Budapest (1997)

Director: Michael Haussman

Screenplay: Michael Haussman

This doesn’t appear anywhere online because nobody wants to watch this trite piece of shit dressed up as an art film ever again. In a nutshell: boy gets dumped, employs the help of quirky French girl to find his ex, but in a surprise twist, he falls in love with her instead. After what feels like trillion years we get to Cave who plays Jerry, a titty bar owner with hair to die for. Jerry is much more an involved character than Cave’s other roles, having multiple scenes of actual dialogue. But for the trouble to find this film you might as well just jerk off to Kylie Minogue in "Where the Wild Roses Grow".

The Proposition (2005)

Director: John Hillcoat

Screenplay: Nick Cave

Eighteen years after making their debut with Ghosts… of the Civil Dead, John Hillcoat and Nick Cave have a crack at the great Australian western. Cave penned the screenplay for the fly-infested romp tells the story of a lawman attempting to clean up his rotten town by blackmailing one badass outlaw to murder his even bad-asser brother. Calamity ensues. The whole thing is underpinned with a soundtrack by Cave and long time collaborator Warren Ellis, proving again the singer is an omnipresent force.

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Director: Andrew Dominik

Screenplay: Andrew Dominik

As usual Cave is the ace up the sleeve, his appearance held back until the closing scenes of this two-and-a-half-hour movie. As the long-winded title spells out, this slow burner is about the death of American train robber Jesse James by way of bullet to the back of the head, fired by one of his gang members. Cave appears after the outlaw’s demise for his role as an old-timey troubadour who regals drunks in the Bowery saloon. He suitably pisses off Robert Ford with his cheery yet unflattering rendition of "The Ballad of Jesse James" before disappearing into the shadows and leaving Ford with his fury.

Lawless (2012)

Director: John Hillcoat

Writer: Nick Cave

Guy Pearce makes for a wonderful creep. Playing a corrupt prohibition-era lawman with the most insane oil-slick hairdo, he’s out to nail a trio of bootlegging brothers by any means necessary. Scripted by Cave, the film is based on the historical novel written by a direct descendant of the aforementioned brothers. Cave says he tried to incorporate as much of the violence from the book as he possibly could but reckons he couldn’t cram it all in, he did a pretty good job though. A++ would watch again.

20,000 Days On Earth (2014)

Directors: Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard

While this purports to be a documentary, it’s more complex than that. It is contrived slice of Cave’s life, supposedly set on the 20,000th day of his existence - but is obviously filmed over a much longer timeframe. Cave maintains the mysterious and “godlike” facade he has built over the years by allowing people to see what he has controlled, and in part, scripted. Full of surprising humour, the film was brilliantly put together in conjunction with British artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, who are known for re-creating historical musical events such as The Cramps 1978 Napa Mental Institute performance.

'20,000 Days On Earth' opens August 21.

Read more from Danielle here.