Main Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Gabriel Macht, Marley Shelton, Christina Applegate, Michael Shannon
Release Year: 2003
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
One man goes above and beyond the call of duty (and possibly the limits of the law) to give a good friend the final send-off he wanted in this comedy drama, which was inspired by a true story. Phil Kaufman (Johnny Knoxville) is a self-described "road mangler" and "executive nanny" who minds the day-to-day business of a number of rock musicians, including the man he considers his best friend, country rock pioneer Gram Parsons (Gabriel Macht). Kaufman and Parsons share a deep love of the strangely beautiful deserts of California's Joshua Tree Park, and the two made a solemn pledge that whichever man outlived the other would take his dead friend's remains to Joshua Tree and release his spirit by setting fire to the body. When Kaufman gets word that Parsons has died of a drug overdose, he hops on his motorcycle to make good on his promise, but it doesn't take long for matters to get complicated -- Barbara Mansfield (Christina Applegate), one of Gram's many ex-girlfriends, arrives claiming to have a will declaring her the heir to his estate, and she isn't about to let Kaufman get in her way, while Stanley Parsons (Robert Forster), Gram's father, simply wants to pick up his son's body and take him back to New Orleans for burial. Not about to go back on his word, Kaufman has to scramble to claim Gram's body, and is forced to enlist the aid of Larry Oster-Berg (Michael Shannon), a slightly scrambled hippie who owns a hearse. Grand Theft Parsons features a cameo appearance from the real Phil Kaufman, whose autobiography Road Mangler Deluxe provided the basis for the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Grand Theft Parsons is a 2003 film based on the true story of the country musician Gram Parsons (played by Gabriel Macht) , who died of an overdose in 1973. Parsons and his road manager, Phil Kaufman (played by Johnny Knoxville) made a pact in life that whoever died first would be cremated by the other in the Joshua Tree National Park, an area of desert they both loved and cherished.
The death of singer Gram Parsons prompts Phil Kaufman to fulfill his promise and a subtle black comedy unwinds, with Kaufman bribing mortuary personnel, renting a psychedelic hearse from Larry Oster-burg, and trekking across the U.S. with him, pursued all the while by Parsons' ex-girlfriend with Kaufman's girlfriend and Parsons’ father.
Grand Theft Parsons was shown in "Park City at Midnight" section at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.[1]
In his review for the New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote, "Parsons himself might have written a surreal, funny-sad ballad about the aftermath of his own death, but Grand Theft Parsons is little more than a surreal anecdote, told in too much detail and without enough soul or imagination to make anything more than a footnote to a legend".[2] Kimberley Jones, in her review for the Austin Chronicle, wrote, "Black comedy can be a beautiful thing, but Grand Theft Parsons consistently misses that mark for a more bottom-feeding tasteless and broad, with the occasional ham-handed, soulless stab at sober reflection".[3]
Bryan Appleyard for the Sunday Times said that Grand Theft Parsons was "A gem of a film… Grand Theft Parsons is a delight" and Time Out called it "A cult in the making." It is thought that the film polarized reviewers, with those who were fans of Gram Parsons being generally unimpressed that the first film about their hero showed him being driven around in a casket and those film fans who had no strong feelings one way or the other and were unaware that there was any controversy at all. Overall, the reviews were kind and the Times newspaper, who sponsored the London Film Festival where the film had its World première, called it "[An] entertaining, picturesque gonzo journey".
