A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory
A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory
| 19 September 2007 (USA)
A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory Trailers

Esther Robinson's portrait of her uncle Danny Williams, Warhol's onetime lover, collaborator and filmmaker in his own right, offers a exploration of the Factory era, an homage to Williams's talent, a journey of family discovery and a compelling inquiry into Williams's mysterious disappearance at age 27.

Reviews
Develiker terrible... so disappointed.
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Amanuencis A Walk Into The Sea asks what and why. It follows a talented filmmaker into a world that most of us can only wonder about. The pacing and music slow us down and create images that allow us to feel, without analyzing, what might have led Danny Williams to walk into the sea and disappear. Esther Robinson, Danny's niece, sets out to learn more about her uncle's death in 1966. The video, with superb editing by co-writer Shannon Kennedy, and entrancing music by Todd Griffin, creates a murky, mysterious, collage of commentary by Warhol associates during the early 60's who skate around Danny's days and nights with Warhol and the Factory. Kennedy's juxtaposition of Factory members images from the 60's with Robinson's interviews from 2005-2007 create a gnawing sense of discomfort and a wish for a final answer. This is the beauty of the film.
jm10701 In this movie, some relatives of a minor flunky at Andy Warhol's Factory try to imply that Warhol was somehow responsible for the guy's disappearance hundreds of miles away in the middle of nowhere.It gives a strong impression (but doesn't say) that the relatives first tried extorting money from Warhol's estate and only decided to make this smear movie when that attempt failed. This attempt should fail too, joining the missing flunky in well-deserved obscurity.I gave it two stars only because it's slightly amusing that the guy's relatives would have the gall to do something so monumentally and so brazenly stupid. Warhol was a neurotic, talentless jerk, but if he or any of his gang took the trouble to murder a nobody like Danny Williams then pigs can fly and George W Bush is a genius. This movie is toxic garbage.
Cosmoeticadotcom The film uncovers no murder plot, and reveals only that Warhol and his cohorts were unsympathetic bastards in real life, despite their public personae. Now, how many other films have reached this 'startling' conclusion? And, as for the purported subject of the film, Danny Williams? Well, he's as much of a cipher at the end of the film as he was at the beginning. Yes, his mother Nadia talks about her son, some 40 years dead, with startling clarity, the sort that is rare for a parent to have for their child. Usually, one hears gushing sentiments, but Nadia speaks openly of her son's drug use and homosexuality and….well, that's about it. The truth is, for all her clarity on what he was, externally, after the fact, she really knew very little about her son. To her, as to us, he is a cipher. The only difference is that she obviously cares for the memory of her son. We, the audience, are not inclined to that emotion since the film never opens him up. Director Robinson had an opportunity to make a film of more substance about the Factory scene, yet- either out of the needed hard work to do so, or a lack of basic curiosity, chose to just lob a softball at us, where a Nolan Ryan-level fastball (high and inside) would have been the better pitch selection.In short, the film is circular and solipsistic, even though its center is a dead man. It is as intriguing as strobe effects, after two or more minutes, and really should have been a thing kept for the archive of Warholia, not the masses. In real life, no one knows what happened to Danny Williams, as his body was never found (the film's title is based on one of the theories of his death). In A Walk Into The Sea: Danny Williams And The Warhol Factory, no one ever knows what is what about Danny Williams: man, mind, art, life, nor soul As such, the film can only fairly be deemed a failure. My only questions are to what degree did Robinson's relation to Williams contribute to that failure (a fear to unleash information?), and lacking such a relation, would there have even been a point for her making the film? While the latter question's answer is rather easy to pin down, I suspect the former one will remain as missing as the sum of Williams.
crossbow0106 This documentary is about Danny Williams, a filmmaker in the mid 60's tied to Andy Warhol and the Factory. Danny vanished at that time, never to be heard from again. I was expecting a detective story, but rather it is a story told in interviews about his contribution to the Warhol legacy and, more important Warhol's relationship (a few say sexual) with Williams. Along with commentary from people who were there, such as Billy Name, Gerard Malanga, Chuck Wein and John Cale, amongst others, Danny's mom, brother and sister speak. Approximately 10 years ago or so, I watched a documentary about Factory denizen Bridget Berlin, which I thought to be a total waste of time. In this film however she is very interesting. I never heard of Danny Williams before this, but the film shows some short works he did which are almost innovative in the use of light. The title of the film suggests that Danny committed suicide, as he vanished after working on a project with Warhol and seemed to be not his usual self. You will probably like Warhol less as a person after watching this, but see it anyway. The clear eyed recollections of the people interviewed are worth the time. The director Esther Robinson is Danny Williams' niece. I don't know if she actually knew her uncle but I'm very happy she made this film as an homage to his talent and legacy. Its a labor of love and if you are at all interested in Warhol, the Factory or the 60's, I recommend this film fairly highly.
Similar Movies to A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory