Dick Johnson is Dead Parent Guide

Dick has been diagnosed with dementia, and his ability to keep up and take care of himself is declining. In order to prepare both of them for the inevitable, his daughter, Kirsten Johnson, sets out to make a film in which Dick suffers increasingly cartoonish accidental deaths – and along the way, explores how she feels about losing her father, and how Dick feels about his deterioration.

This is probably the most unique, compelling, and emotionally complex documentary I’ve ever seen. Equal parts darkly comic and tragically sad, Dick Johnson is Dead walks a weird tonal tightrope, and I could not for the life of me figure out why it works. It’s as if someone told you about a new strawberry-oregano ice cream – and it turned out to be delicious. On paper, this movie should have a massive tone problem but, for whatever reason, it works perfectly.

Dick Johnson Is Dead is completely suitable for family viewing and serves as a good tool for talking about death: something humans are almost invariably bad at. I don’t know that children will get much out of it, but there certainly isn’t any off-putting content. Although there are a number of violent accidents, they are obviously staged –footage of how they set up the stunts is included – and don’t strike me as offensive. The most difficult parts of the film are the scenes reflecting Dick’s slow loss of memory and cognition. Although the long shooting time means we get a good picture of who Dick is before the dementia worsens, watching his inexorable decline is painful for the audience.

I think the biggest reason for the success of the documentary is the fact that Dick Johnson, even as his dementia creeps up on him, is such a wonderfully kind-hearted person. He has a great sense of humor about the whole project, a charming smile, and an openness about his concerns and emotions that is disarming. I doubt this was an intended consequence, but I expect that when Dick Johnson eventually dies, there are going to be a lot more mourners whose grief arises from their experience in getting to know him through this poignant film.