Showtime’s ‘Sid & Judy’ Offers Unique Perspective Into Complicated World Of Judy Garland


Showtime’s ‘Sid & Judy’ Offers Unique Perspective Into Complicated World Of Judy Garland

This week, Showtime jumps into the legendary celebrity revelation arena with the release of the documentary Sid & Judy, a look into the complicated relationships and career of Judy Garland following her MGM exit in 1950. Sharing the story primarily through the lens of third husband and manager Luft, documentarian Stephen Kijak sheds new light on what he calls “the great second act” of Garland’s career. The documentary moves through the meeting and marriage (1952-1965) of the couple through her death in 1969 at the age of 47.

Gaining access to a wealth of material, much unpublished, from the Sid Luft Trust, Kijak tells a unique and thought-provoking story of the frequently over-exposed and misunderstood icon. Rare photos and recordings, including many of Luft’s taped telephone conversations with Hollywood insiders, offer a springboard into understanding the environment and attitudes swirling around the beloved performer.

In a world that continues to embrace and celebrate Garland, the documentary adds more details to a biography that never seems to be quite finished and offers another fascinating angle to those who can’t stop wondering about the Wizard of Oz legend.

“Even for the fans, we find that it’s been a bit of a revelation,” said Kijak in an interview with me about the documentary that will be released on the heels of the new biopic Judy starring Renée Zellweger. To date, that feature film has earned an estimated $15.5 million at the U.S. box office, proving that half a century after her death, Garland remains a box office draw.

As in the 2018 film John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky directed by Michael Epstein, audiences are offered a more intimate glimpse into relationship and career shifts, transitions and challenges.

Narrated by Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sid & Judy also includes never before seen photos from avid Garland collector and expert Michael Siewert that highlight Garland’s beginnings.

With perhaps more psychosocial conscience than most sensation-driven celebrity-based tales, Kijak’s balanced approach leaves the viewer to ponder and better understand the depth and dilemmas of the superstar. Sid & Judy showcases what happens when a person is controlled by those who view her as a commodity.

“The pieces we chose I think were extremely important in giving people a new perspective or new angle on kind of what was going down and also just how people treated her and talked about her, talked about women in general,” explained Kijak regarding the pervasive misogyny of the situation and the times that has lingered to this day. One of Kijak’s challenges was to always “craft a counterpoint” to the material he presented via Garland’s own voice from spoken recordings or songs.

Creating this type of balance seems to soften the harshness that Garland sometimes conveyed. The documentarian believes that by contextualizing her words that sometimes became rants, audiences can gain insight into the world that generated these responses and understand the basis of her rage and anger.

While Kijak is no stranger to taking on music documentaries (Stones in Exile, Back Street Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of, We Are X, If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd), working with the legacy of Garland and Luft was a different experience for him.

“I always try to go into the kind of the creative center of the artist and look at that and go, ‘How does that guide me and tell me how to tell this story?,’” explained Kijak who quickly learned the complexity of Garland and her environment and the unparalleled multifaceted talent of the superstar.

“She was a great interpreter. And it’s like the music is one aspect of it. I mean, she’s vaudeville, she’s radio, she’s movies, she’s stage, she’s— it’s TV. It’s like this one artist has arced over almost every great American entertainment art form over the course of her life. There’s very few people that have been that.”

“It’s like fanatically a lot richer in so many ways than a lot of stories that we’ve told before. And it’s, it’s just down to her. And again, it’s the weight of history she carries through her in her voice and in her performances that is kind of unlike anything that we’ve seen before.”

Watch the trailer for Sid & Judy.


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