Details from IMDB:
You Can Call Me Bill
Original title: William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill
An intimate portrait of William Shatner’s personal journey over nine decades on this Earth, You Can Call Me Bill strips away all the masks he has worn to embody countless characters, and reveals the man behind it all.
- Director
- Writer
- Star
Initial Thoughts:
I suppose there was never any doubt I was going to watch this, while I have heard people say Shatner is an asshole, he’s Captain Kirk and I will always love him for Star Trek. That said, I had forgotten about it but was reminded a month or so ago when Rebecca, from Geekshow Podcast (it’s awesome check them out!), talked about it and how she enjoyed it, I remember she said that Shatner was a little more enlightened than he used to be, so I this weekend I gave it watch, seeing it was on Netflix.
Main Points:
This is an unusual interview ask very few questions and let Shatner ramble on for long periods of time. He does have topics and of course they talk a good bit about Star Trek/Kirk but mostly you just get to see what a man in his 90s thinks about often, loneliness and death. I’m a positive person so I’m not going to dwell on it here but just as a precaution for anyone who is triggered by that kind of talk, it’s there. Mostly, however, it is really a movie that, as Rebecca says, people can change even when they’re really old. I think that Shatner, like most people, had some changes to his mindset as he got into his senior years and the trip to Space just gave him the little nudge he needed to think about what’s important and deeper topics. I know there are people that will laugh at some of things he says, and yes some ideas are rather ridiculous, but I really liked the points he was trying to make about how if everything is connected, then maybe we can make a change and that will spread throughout the universe.
There is also plenty of the usual biography setup as they go through his life from birth to present and show the many things he’s done, besides Star Trek. I really enjoyed him in “Boston Legal” and would encourage you to check it out, James Spader is really good in it too. So you learn about the more obscure roles he’s had and get to learn a lot about horses! I had forgotten how he has a minor obsession with them, made sure that he was riding one in Star Trek: Generations. Also, of course, it was wonderful so see clips of him on the Space-X trip to space and get his reaction after coming back down to earth, I hadn’t seen that before it was quite touching.
Final Thoughts:
I was sober when I watched this but I think you might enjoy it more if you were high (and yes I’m high now, couldn’t resist the meta!) as it deals with a lot of deep concepts and ideas. For example, Shatner said when he dies he will become a seed and then a tree, and I’m doing the same thing. If you love nature it’s a beautiful thing to do, you help the world one last night and if you get lucky enough to be a long lived tree, in a sense you could be around for another hundred years or more 🙂 I’m not sure why people are so hard on this movie, if you like Shatner and you can handle him rambling, like old men often do, then there is plenty to like here. I give this 8 out of 10 and would highly recommend it to any Shatner/Trek fans. Due to some coarse language and mature ideas ages 13+.