Review of Let's Get Lost

Chet Baker was a redneck pimp,junkie,thief,fantasist,fraudsman trumpet player.But most of all he was a junkie.Dope defined his life.For 35 years everything he did was directed towards getting his next fix.Like Serge Chaloff Woody Herman's baritone sax player,Baker turned other musicians on to junk.His role in the death of the brilliant young pianist Richard Twardzyck in the 1950s has never been completely resolved.Baker apparently fell to his death through an open window long after America had given up on him and like a hired gun he hawked himself around Europe playing for anybody who could pay him a few hundred bucks.Unfortunately,for many jazz lovers he appeared to cut a tragic even Byronic figure,an image he was more than happy to exploit,hence the conception of "Let's get lost",although the execution may have left him not quite so amused. His enervated,faltering trumpet playing has been hailed as sensitive and soul - baring,but the fact of the matter is he could never get his false teeth quite right as his gums shrunk due to his poor diet and drug abuse.He gave so many different accounts as to how he lost his real teeth that nobody knows for a fact how it came about. Coming to the fore at a time when so - called "Modern Jazz" was rife with heroin users,Baker was not strong enough a character to hold out against its use.Like his contemporaries Stan Getz and Art Pepper,he was soon hopelessly addicted.In Gerry Mulligan's innovative quartet both he and the leader were on the needle.Ironically,Getz replaced Mulligan on one recording when Gerry was "indisposed". Paradoxically,Baker was an incredible advert for the restorative power of decent junk because he actually lived to a reasonably ripe old age for a lifetime user even if he did look about 80 when he died. He comes over in the movie as a unbearably selfish egomaniac living in a permanent drug - induced stupor.He is a barely - living legend who chose to hurt everybody who ever tried to get close to him or help him. The brilliance of "Let's get lost" lies in the unflinching eye of the camera that shows us the facade of the Great Jazz Figure then goes on to de - construct it before our eyes,revealing the self - serving,lying desperate junkie underneath.It is not a movie to be enjoyed,but it is a movie to admire - a rare example of the documentary as a full three -dimensional portrait of a less than endearing subject.