Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Damani Baker and Alex Vlack's2009  documentary Still Bill is a quiet biography  about Bill Withers.  He's the guy who wrote and sang huge 70s and 80s hits like  Ain't No Sunshine,  Lean on Me,  Use Me and Just the Two of Us (not to mention Grandma's Hands, Kissing My Love, Lovely Day and Who is He?). 

 If you suddenly remember his rich voice and wonder when he died. . . well, he's very much alive and well.  In the movie he celebrates his 70th Birthday. (He's 72 now).

If you're wondering what  he's  been doing since he last recorded an album in 1985, the answer is:  being a father, husband and not feeling like he needed to show off or prove anything to anybody.

There was a time when I was like, I want everyone to look at me, to know me.. but now, this is not that time.  I'm not feeling that way.-Bill Withers 

The film begins with Bill Withers performing one of his best remembered songs; Ain't No Sunshine in 1971. It begins with the strum of his guitar and then that rich emotion-filled voice.   You know the song, probably so well you take it for granted and don't notice what a beautiful simple song it is; still is.  It was the song that launched his career, made him a huge cross-over star who wound up have a #1 AND #2 hit on the pop charts the following year with Lean On Me and Use Me.  And he soon became too famous.

‘You sure get better good lookin', when you have a hit record I'll tell you that."-Bill Withers

The film shows us Bill Withers at his very nice home in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter (he also has a son with Asperger's who was just entering law school).  We see a clip of him on the Johnny Carson Show in 1971 talking about how he enjoyed building toilets for airplanes.  In fact on the day he got the letter telling him he was being called back to work (after a long lay-off), he also got a letter confirming his upcoming appearance on the Johnny Carson show.
 
We get a bit of tour of his home.  "I'm a senior citizen," he explains to an old friend while camera watches. "That's okay. I'm okay with my graying hair and my narrowing shoulders."  He has a large bedroom that's been converted into a professional recording studio with a huge mixing board.  But he doesn't use it.  As he walks the camera man into the studio he comments: "Here's all this stuff that I don't know how to work."

We aren't told how he suddenly became a pop star (recording his first albums for Sussex Records) or the problems he had when he became a Columbia Records Artists and A&R men and so-called blacksperts aka white guys who thought they knew what black artists should record started trying to tell him to record. We hear the story about how one of the blacksperts  strongly suggested he record the Elvis Presley song: In the Ghetto and we can still see how that memory still hurts and angers, him.

Withers hasn't released any music since 1985 and avoids singing in public or even in front of friends.

 Eventually we start learning a little bit more about him.

"I grew up in a place called Slab Fork, West Virginia, I'm sure you've vacationed there many times, swam in our creek. . .."  Bill Withers

Withers actually goes back and visits the town he grew up in.  Something he said in the 1980s he would never do since everyone he knew was gone from there.   He walks through the small town with the Mayor, remembering how the mining company owned the houses where people lived, and ran the store where everyone bought their supplies and food.    He stops at the house he grew up in and remembers how his grandmother used to sit on the porch, clap her hands and sing songs.  It makes the song he made in 1971 Grandma's Hands more personal and poignant.  He visits the white graveyard and then finds his brother's grave marker (from 1942) in an overgrown section of the woods where the Black Cemetery is.  He isn't able to find his father's gravestone.  "Take care pops."

It takes a while to get to know Bill Withers in this film.  He reveals things to us and the cameras in little bits and pieces.  We have to figure some things out for ourselves.  We learn some surprising things about him.  If you listen close you'll hear him admit he wrote "Use Me" in his head while working on an assembly line at McDonnel-Douglas, and Grandma's Hands when he was with Weber Aircraft.  He ran them in his head many times, so he wouldn't forget his ideas before he had a chance to write them down.

But that's not what I mean when we learn some surprising things about him.

No, Not that he was a Navy mechanic for 9 years or he spent some time in Guam, or even that he worked for McDonald Douglas and Weber Aircraft doing things like building airline toilets; no.  We learn something else about him.

For 28 years he was a stutterer.  We don't find out how he got over his affliction, but we can assume he simply worked through it, probably through his singing and performing.  He used to get up and sing after a couple of beers with whatever the piano player could play.  His Army friends remember he was fond of Johnny Mathis songs apparently.  At one point he tells a friend he didn't actually own his own guitar until 1970!  He borrowed his sister's guitar before that.

Throughout Still Bill, there are parts of a conversation Withers has with Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley.  They ask him a few questions, they praise him as an artist, doing a bit of analysis on his music while the cameras roll.  It's obviously something that was done for the film, but towards the end of the movie West leans in and asks Withers:  What would you want your legacy to be?     Withers thinks about the question and isn't sure how to answer it.  He thinks about it, but doesn't answer it-verbally at least.

If I had some showin' off steroids, man you would be tired of me. I need a little injection in my showin' off gland you know? - Bill Withers

In one of the most emotional and moving sequences of Still Bill we got with Withers when he accepts an award from a stutters association.  He says this when accepting the award:

When you are a kid you want to be cool and be with the cool people, but that doesn't always happen, if you can learn to value the people that value you, that's what it's all about.

Later he is meeting 30 or so kids from the school.  He listens to them sing and then he offers some anecdotes and advice.  He is brought to tears with the encounters.

You know what I noticed when we were introducing ourselves to each other?  It's almost like fingerprints.  We each have our own style of stuttering which makes us unique. I really identify with people who stop at their name.  Last night (I was at a thing with a fairly well known painter, a friend of mine) and there were a lot of people athletes and other people that I've known in my life so I wanted to say hello to people and introduce myself and I went over to this one guy and man I got stuck  and it brought back memories because there was a woman with him and she started laugh.  It was Fear of the perception of the listener.  This fear that makes us apprehensive, right at the point of trying to speak that stops us.  Well one of the ways to deal with the fear is to approach people with a prepared forgiveness.  We have to be more civil than most people that we will encounter.  Having had to deal with people who have not understood me a lot, maybe helped me wait a little beat to where I can extend something that hasn't  been given to me and I think that makes you a much better person."

Wow.  That was one of the most powerfully honest moments I've seen in a movie in a long time.  And there's a few others I haven't told you about, and I will restrain myself from telling you about them.  You'll just have to see Still Bill for yourself now and get to know this unique singer songwriter, father, husband, ex-stutterer, 70 something guy. 

Two more quotes.   He tells this to his daughter-an aspiring singer-songwriter herself :

It's okay to head out for wonderful , but on your way to wonderful you are going to have pass through alright and when you got alright, take a good look around and get used to it, because that may be as far as you are going to go.

And this:

I think I'm kind of like pennies, you have them in your pocket but you don't remember they are there.

DVD EXTRAS:

Deleted scenes are presented as  three "conversations," totaling about ten minutes: "Conversation with Bill Russell, Jim Brown & Bernie Casey," "Conversation with Graham Nash," and "Conversation with Ernie Barnes." They provide additional insight into Withers and are worth watching.

There are 3 full Performances (about 13 minutes worth) from the 2008 Celebrate Brooklyn Withers tribute concert: "Who Is He and What Is He to You" performed by Corey Glover ( which we see part of in the movie), "Stories" performed by The Swell Season, and "Ain't No Sunshine" performed by Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket.    Good performances. 

NOTE:

Damani Baker and Alex Vlack got the idea for making a movie about Bill Withers in 2001.  Not much was known about Withers since he left the music business in 1985. They couldn't get much access to Withers and started instead to produce a concert of his music which would lead to a discussion of the influence he has had.  Then they got a four hour interview with Withers and went on a trip with him to his hometown of Slab Fork, West Virginia.  Two years and 300 hours of interviews and film later, Baker and Vlack finished their Withers film in 2009.

BOTTOM LINE:

Still Bill is a quiet sort of documentary that mimics the laid back, almost Zen like demeanor of its subject Bill Withers.  We don't learn everything about him but we get to learn a lot about this interesting singer-songwriter who turned his back on the musical industry in 1985 and barely looked back.  We get to experience some new things along with Bill that fills him (and us) with happiness and joy.

Added to the Celebrate America Write-Off Series in honor of eps member Texas-Swede becoming a U.S. Citizen!!!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening