Framing John DeLorean

By: Ashlee Dell’Arciprete

A film with multiple meanings in its title, Framing John DeLorean, tells the story of the man behind the car, the DeLorean – a man you either did not know of or wanted to forget. And if you haven’t heard of the man, you’ve probably at least heard of the car. While the film is a documentary, it takes an interesting approach to the genre as a one that is merged with narrative scenes and archival footage with both subtle and dramatic cuts throughout to portray both sides of a once-notorious man.

Framing John DeLorean depicts the life of John DeLorean (Alec Baldwin) as he attempts to fulfill his life-long dreams of having his own car empire. The film spans from his early career to its peak after founding the DeLorean Motor Company and creating the DMC-12 car, which is followed by the shocking downfall that came after. He had the quintessential life that most only dream of until to have it all crash.

John Z. DeLorean was infamously known for founding the company DMC, or DeLorean Motor Company, and creating one of the most iconic cars still to this day – the DMC-12. Younger age demographics like myself could identify the DMC-12 as the car from Back to the Future, which featured the muscle car at the height of the controversy. But who was he really?

Framing John DeLorean documents and shares some of the highlights of DeLorean’s career as a backdrop before it begins to re-examine some of the missteps that happened along the way. DeLorean was the golden boy of General Motors, having invented the first muscle car with the Pontiac GTO and became the youngest head of a division at GM. But where great success for DeLorean came then too came his obsession to have more success. He left GM to form his own automobile company, John DeLorean Motors, which thus led to the DMC-12 car. Unfortunately, the attempts at successfully mass reproducing the car failed with many of them succumbing to major defects. In order to make up for the 3,500 cars he invested in the shady cocaine deal that led to his fall and deceived everyone who knew him.

The story of DeLorean is told by the people who once knew him best, including Bill Collins (Josh Charles), John Valetra (Dean Winters) and Jim Hoffman (Michael Rispoli) through dramatized encounters. The real-life children of John DeLorean, Zach and Kathryn DeLorean, are also interviewed in the film with differing lasting memories of their father. After the downfall of DeLorean the documentary depicts his children and wife Cristina Ferrare, portrayed by Morena Baccarin, as they are completely blindsided and must deal with the fallout.

The title of the film is a play on words in its filming style and manner in which DeLorean was arrested; a unique perspective of being framed while being in the frame. With the movie being narrative-fused, it is also quite meta in showing commentary from Alec Baldwin before shooting a scene as DeLorean, as well as re-enacted archival and surveillance footage of the real DeLorean. The film culminates in Alec Baldwin recreating the drug bust caught on said video that ended DeLorean’s career, focuses on the interviews with his children to learn what happened after and how ironic the Back to the Future trilogy must be for them. As he is no longer alive, it is evident that Baldwin attempted to explore who DeLorean really was in order to propose what may have been happening from his perspective – outside of what is seen in the surveillance footage.

Framing John DeLorean attempts to unravel the story of the man behind one of the most iconic cars whose controversial business practices and desperate need for power unraveled to a life clouded by scandal. The editing and unique direction by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce work to create a worthwhile viewing experience that brings you on an intimate behind the scenes look at the man behind the car. Framing John DeLorean frames the car mogul in more ways than one and will have you unable to believe that it’s a true story.

Framing John DeLorean held its World Premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City with a theatrical release to follow on June 7.