Steve-O: Rise and Demise

I recently had the opportunity to watch the MTV special on Steve-O, titled Steve-O : Rise and Demise. The movie is a documentary featuring Steve-O which shows his upbringing, how he became famous, his addiction to drugs and alcohol, and how he overcame his addiction. Parts of the film are shot solely by Steve-O himself. There is talk about how Steve always needs to have attention and how he always need to be around a camera. His "Jackass" friends talked about how he would do ridiculous stuff just to get airtime on TMZ and that sort of knock off fame. After the Jackass era and Wild Boyz shows came to an end, Steve began to heavily use drugs and drink to the point of hospitalization. They said in the film that Steve easily gets attached and needs to feel like he is part of a family, and when the shows he starred in were done shooting he lost control of himself. He was heavily addicted to nitrous oxide, ketamine, cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol. During this documentary/biography Steve would stay up for days on end doing drugs and filming himself doing stupid acts. Most of the time no one else was even in the room. On several occasions Steve was admitted to rehab or "the loony bin." However it was never for himself, he was always trying to please someone else....he didn't feel he had a problem. One day he sent a suicidal style email to a few of his friends, and that email scheduled his own intervention. His friends showed up and said Steve your going to rehab, Steve-O simply replied, ok, and that was that. He has been clean for over a year now.

The film was very interesting to watch. It was intense and demeaning at points, but yet very entertaining. I felt the aura of the movie was dark, yet hilarious at points. The film was shot by friends, cameramen, Steve himself, and then often the camera was just placed on a desk or stool, and Steve would just act out in front of it by himself. The film displays a message that drugs can be fun, but when taken too far they can severely alter ones life to the point that they don't even know they have a problem.