Words: Hari McDermott (Burrito_Soup)
Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear tells the story of Travis Barker beyond just blink-182, looking at his early life, career, family and some of the huge setbacks he has faced along the way.
I thought the documentary was brilliantly made and did a great job of covering a lot of ground without becoming too focused on any one part of his career. It’s obviously impossible to tell Travis’ entire story in one documentary, but by the end I felt like I understood him a lot more as a person rather than just as the drummer from blink-182.
One of the standout moments for me was the way the documentary covered the 2008 plane crash. Travis tells the story while performing this eerie, dramatic drum solo, and it works incredibly well. It could have easily been overdone, but instead it draws you into what he’s saying and was probably the part of the documentary that stuck with me most.
That section also made me think about something quite sad when it comes to blink-182. Two terrible situations played a part in bringing Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis back together at different points in their lives. The plane crash helped reconnect the band before their 2009 reunion, while years later Mark’s cancer diagnosis brought him and Tom back into contact before the three eventually reunited again. It’s strange to think that it took two situations like that for them to put their differences aside.
The documentary isn’t all heavy, though. Towards the end, you get to see much more of Travis as a family man, and I really enjoyed that side of it. After everything covered earlier in the documentary, seeing him genuinely happy with his family is a nice way for the story to come full circle. He might have the tattoos and the rock star image, but he’s clearly a bit of a softy at heart. Looks can be deceiving.
My only real criticism is that some parts feel rushed. There are chapters of his life that I would have liked the documentary to spend more time on, but it often gets the main point across and then moves fairly quickly onto the next one. With the amount Travis has experienced, I understand why, but another 15 or 20 minutes wouldn’t have hurt.
More than anything, I came away from Louder Than Fear thinking about how many times Travis has been knocked back and just kept going. It doesn’t try too hard to turn his life into some huge inspirational story, but it’s difficult to watch everything he has been through and not take something from it.
I went in expecting a good music documentary and came away feeling like I understood Travis Barker a little better. Even if you’re not particularly interested in blink-182, there’s plenty here that makes Louder Than Fear worth watching.
Louder Than Fear is less about everything Travis Barker has survived, and more about his refusal to let any of it stop him!