DVD Review: Sir Ivan: I Am Peaceman

Sir Ivan: I Am Peaceman is sort of a documentary about Ivan Wilzig, a rich banker who in his forties decided to pursue a career as a singer. It opens with a strange rendition of “Kumbaya,” played with cheesy music video images, and features interviews with Ivan, his mother, his brother and his girlfriend. Ivan talks about leaving the banking world: “I wanted to go from one extreme to the other, from banking to entertainment. And I had to do it quickly at the age of forty-five and let the world know that I was entering the picture.” Sir Ivan does covers of 1960s songs, such as “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Get Together” and “Eve Of Destruction.” He does dance renditions of this music, and he wears capes and jewelry with the peace symbol on them. That’s his thing.

And no, I had never heard of this guy either. In fact, at the beginning of the film I thought the whole thing might be a put-on. It feels like a fake documentary, and there’s a good reason for that: its subject, Ivan Wilzig, is also its executive producer. So it’s basically a puff piece. Still, there is some interesting stuff here. For example, his mother has an erotic art museum, and Ivan talks about his mom’s passion for erotic art. The film treats us to some images from her collection, and of course that is more interesting than a cape. Ivan also talks about his father, a businessman who survived the holocaust. “He didn’t go to Princeton, he didn’t go to Yale, he didn’t go to Harvard. He went to Auschwitz, and never finished junior high school.” The stuff about his father is particularly interesting, how that experience during the holocaust affected the way he later viewed family and business, and how that in turn affected Ivan.

But Ivan himself is not all that interesting. He’s just a rich guy who risked absolutely nothing to pursue a career in music. If he fails, no big deal. After all, he already owns a castle in the Hamptons, where he throws elaborate parties (about which he boasts). Ivan has the money to do things like hire an artist to make a sculpture of his annoying girlfriend, Mina, and we see a bit of that as well. And the music is somewhere between bad and pointless. Just listen to the originals instead. I especially hate his rendition of “Let’s Live For Today,” a Grass Roots song that I love.

The stuff about his popularity online isn’t interesting. And I could do without that footage of Ivan and Mina’s stupid little dog (which also wears a cape) taking a shit on a red carpet. But I do like that the thing bites some girl who is in the process of saying that the dog is cute. (Just for the record, chihuahuas are not cute; they’re ugly, loud, nervous little beasts, and people who carry them around as accessories are the worst kind of people.) And when a bullshit news show compares a party at Ivan’s castle to Woodstock, I want to draw blood.

That being said, Ivan is apparently doing some good things with charity work, including The Peaceman Foundation, which fights hate crimes. And being in favor of peace and love can never be a bad thing. But like I said, Ivan Wilzig is the executive producer of the movie, which is almost certainly the reason the film lacks a balanced viewpoint. The movie is less than an hour long, because, really, how long can you talk about capes?

Special Features

The DVD contains some bonus material, including music videos for “Kiss All The Bullies Goodbye,” “La La Land,” “Hare Krishna,” “Let’s Live For Today” (which he calls “Live For Today,” and yes, the music video made me hate his version of it even more) and “Kumbaya.” There is also some footage of preparations for a party at the castle, as well as footage of the party itself, with Ivan greeting people.

Sir Ivan: I Am Peaceman was directed by Jim Brown, and was released on DVD on August 14, 2015 through MVD Visual.