Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune -- Film Review

5:25 PM PST 1/2/2011 by David Rooney

Kenneth Bowser's terrific documentary is a poignant portrait of an uncompromising artist who, despite a struggle with depression that eventually led to his suicide at age 35, believed in the power of music as a tool for social and political change.

While the singer-songwriters most associated with the 1960s folk movement tend to be names such as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Bowser presents a persuasive case that Phil Ochs was a more hardcore political agitator than any of them.