Is the Anthony Bourdain AI Voice in ‘Roadrunner’ an Ethical Lapse? Maybe So, but Documentaries Have Been Sliding Away From Reality for Years (Column)

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I first learned that “Roadrunner,” Morgan Neville’s documentary about the life and death of Anthony Bourdain, contains three sentences spoken by Bourdain that he never actually spoke ou…

, contains three sentences spoken by Bourdain that he never actually spoke out loud in the same way that you learn about a lot of things these days: by seeing an eruption of outrage about it on Twitter.

Neville, in the New Yorker article, defended his choice as a novel way to make Bourdain’s words come alive, adding, “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.” Maybe we should have one. But maybe a reason that Neville, in that quote, adopted what will strike some as a cavalier attitude is that no one understands more than documentary filmmakers what an impure form the documentary can be.

The staged scenes in “The Thin Blue Line” didn’t bother me at the time, and they don’t now. That movie really is a one-of-a-kind landmark. What did bother me is when I began to notice how routinely documentaries were folding in staged reenactments. It first struck me around the time of “Man on Wire” , James Marsh’s otherwise enthralling film about Philippe Petit’s staggering, don’t-look-down walk on a high wire strung between the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

 

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OwenGleiberman The lack of ethics or morality ought not even be an issue, and that’s on the record… 😞 MeToo

OwenGleiberman “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.” What the actual F^CK? after the nightmare I just went through with being in a documentary I would say let’s have one NOW! Refinery29 THR Roadrunner it’s time to have ethics in documentaries, and morality. 🤬💔 MeToo

OwenGleiberman Still not seeing the issue. They are his words, what difference does it make if they're read by a computer or an actor? I could understand if they attributed something to him he didn't write, but that's not this.

ok, but what are you talking about

When I heard of this doc I was excited to see it. But since this deepfake news came out I've lost all interest. He would have hated the AI. He stood for authenticity. How hard would it have been to have on of his friends read his work?

I don't necessarily mind the recreative elements of modern documentaries; but Bourdain's actual voice is so integral to all his work, faking it feels disrespectful of his audience.

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Box Office: Anthony Bourdain Doc ‘Roadrunner’ Sets Pandemic-Era Record With $1.9M DebutThe acclaimed new film Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain did big business in its box office debut over the weekend, scoring the biggest weekend opening for a documentary — or any specialty … It was so well done He killed an octopus by biting its brains in the one episode I ever watched of his show Am I the only one who thought Bourdain play acted being a badass? Trying hard to convince others that he was, which is not what a real badass has to do. When he met his so-called match, her true badass actions showed him what he was not. Not a badass. Too hard a truth.
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Anthony Bourdain Documentary ‘Roadrunner’ Sparks A Strange Ethics DebateAnthony Bourdain speaks from beyond the grave, via artificial intelligence. I don’t mind quoting with attribution, but hell the fuck no to spinning fantasy and attributing it to the voice. Is this now something we have to protect our legacies against? This his horrible.
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Anthony Bourdain Documentary Used AI To Fake His VoiceThe widow of the celebrity chef, who died in 2018, said she did not approve of this.
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Anthony Bourdain's Ex-Wife Ottavia Reacts to Documentary's AI Recreation of His Voice - E! OnlineA new documentary on Anthony Bourdain has come under fire for featuring a simulated version of the late culinary expert's voice generated by artificial intelligence. Leave things alone
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The Anthony Bourdain Doc Roadrunner Can Be Invasive. Sometimes, It’s Worse.In deciding to treat Anthony Bourdain as a mystery he’s trying to solve, 'Roadrunner' director Morgan Neville makes some ugly choices. alisonwillmore writes alisonwillmore Let him rest in peace, nobody knows why somebody commits suicide, nobody has those answers, only Anthony knows what happened. Blame Shame Rip Think of his daughter… 😔
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