The Rainbow Man is not a superhero. He does not fight crime. He does not swoop down from the rootops into dark alleys and rescue people from muggers. All he does – or did, to be more accurate – was wear a big rainbow wig and dance like a fool.

The Rainbow Man was an attention whore. And a slightly insane one at that.

If you’re a sports fan, you know who the Rainbow Man was. He appeared at sporting events for many years, a tall, lanky, glassy-eyed fellow with a big rainbow wig and, in later years, signs bearing the words “John 3:16.” He'd get on camera, dance a bit or hold up his sign, and that was that. This is pretty much all the guy did with his life. He went from sporting event to sporting event, whoring for the rainbow wig-wearing loons everywhere, and later whoring for God.

Oh, and he ended up being involved in a string of bomb incidents, a botched kidnapping and standoff with the police, a courtroom tirade, and three life sentences.

And here you thought he was just “that guy with the crazy wig at the Yankees game.”

Director Sam Green, nominated for an Academy Award for The Weather Underground, gives us a look into the mind of Rollen Frederick Stewart, aka The Rainbow Man, in his documentary of the same name, available on DVD for the first time via Other Cinema. And what a mind it is. A man admittedly obsessed with TV, a man desperate for little other than notoriety, Stewart goes from a sad sack loser hoping someone will notice him to a sad sack loser shouting about the end of the world and finally to a sad sack loser who fell over the edge. Green handles Stewart’s decline in the expected documentary style – archival footage interspersed with talking heads – letting the details of The Rainbow Man’s life unfold piece by piece, always with the feeling that things are going to fall apart for him at any moment.

At the root of Stewart is one thing: Obsession. Obsession with stars and celebrities. Obsession with being among them. With appearing on the same television as they. With people seeing him. Knowing him. And then, as his spiraling descent continued, with a Biblical end to the world. Over the course of this brief documentary, Green pulls us into this world of obsession without ever dipping into the exploitative. He interviews Stewart in prison, but doesn't make a big show of it. Here is a man talking about his scattered and painful past. Simple, direct. The archival footage that makes up much of this documentary is not overlaid with ominous voiceovers or scary music, but rather presented as it is. As pieces of the past.

The Rainbow Man / John 3:16 spends about as long on its subject as is needed, painting its picture of a man obsessed with being noticed and eventually cracking for it, and ending before the subject matter breaks under the weight of too much scrutiny. Measured, focused and insightful, it tells a story and tells a story well.

Presentation
Like most of the films from Other Cinema we've reviewed here at , The Rainbow Man / John 3:16 is made up largely of found footage. That means the video quality is only as good as the source, and in most cases the source is some grainy news footage. The film is perfectly watchable, but it's not the sort of thing you break out in order to show off your HDTV. Realistic expectations are key. Same goes for the sound. It gets the job done, everything is always clear and understandable, but this isn't something that will strut your sound system's stuff. It just isn't that kind of film.

Extras
With a brisk 41-minute running time, extras are expected. And extras The Rainbow Man / John 3:16 certainly contains. Three short films - Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains; Pie Fight '69 and N Judah 5:30 - and a trailer for The Weather Underground fill out this disc's running time. I'd like to tell you about these extras, but unfortunately Other Cinema did not have a factory disc available for review when I sat down with this, and the DVD-R provided for review was less than friendly with several DVD players in my home (as well as my PC). They may be solid extras and they may be garbage. I'll never know either way. There are extras, though...

The Bottom Line…
It's not going to blow you away with its brilliance, but The Rainbow Man / John 3:16 is an interesting look into a disturbed mind, a peek into the world of a crazed TV character most sports fans probably never gave much thought to beyond, “Look at that crazy guy with the rainbow wig.” It tells us that everyone has a story; even those nutty attention whores at sporting events. Worth a look.