They don’t make white boys like this anymore. Criterion 4K.
Martin Scorsese's documentary intertwines footage from The Band's incredible farewell tour with probing backstage interviews and featured performances by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, and other rock legends.
The Last Waltz is showing in 1 cinema in Los Angeles - next screening Tuesday 24 November at 19:30 at Vidiots.
Next screenings: Tuesday 24 November.
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They don’t make white boys like this anymore. Criterion 4K.
"Happy Thanksgiving."It's fascinating to watch the first half exist in that way to make Robbie Robertson the star of The Band, it couldn't be more obvious, but in the 47th minute Levon sings The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, one of the greatest performances ever, then shows up in his first interview segment the very next scene and takes it all away. It is now Levon's movie. There is nothing Robertson (and Scorsese as his advocate with final cut) can do about it now. You've just seen a man hit the god tier of performance, and now we're finding out his charm and charisma is also on that level. Robertson got a 47 minute head start to make his case as the alpha of The Band, but through brute force of fucking cool, it becomes obvious that it's Levon, and it always was Levon.I've watched this movie most Thanksgivings with my old man, that perfect father/son tradition of conceptually a holiday movie, but just off enough that it seems cooler than the conventional. You could both think, "Those boring assholes down the block don't do this, they could never be like us." This is how Die Hard became a Christmas movie, fathers and sons watched it together thinking they were the only ones that did this, it was their fun little family quirk, before the internet showed us all, for better, or for worse, that none of us are unique. The Last Waltz genuinely is the greatest Thanksgiving movie, though. This group of people putting on their best faces for one night together, wax nostalgic about better times, perhaps engage in a little collective revisionism just to try to power wash the grime below the surface, everyone silently agreeing that it would just be better for everyone if we pretended this is how it really happened. Invite some old friends, do the same with them. This embodies Thanksgiving best not only as a concept, but also is better executed than a more conventional Thanksgiving movie ever could be simply because you can't contrive the genuine history this group of people have together.There are looks they share together that can not be acted, and to receive the emotion of these looks as a viewer hits harder than anything scripted could ever do; The smiles of The Band when Ronnie Hawkins, a lifetime dive bar musician yells "Big Time" at Bill Graham as he opens up a concert that will become one of the most famous ever, or the proud papa look Hawkins has walking off the stage as he gazes at his former backing band who he hired all as teenagers (kids!). When the camera pans perfectly to Garth Hudson doing the saxophone solo on It Makes No Difference, like he's appeared out of nowhere and the crowd erupts at it, then watching Rick Danko watch Garth with total affection. So many moments between Neil Young, Robbie and Danko, Robbie and Danko acting out the Helpless lyrics, looking at an imaginary yellow moon, or Neil roaming from his microphone to Danko and Robertson's with childlike exuberance so they can all share it together while singing the chorus. When Richard Manuel tells a story about shoplifting, Danko puts his arm around Manuel's shoulder and looks to someone off camera (probably Scorsese) like, "This is my fucking boy right here," and he means it, and it's so beautiful. Levon lighting Robertson's cigarette then giving one of the most concise, coherent summations of Rock & Roll. Every second of Mavis Staples throughout the performance of The Weight, but especially her whispering "Beautiful" when it ends. Everyone remembers the Van Morrison kicks during Caravan, but I think more about how The Band reacts to it, all looking at each other like, "Can you fucking believe this?" Danko in the recording studio after The Band has broken up, seeming so sad and fucking lost, yet when he pushes play on Sip The Wine for Scorsese, fidgeting with his hat like a child, he's still creating so much beauty within that melancholy. It's all he knows how to do. Scorsese immediately gets both the song, and the moment, and he and Danko just silently share it together. It's one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever. To watch Bob Dylan start out his performance obviously grumpy, but be won over just before the last chorus of Forever Young is a movie in itself, seemingly because he spotted someone in the audience he knew, and he was happy to see him, like an unexpected Thanksgiving guest. Dylan also never seemed less like a myth and more like a human being as he looks at Robbie and Levon for instruction on whether he should leave or stay and do another song. And then it's I Shall Be Released time, which is just astounding to watch that amount of talent on the same stage, and that rendition, with those people on stage, with what the night must have meant to them all, it's beyond words.Then the night is over. The high of the emotions, the pageantry of the night fade and you fall back to truer feelings, usually uglier ones, which certainly was the case with The Band. Every year the end hits me harder, the underlying melancholy of all of them knowing their best years are behind them becomes significantly less underlying to me. At least in their best years they got to change musical history, what the fuck did I do? You know the mental torture one gives themselves in these moments, when you juxtapose artistic greatness with a self-reflection of your own life, which already seemed inadequate to begin with, and in these moments of comparison, almost unbearable to once again cope with. But this is what great movies do to you, and Thanksgiving does, too. This movie, on this day, the perfect match.I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving, or at the very least, a tolerable one. ---Neil Diamond, and only Neil Diamond prevents this from being a 5 star movie, by the way, if you're wondering why I excitedly proclaim my love for a movie and not have the decency to then give it 5 stars. Scorsese's cameras missing Richard Manuel singing I Shall Be Released, rare L.
play it fucking loud
It documents the final concert appearance of the seminal rock group The Band, featuring guest performances by numerous legendary musicians and candid interviews.
Martin Scorsese directed the 1978 film, known for his acclaimed narrative and documentary work.
The film holds a prominent reputation as one of the finest concert documentaries ever produced, receiving universal praise from critics.
