The Last Waltz

MOVIE #1,731 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 06.17.24 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓎: A MARTIN SCORSESE DIRECTOR FOCUS 🇮🇹🇺🇸 I think I can boil this down to two succinct points: it sounds and looks great + I wish a better band got this Martin Scorsese treatment. With an hour left to go, I couldn’t get past the fact that they’d burnt through all their good songs. If you’re keeping score at home, here’s what is worth your time in this two-hour film: There's the two good The Band original songs (“The Weight” and “Crippled Creek”), the two Neil appearances (Young and Diamond) and you can throw the rest of this in the trash (I could never listen to Eric Clapton play guitar for the rest of my life, thank you very much). I will say that “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is a pretty great song but the sentiment is fucked up. Who gives a shit about these southern losers? The mythologizing and grandeur behind that tune ruin it.

And to that end, listening to the interview segments is like pulling teeth. Something about Ronnie Robertson sort of rubs me the wrong way, and all these tired war stories about life on the road are so boring. Giving this a very generous 5 because the production is undeniably top-notch.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,730 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,732 ⫸

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The Last Waltz was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert appearance", and the concert had The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including their previous employers Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan, as well as Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young. The musical director for the concert was The Band's original record producer, John Simon. It was released on April 26, 1978.