The Last Waltz

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!
Review: Wow....Is all I REALLY have to say...I'd NEVER heard ANY music by "The Band" before; not that I was aware of anyways...But I was HIGHLY impressed...I would have DIED to have been at that concert!!! But I wasn't born for another 9yrs after that concert was performed and filmed(In 1976). I've *always* treasured older music. And their music is just *awesome*!! The camera work was nice and the picture quality is *GREAT*!!! It certainly was a wonderfull introduction to not ONLY "The Band", but other people like: Muddy Waters(Whom influenced a GREAT MANY 60's groups like: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, ect.), Van Morrison, Joni Mitchel, Neil Young, Neil Diamond,Eric Clapton, as well as other legends and greats of the era!!! :)

I was drove to tears by some of the songs and performances. It IS that GOOD! Trust me.

Worth watching NO DOUBT!!!

*Enjoy*

God Bless ~Amy

Rating:
Summary: 24 years ago, this movie make history
Review: The Last Waltz is not just a film about rock.This filmed record of the Band's last concert on Thanksgiving Day 1976, directed by Martin Scorsese (and released in 1978).Joined by such friends as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and Van Morrison was phenomenum.Great performances of some great songs!The
camera work is quite good

Rating:
Summary: FINALLY !! Released on DVD!!
Review: A must buy!!
With all the positive reviews on this concert,
you know you can't go wrong! Combined with the best artists in the industry, that makes this a keeper!
Enjoy.....

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely brilliant. One-of-a-kind
Review: This film, this concert, this document, this music....is just the most compelling music DVD I've found. Given the re-mastering of an older film, I expected the quality to be an issue. It isn't. The sound is fantastic.

Minor complaint with the remastering: The non-music segments are at a much reduced sound volume. So, when you compensate by dramatically increasing volume, subsequent concert segments blow the roof off your house....perhaps the intent. No problem here. Just prepare yourself to live up to the film's initiation instructions to play it loud.

Rating:
Summary: Shows Robbie for exactly what he is - with wonderful music!
Review: Rumor has it that at the debut screening of The Last Waltz in 1977, Ronnie Hawkins stood up at the end of the film and remarked sarcastically, "That was all right, but it sure could've used a few more shots of Robbie!" By now, any serious fan of the Band will be familiar with the antipathy between Robbie Robertson and some of his former comrades. A quarter-century later, this classic movie's disproportionate concentration on Robertson at the others' expense not only remains palpable, it's even more lopsided in the updated version. But for better or worse, that is a key part of the story of the Band; and in retrospect, the Last Waltz is surely an even more accurate documentary than Robertson had aimed for. More importantly, it captures one of the greatest concerts of the rock era.

As Levon Helm relates in his rather bitter memoir "This Wheel's on Fire," the decision to disBand was Robertson's alone and the Last Waltz was a somewhat reluctant exercise on the part of the other four. This shows to varying degrees in the interviews which are dispersed throughout the concert footage: Robertson, who appears far more often than the others, looks animated and a bit rehearsed (although it's hard not to feel some animosity towards him if you've read Helm's book) while the others look tired or worse. (Helm's description of Richard Manuel as "looking like Che Guevara after the Bolivians got done with him" is all too close to the mark!) While unflattering to a degree, the interview scenes do speak volumes about what the music industry did to one of rock's all time greatest bands and the truth about the then-impending breakup. The Band did, after all, reunite sans Robertson as soon as they were legally able to use the name again without his blessing. The commentary itself is still interesting as well, particularly some of the saltier stories of life on the road in the early 1960s, a time too often thought of as rock's "innocent" years.

But the music itself is still the most important part of the show by far. However uncomfortable things had become behind the scenes, these guys could still play like no other band before or since, and it's almost magical to watch them do so for the very last time. Given Helm's well-documented distaste for the whole project, it's remarkable how happy he looks during most of the performances, almost as if the bad blood disappeared during those last few hours while they were doing what they did best together. The late Rick Danko's showstopping solo performance of "Stage Fright" just might be the concert's most intense moment, which is perhaps just as it should be given the subject matter of that song and the reality behind the scenes.

If there is any complaint to be made about the concert footage itself, it is that the guest performances by Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters and Van Morrison featured here don't necessarily do justice to the full brilliance of that night. The complete soundtrack (which was only recently released legitimately, after years of bootlegging) reveals stunning performances that didn't make it into the movie, although Martin Scorcese claims in the retrospective documentary that this is only because he simply wasn't able to shoot satisfactory footage of some of them. Nonetheless, the performances that did make the cut are superb across the board. Even the wildly out of place Neil Diamond does a decent job with his one song of the evening, even if I was left grateful that it was only one song. Best of all, we're treated to dozens of unintentionally hilarious shots of Robertson singing with such emotion that the veins stand out on his neck - into a microphone which, as Helm gleefully recounted in his book, wasn't plugged in. (This was no accident; guitar genius though he was and is, Robertson's vocal abilities always paled in comparison to those of Helm, Danko and Manuel, who also delievers a number of touching performances here.)

The new footage consists mostly of Scorcese and Robertson reminiscing about the making of the film; it's predictably self-congratulatory, but fairly informative. More interesting to me, though, are recollections spread throughout the show from a wide variety of people who were involved with the project in various ways, playable as voice-overs with any given part of the concert. After 25 years, these provide a perspective on the event and its meaning through the eyes of someone - or really, many someones - other than Robbie Robertson. Perhaps this was the original intent behind the movie. In any case, it should have been. The new perspectives and footage are an undeniably nice touch, but the music still stands alone, and it sounds better than ever. It all makes for a new and improved look at one of rock's all time great events.

Rating:
Summary: Slow and Plodding
Review: Granted it is difficult to take old footage and successfully wrap it in today's DVD technology. I give the producers credit for having done a good job with what they had to work with. I found the performances enjoyable insofar as they were passionate and did a good job of capturing the era. I found the simplistic format of performance, simple interview, performance, simple interview.... to be boring. Some of the spoken audio was poorly captured and hard to understand. It succeeded as a documentary (documenting an event) like a single camera stuck on a tripod at the back of a church could be said to document a wedding. The performances are truly left to stand on their own as the filmmaking itself was lifeless. As another reviewer commented, this soundtrack would prove a decent music CD. It was fun seeing old footage of Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan and the others. But to rate this 5 stars is a big stretch.

Rating:
Summary: Nice music
Review: The Last Waltz, a documentary about the farewell concert for The Band, is a movie that features some great music, but unfortunately, little else.

Since the music is the core of the movie, it is sufficient to make this a four-star film. Besides The Band, there is a vast array of big name artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison and Neil Young. With such a line-up, you really can't go wrong.

On the other hand, the Last Waltz is significantly flawed by the other material. The interview segments, in particular, are rather tedious. In addition, there isn't that much that is visually impressive about the concert footage, and I sometimes felt that listening to a CD would have been equally fulfilling.

As a musical experience, this is good, but as a motion picture, this is a bit lacking.

Rating:
Summary: THE Best Concert DVD yet!
Review: Great performances of some great songs! First, the lowlights.
Some of the performances are done on a soundstage at some
other time. Some of the interviews are stilted and some even
seem staged. Besides those minor weak points though, this DVD is
a real classic. The sound is very good for recordings this
old. They've made good use of the surround channels, leaving
the music upfront and audience in the rear channels. Nothing
phoney here. The picture quality is also very good to
excellant considering the original was shot in 35mm. The
camera work is quite good, with enough cuts so you can see
who is singing, etc but not too many so you are frustrated
that they are jumping around too much like on MTV.

Rating:
Summary: The Band...and of course Bob Dylan!!!
Review: For anyone who experienced The Band live this might be somewhat of a disappointment. However for those of us less fortunate it is a gem! And remastered at that! Great live sequences with of course great special guests. Of course there is one VERY special guest in my estimation...that being Bob Dylan. For Dylan fans this is a glimpse of The Man at some of his best. Leading The Band (as he did on a revolutionary tour of the world in 1966). The Band is great on their own but the 3 tunes done with Dylan show how they came to be as great as they are! Check this out and I doubt that you will walk away down trodden. It's excellent and timely and wise.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fabulous
Review: There are few bad things I can say about this documentary. By chapter 5, Neil Young's rendition of Helpless, chills were running through my body and didn't stop till the end credits. Bob Dylan at his best, Van Morrison at his chubby best, Eric Clapton on fire as usual. I derived great pleasure watching Levon Helm and Rick Danko envelope themselves in the music, though Helm seemed removed and slightly bitter or reluctant to talk during the interview portions. Now, on to the criticism. The non-live scenes, such as Evangeline with Emmylou Harris, are obviously staged and the performances themselves seem contrived despite the wonderful music. The only other bit of criticism I have to offer has already been mentioned. Levon Helm seems removed from the interview process as if he doesn't want to be on camera. Robbie Robertson, however, devours the spotlight in the interview sequences. Every bit a rock star, Robertson relishes his role as frontman, and his speeches and stories oftentimes seem rehearsed. Overall, though, this documentary is wonderful and I'd recommend it to anyone, a Band fan or not. At the very least it's a testament to the communal nature of counterculture music of that era, and the end of that era.