The Last Waltz

The Last Waltz-1978

While Martin Scorsese was directing New York, New York, his love letter to the great musicals of the 1940s, he was approached by Robbie Robertson, lead singer of The Band. The famous band has been on the road for almost two decades and were looking for a way to document their last performance, which they called "The Last Waltz". Requesting no money and with a miniscule budget, Scorsese agreed to film this epic performance.

The concert, which was filmed on Thanksgiving in San Francisco, at the location of The Band's first performance, the Winterland Ballroom, is more important for what it represents, not for being the swan song of a heavily influential band. In 1969, the 3 day festival Woodstock would define a generation that wanted peace and love. By the time The Last Waltz occurred in 1976, this period was coming to a close. Woodstock was the beginning, The Last Waltz was, as the name aptly suggests, the last dance for this way of thinking and that movement.

Scorsese's rock documentary is heavily organized and put together even stricter than most of his films. He knew exactly where he would move the camera down to specific words of certain songs. He even shows him asking The Band questions over again to get the exact wording he wants shown. While this setup works fine with the live show, the backstage elements could have used more randomness and unexpected behavior. Instead, we see Scorsese leading them by the hand as he asks them about life on the road, women, and history of the band, rather than simply documenting what happens backstage.

And what a backstage there must have been. A who's who of influential artists, including Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison and Ringo Star help say goodbye to The Band. The concert boasts more guest artists than they even seem to know what to do with. So much so that two days before the concert was to happen, they realized that they were overbooked and tried to kick Muddy Waters off the bill. Thankfully, they found the space for Waters, who seems to be one of the only performers having fun and not road weary from excessive travel.

Even though Scorsese didn't have much money, it doesn't show at all with the final product. He tried to spruce up the Winterlight a bit for the performance and even hired production designer Boris Leven, who had previously worked on West Side Story and The Sound of Music, to help create the mood with his beautiful set.

Scorsese has always shown a keen interest in showcasing music that he loves through his filmmaking. Since The Last Waltz, he has directed the Dylan documentary No Direction Home, last years' Rolling Stone concert film Shine A Light, excerpts for the TV miniseries "The Blues" and even directed Michael Jackson's iconic "Bad" video.

With The Last Waltz, Scorsese doesn't show the concert from the audiences' perspective, he instead shows it from the viewpoint of the performers. We see up close the pain and excitement of this final performance on everyone's faces and the fear of what is to come after tonight. As The Band's career was coming to a close, Scorsese's was only beginning. Still with The Last Waltz, only his first documentary, he created what will go down in history as one of the all-time greatest rock documentaries.

Rating: B