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The Last Waltz


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Martin Scorsese directed the concert film The Last Waltz, starring the Band and featuring Bob Dylan, Neil Youn, and others.
Directed by Martin Scorsese
USA, 1978
Genre: Rock, Concert Film

Perhaps it’s not surprising that one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll concert films was directed by the greatest living American director, Martin Scorsese. But the real heart of The Last Waltz lies not in Scorsese’s deft camera, nor even in the Band, the ostensible 1976 swan song of which provided the occasion. The group’s performance, featuring most of its touchstone songs (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” a studio-shot “The Weight” with the Staple Singers), is exemplary – loose, fiery, and elegiac. And, despite the obnoxiously self-important Robbie Robertson, the interview segments about their run as one of the core groups in self-consciously American rock music are illuminating. But The Last Waltz endures thanks to the guest list: Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Joni Mitchell, Paul Butterfield, Ronnie Hawkins, and (egad) Neil Diamond. For one night only, the sense of community the Band always spoke for existed for real, onstage and in the music. Good thing Scorsese was there to capture it.

Lee Gardner is the editor of Baltimore City Paper.



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