Many positive things can be said about filmmaking during the 70s. The late 60s was a rebellious age for film, pushing past the censors and social norms and taking full advantage of giving the film a more surreal and abstract approach. The 70s was the age of new talent of aspiring filmmakers and actors making their mark in history by taking full advantage of filming material that would not be suitable to have screened to wider audiences ten years prior. One of the staples of innovative filmmaking during the era was the Rock N Roll concert films. While there have been a handful of famous and influential concert films and Rock N Roll documentaries released in the 60s, including Monterey Pop (1968), Don't Look Back (1967), and Festival (1967), the 70s was the golden age of the genre. There has yet to be no other decade for concert films and music documentaries that came close to having a long list of titles that are still remembered, studied, or celebrated. Titles include Woodstock (1970), Wattstax (1973), Gimme Shelter (1970), The Concert for Bangladesh (1972), The Kids Are Alright (1979), Let it Be (1970), and Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970). One of the notable concert films from the era that receives many praises from audiences and critics and is still remembered fondly (even going as far as having musicians performing tribute shows based on the concert) is The Last Waltz (1978).
One of the famous directors to spring from the 70s was Martin Scorsese, who proved his worth as a filmmaker through his urban crime dramas Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976). Scorsese enormously admired music, always wanting to make a film celebrating the art form in some way. There is no doubt that Scorsese's love of Rock N Roll and jazz was carried through the score for his films during the 70s, but in terms of directing a film based around it, he never sat in the chair. Before The Last Waltz, he worked on music films as an assistant director and editor, notably for the documentary Woodstock. The closest Scorsese would get to directing anything music-related was the musical drama New York, New York (1977), which he made shortly after Taxi Driver. While working on the musical, Scorsese's producer on Mean Streets, Jonathan T. Taplin, introduced him to Robbie Robertson, the lead guitarist of the Canadian American rock band known as The Band, with an opportunity to film their most important concert.
The Band has spent sixteen years on the road performing in various venues across the country. With members experimenting with heroin and tension rising between Robertson and the Band's drummer Levon Helm, Robertson felt it was time The Band went on their separate ways. At least in terms of playing live. Before doing so, Robertson felt The Band should go out in style by having a grand farewell concert called The Last Waltz held in the venue where The Band first played under their band name, the Winterland Ballroom. What was originally going to be just The Band performing, Robertson invited special guest artists that launched their careers, Ronnie Hawkins, and Bob Dylan. Eventually, Robertson felt the need to ask more artists to make their last concert a celebration of sixteen years of music than a somber farewell. The task of documenting such a big concert with no alternate takes and no contract or pay intimidated Scorsese but excited him enough not to want to miss a golden opportunity.
The film opens with a title card suggesting the film "Should be played loud," which is all capitalized, building up the excitement for the concert that will soon be presented. This disclaimer also feels like a title card that French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard would use if he created a concert film for the period for how self-aware and direct it is. Scorsese's influence from the French New Wave would appear continuously in many of his movies, including Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy (1982), and Mean Streets. The first scene starts with one of The Band members, Rick Danko playing a billiards game of "Cut Thorat" as the others stand aside watching him. There are no introductions to any members, nor is it established where they are hanging out for the interview. Most of the focus is on Rick, as the rest of The Band only appears in one brief shot. The scene's audio is relatively low and quiet, subtly implying that the film's disclaimer was not meant to just blast the music but hear the interviews clearly. The sound of billiard balls clash against each other as the sound of an audience's applause off-screen gets louder and louder each time a ball hits another, with quick edits for each shot, prepping up the first concert scene. The first concert scene is shot with Robbie Robertson's back facing the camera, speaking into a microphone to the audience in front of him with the spotlight shining brightly on him. What looks like the first song of the concert is their last through Robbie's dialogue. Surprised that the audience is still waiting for them to do an encore after performing for hours, Robbie and The Band agree to do one last song to close the celebration. Rick Danko wishes everyone a "Happy Thanksgiving," and The Band proceeds to play a grand cover of Marvin Gaye's Don't Do It. During the number, each member of The Band is introduced through capitalized title credit of their name as they play their signature instrument to associate unfamiliar audiences with them. In reality it was end, but on film, the concert's finale feels like the beginning through Scorsese's choice to introduce The Band in their last song.
After The Band leaves the stage bidding everyone good night, the next scene is in broad daylight on the streets of San Francisco with The Last Waltz theme playing on the soundtrack. Scorsese does not use any spectacular camerawork or editing when capturing San Francisco. The neighborhoods where the Winterland Ballroom is located appear seedy and runned down. To capture the grittiness of these environments, Scorsese uses a handheld camera to film buildings and people waiting in line to get into the theatre through the car's windshield and opened passenger seat window. Many of the people caught on camera react to being filmed by either waving or approaching the camera while in line to get inside the theater or hanging on the street corners far away from the theater, suspiciously wondering why they are being filmed. What appears to be a long journey that was done in one shot is broken up through a series of jump cuts to bring the audience faster and closer to the Winterland Ballroom. After the ride, it is nighttime, and Scorsese shoots one shot of the theater's neon-lit sign that has seen better days. The image of the sign fades out to reveal the film's opening credits at first presented in front of a black background as a couple waltz past the first few frames of credits. After showing the film's title with the couple now waltzing on the right side, the scene fades out and fades in to show the couple dancing among a crowd of other people as each special guest’s credit appears. The couple disappears in the crowd through a dissolve as the camera captures the other people on the dance floor waltzing. The camera makes its way to the orchestra’s conductor (with the aid of a few dissolves) conducting the waltz. Another dissolve leads to a disco ball spinning brightly above the crowd, to the music ending with an establishing wide shot of the entire Winterland Ballroom with fancy chandeliers (some used in Gone with the Wind (1939)), and tables where people dine. Compared to how Scorsese captured the unpleasant exteriors of the Winterland Ballroom and its surroundings in low quality, the glamorous ballroom inside the theatre where the stage is set and couples dance looks like a fairy tale. The contrast between both environments and its transition to beauty plays as a metaphoric rags-to-riches story of The Band's road to fame. The theater itself feels like a character in this sequence as if we are watching the story of Cinderella with the theater as the title character transform for a concert instead of a ball with Bill Grangham (who decorated the Ballroom) as the Fairy Godmother, and The Band as Prince Charming.
The film captures The Band performing most of their greatest hits, including Up on Cripple Creek, The Shape I'm In, It Makes No Difference, Stagefright, The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down and Ophelia. Robbie Robertson plays one killer guitar solo after another whenever the spotlight is on him. Rick Danko, the bass player, incredibly pours his heart and soul when singing about the heartbreak of a man who misses his loves in It Makes No Difference and captures the nerves of a performer when singing Stagefright. Levon Helm is equally as powerful when emoting to the songs he sings while spectacularly playing the drums without showing any struggle, except when he looks like he has an itch on his nose to scratch in a few shots. Garth Hudson sits behind the three members playing the organ and synthesizer in near darkness as he is shot from the back, or head-up, as if he is the Phantom of the Opera or a wizard creating mythical and futuristic sounds. Hudson disappointingly gets under two minutes of his solo act The Genetic Method, which is a long introduction to the song Chest Fever. But Garth has his moment to fully shine when playing the saxophone at the end of It Makes No Difference.
The only member of The Band who hardly is ever given a chance to shine in the film is the piano player and one of their prominent singers Richard Manuel. Documented through a hidden black-and-white camera capturing the whole concert from Bill Graham and even the film's album, Richard vocally leads three songs and has three duets with the guests (including the finale), and he only has two scenes of him singing. Or at least one scene showing him singing, whereas, in the latter, his voice is only heard, which is for the finale. During the finale, the cameras did not know where to point since every single performer was on the stage. Making matters worse, Richard was covered by two artists who start to move out of the way just as he ended his solo. Scorsese did shoot the concert on the spot, and it is almost inevitable that mistakes like this will happen. And for the one number, Richard's performance of The Shape I'm In is captured nicely, where he excels just as well as Danko and Helm. The film is nearly two hours long, but without including another song from Manuel or rarely showing his piano playing skills without singing makes him come across as the weakest and replaceable member of The Band when he was far from that. And it is a pity that the other songs he sings never received a proper cinematic presentation because he knocks it out of the park when singing his rendition of Georgia On My Mind.
The various guests invited to share the stage with the Band for their final bow are famous musicians playing different genres of music such as rockabilly, folk, blues, and R&B. Ronnie Hawkins who gave The Band their start as the Hawks (before becoming the Band), does a lively rockabilly rendition of Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love, screaming, improvising the lyrics, and toying around with The Band as he performs. Ronnie was unsure if he belonged at the concert since he was currently playing at bars at the time, but he seemed completely comfortable singing with the people he brought under his wing. An old friend of The Band, Dr. John, approaches the stage in his flashy suit, oversized purple sunglasses, and huge bow tie to bring the New Orleans beat to the theater with Such a Night. Despite Dr. John not caring for the song too much, he sings it with such suave, accompanied by his jazz-style piano playing that he makes it as festive and toe-tapping as the music culture he represents.
Things get odd when Neil Young takes the stage. When Young performed at Woodstock with Crosby, Stills, & Nash, he did not wish to be filmed because he did not want the cameras interfering with the act for how close they were to the stage. Young should have kept that mindset for appearing spaced out in The Last Waltz. Young was coked up with cocaine hanging from his nostril, which Scorsese had to rotoscope in post-production. While under the influence, however, Young gives a solid performance when singing Helpless, aided by The Band's vocals (at one point sing together into the same microphone like Doo-Woppers singing on the street). Behind the curtain, a silhouetted Joni Mitchell provides a heavenly feel for the song. Audiences felt divided by Neil Diamond's appearance for appearing out of place with the rest of the guests. The reason Neil Diamond was invited was because Robertson was producing his album Beautiful Noise. Compared to the rest of the guests interacting with The Band or always having a member present aside them, the spotlight is purely on Diamond. The Band never introduces Diamond (in the film), nor does he acknowledge the other members, feeling that he is taking over the party than being a part of it. It makes one forget for a few minutes that this concert was about The Band for how Neil Diamond is shot. That is not to say Neil Diamond’s performance is bad. He soothingly sings Dry Your Eyes with breathtaking charisma making it worth seeing. Joni Mitchell takes the stage with the song Coyote, a nicely sung performance with lyrics from the song symbolizing Robertson feeling like "a prisoner of the white lines on the freeway" when constantly living life on the road. Compared to Mitchell's deleted performances, Coyote is good, but nothing as haunting as Shadows and Light or Furry Sings the Blues, with Neil Young on harmonica.
The next few guests who take the stage are some of blues' greatest musicians. Paul Butterfield blows the blues harp with the energy of a fast-moving train as Levon Helm sings Mystery Train. After a debate between Robbie and Levon about whether Muddy Waters should perform the show, Robertson allows Muddy to play the concert after Levon threatened not to do the show. Muddy Waters did not get a rehearsal ahead of time, but he does not need to for how coolly he sings one of his hits Mannish Boy with Paul Butterfield at his side. Unlike how the other performances are shot, the performance until the ending is captured in one shot. The reason for this was because Scorsese and the camera crew had to stop filming to reload the cameras. When Scorsese heard the opening notes to Mannish Boy, he panicked for halting filming during the most iconic blues songs sung by a legend in history. Luckily one of the cameras was accidentally left on to capture the performance, thus making it the longest shot in the film. Nearly failing to capture Muddy's performance was among so many other little mistakes that worked to the film's advantage. Eric Clapton closes out the blues portion of the movie with Further Up on the Road. A song that metaphorically ties into Robertson's fear of the road hurting him or taking the life of him or band members one day. Clapton is as smooth as he usually is with playing the guitar as he vocally releases the heartbreak of a man who hopes the woman who hurt him will someday suffer the same fate. However, his guitar strap breaks loose at the beginning of his performance, causing Robertson to take over immediately. Including Clapton's performance of All Our Past Times with Rick Danko should have made it into the film's final print, as this slight malfunction is not one of Clapton's finer moments. But the incident is made up with Robertson giving a few epic guitar solos. Then again, Robertson does upstage Clapton, giving the scene more reason to be cut and replaced. Still, Robertson’s guitar playing is so chilling to listen to, while Clapton can still incorporate his talents that it is too good not to be included in the film. The film has plenty of emotionally driven, slow-moving numbers; it would get tiresome to see Clapton perform another number of its kind when he has played many fast-paced rock and blues songs.
After staying away from the stage for more than two years, having trouble deciding the costume he should wear for the night, and suffering from stage fright, Van Morrison brings down the Winterland Ballroom when performing Caravan. No signs of his struggle returning to the stage after so long are felt, nor has he lost his mojo for his live comeback. Morrison sings powerfully (with The Band enthusiastically singing back-up vocals with him) and energetically kicking as each member in the horns section blasts the sound. The last of the solo singing guests is another supporter of The Band from the early days, Bob Dylan, who performed with The Band numerous times when he started to go controversially electric than acoustic. At the time of the concert Dylan was editing his French-New wave-inspired concert documentary film with fictional vignettes, Renaldo and Clara (1978). Through constant negotiations before and during the concert about Scorsese's film competing with his, Dylan allowed three out of six songs he sings to be recorded for the film. Through Bill Graham's secret recording, Bob Dylan's set was one gigantic medley, with only the last two songs making their way into the finished film. Despite wearing a hat suitable for his bizarre Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, Dylan's emotionally raw singing voice brings sincerity when performing Forever Young to rocking along with the Band with his reprise of Baby Let Me Follow You Down.
At the film's finale, most of the guests get together to sing a tenderly bittersweet rendition of I Shall be Released led by Bob Dylan. The finale includes a few surprise guest appearances from Ringo Starr from The Beatles and Ronnie Wood from The Rolling Stones. While it is always a treat to see two of the popular competitive British rock bands together, their cameo is pointless overall. There is one close-up of Ringo playing the drums, while Ronnie does not get a single frame of him playing guitar, making their appearances so brief that they do not deserve to be mentioned in the film's opening credits and marketing. Deleted footage shows more of the two jamming at the jam session after the finale, before The Band performs their encore, making their appearance warranted, but in the released film, they just exist. To the film's credit, at least Starr and Wood have some sort of introduction in the finale than Bobby Charles. Charles's appearance in the film is a blink-and-miss cameo who stands in the background singing. Charles is in the last song because he performed Down South in New Orleans with Dr. John and The Band, as shown in the deleted footage. At least he made his way into the film, while Pinetop Perkins and Stephen Stills do not make the cut. Nothing is really missing compared to so many other things that were excluded from the film. Pinetop Perkins sings Caldonia with Muddy Waters, who does a swinging job, but it is clear the spotlight is more aimed at Muddy and The Band than him. And Stephen Stills does not show until the near end of the jam session, which is a pleasant surprise but like how Wood and Starr are presented in the film, his amounts to nothing.
Showing bits of the jam session would have been a better alternative than the appearances of poets Michael McClure and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. As The Band and other musicians took a break from playing after performing Acadian Driftwood with Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, various poets took the stage to entertain the guests during the concert's intermission. How Scorsese includes this part of the event always appears at random and usually less than a minute. McClure's voice is heard immediately after It Makes No Difference, and a dissolve shows him reciting the Introduction to The Canterbury Tales in Chaucerian dialect, ending before anyone can process what he is saying. After Van Morrison's song, the stage suddenly appears ominously empty. Ferlinghetti then walks on the stage to read his short Loud Prayer poem and the film jumps into Dylan's set as if he were never present.
After filming the show, Robertson wanted to find a way to represent Gospel and country music in the film for their influence on music since they did not cover those styles at the concert. Robertson also wanted the film to have a proper presentation of The Band's hit song The Weight, and his recently written suite named after the show. Scorsese agreed to shoot additional music material on the MGM soundstage to create music video sequences for the film, with special guests The Staple Singers and Emmylou Harris. The appearance of the soundstage scenes at first comes across as jarring, as most of the film's music comes from Winterland Ballroom. To see The Band perform in a completely different environment that looks more polished than the concert scenes feel out of place in contrast to the rest of the film's style. In an interview in the film, Robertson expresses how playing the music would take him and The Band to strange places "Physically, spiritually and psychotically" that were not just on the stage even though they were on the stage. The soundstage sequence is a surreal spiritual experience of how The Band feels mentally when making music. Implications of the supernatural feeling of this mindset are subtle throughout the film. Most of those details come from how the concert scenes are shot and lit. For Helpless, the reason for Joni Mitchell's behind-the-stage vocals were intended to keep her appearance a surprise, but the purple and blue lighting and shadowing make her appear fantom-like. The result of a light blowing out, forcing a blue light to shine on Levon and Butterfield as their surroundings are in darkness, creates an ominous supernatural vibe for the song Mystery Train. The footlights make Danko's skin glow, and a reverse shot of a spotlight shining on him captures the essence of tension, thrill, and adrenaline for Stagefright. Another detail relating to the spirituality of making music is how the people can get as lost in the music as The Band with the couple waltzing. The opening credits sequence is the first soundstage scene in the movie before the film makes these scenes explicit since it is part of the opening credits sequence that combines documented footage.
Apart from the opening credits, the film has three full-length soundstage sequences. The addition of the Staple Singers joining The Band in the song The Weight gives the tune a gospel presentation, complementing the spiritual theme of performing and symbolizing how music is their religion. The smoke, mystical colors, and blue dress would make Emmylou Harris appear angelic for the Cajun waltz Evangeline. And the reprisal of the film's theme song would take place on a dark and empty stage with the Band playing. A heavenly light would suddenly create larger-than-life shadows of each member and darken again as a crane shot of them would gently pull away from a stage surrounded in an environment by darkness and smoke with globe lights lined up. These visual choices imply that the party is over, The Band have reached the light at the end of the dark tunnel. What is lovely about these sequences is not just Scorsese having the freedom to light the scene or position and move the camera how he pleases but for how the film shows The Band's multiple talents. The concert footage shows Garth playing the saxophone outside of playing the keyboards, but he is also shown playing a beautiful antique accordion for the song Evangeline. Danko is typically on the bass guitar yet is also a skilled fiddle player, as demonstrated in one of the soundstage sequences. Helm not once but twice plays the Madolin instead of the drums for these scenes. Taking over the drums is Richard Manuel. Manuel can briefly be seen playing the rhythm drums for Mystery Train in the concert if a person is really paying attention. When in the Evangeline number Manuel’s drumming talents are shown clearly. Drums are just one of the other instruments Manuel can play because, in the last scene, he sits on the stage playing the Dobro guitar. Robertson still plays the guitar, though, for The Weight sequence, he plays a multi-neck guitar.
To tie the concert and soundstage scenes together, Scorsese interviews members of The Band in the Shangri-la clubhouse, where they hang out and record their music setting up a relaxed atmosphere. The interviews and how the subjects are documented in films like Don't Look Back, Woodstock, and Gimme Shelter all had their own style of telling a story. In Don't Look Back, it was observing Bob Dylan on and off-stage in his 1965 concert tour in England. Woodstock's interviews consist of Hippies socially engaging during the event and the town's people involvement. Gimme Shelter interviews the people setting up the concert and The Rolling Stones looking over the footage of the infamous concert in Altamont. The Last Waltz interviews take an approach as casual as the interviews in Woodstock, except this time, its primary focus is on the artist than the people attending. And unlike seeing Bob Dylan and the Stones working most of the time, The Band are sitting around smoking, jamming, playing pool, joking around, and talking over one another, making it feel like the audience is hanging out with them as opposed to studying them. How they tell their stories about traveling on the road are less like formal presentations and more like informal stories of how your friend or relative would share their memories or passionately talk about their interest in a subject. It makes The Band feel more like regular people than the talented celebrities depicted on the stage. The interviews cover their compelling stories on the road, how they lived during their career, and their love and knowledge for music.
As the film functions more as a concert film than a documentary about the rise and fall of The Band, the interview scenes are incredibly short. The interviews feel more like breaks from the concert and transitions for the next song than an in-depth study of their successes and failures. One interview has Helm nostalgically talking about how traveling tent shows have influenced the style of rock and roll, followed by Van Morrison singing about the tent shows. Another is about The Band's meeting with famous blues harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson and how he passed when they were going to perform with him, transitioning to the Mystery Train number with Paul Butterfield. Both the interviews and how many of them relate to the song sequences complement one another by tying into the overall themes of nostalgia, fear, and moving on. The Band members talk about their feelings in the interviews while also serving as their own Greek chorus when they perform.
Of all the members getting interviewed, Robertson is the one who gets most of the attention. Aside from Scorsese asking Rick Danko what he plans to do after The Last Waltz, no interviews cover how Hudson, Manuel, and Helm about the break-up or the concept of their final concert. Robertson talks all about his superstitions of pressing your luck on the road and how he could no longer do it. Even with his bandmates, Robertson steals the spotlight away from them by answering most questions or making statements. For the concert footage, Robertson is shot to look more like the leader than anyone else in The Band. Compared to documented footage of the Band's performances before the concert, it was never the case. The film has a massive obsession with Robertson over the others for a few reasons. The first is that the concert and making the film was his idea, and as one of the film's producers, he can control his image, unlike the others. The main reason Robertson gets most of the interviews about the end of The Band's career is because he was the only one who wanted to break up The Band. Everyone else still wanted to play on the road, especially Helm, who was furious with Robertson publicizing the end of The Band with a big final concert. Helm intended for the rest of the members and himself to carry on as The Band, just without Robertson, and while they eventually did overtime, Robertson and the studio threatened to sue if they did.
The Last Waltz, both the film and the motivation for the concert, is without question purely made by Robertson’s fear and ego at the expense of not letting The Band carry on the road under their name. The film is also very clumsy with having noticeably short interviews, Richard Manuel barely having screen-time performing, pointless scenes involving poets, and way too much screen-time with Robbie Robertson. The film is not the best concert film of all time, but it is one of them. Despite the selfish motives, the concert and how it looks is still an all-around dazzling experience with every performer giving their A game. The soundstage sequences are enchanting and haunting at the same time. The interviews are intriguing and allow audiences to bond with The Band as people. And Scorsese’s direction is some of his strongest. It is amazing to see a filmmaker with a love for music successfully achieve the task of filming a big concert, and not only make it appear cinematic even when mistakes were in the way, but still find ways to give it artistic meaning with the material he filmed after.
