Thirty years before his kinetic Shine A Light, Martin Scorsese redefined rock flicks with a concert movie shot from a 300-page script in imposing 35mm by pro cameramen like Laszlo Kovacs.
The gig is root-rockers The Band’s San Francisco farewell in 1976, “a kind of elegy”, says Scorsese, for a band and an era buckled by drugs and time. Members seem blitzed in interview segments but the gig is alive and momentous.
Joined by mega-stars (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, a steaming Neil Young...), The Band live up to their myth in Scorsese’s scorching testament.
