We're doing a truncated Movie of the Day series this week for Thanksgiving, once again because I think I've almost exhausted the canon of movies that celebrate the holiday specifically. Next year we're probably going to have to go with "dysfunctional families" to mark the occasion. But for now we have one of the great music docs of all time, directed by Martin Scorsese. It's the farewell concert from The Band, one of the great groups from the 60's, when they decided to hang it all up and threw one last bash on Thanksgiving Day with a bunch of their famous friends. This movie is often seen as representing the end of that era as a whole, and it's hard not to notice why as you watch Robbie Robertson and the rest of these guys interviewed by Scorsese- they're morose, bitter and just plain burned out. In that way you can definitely see this film as the last gasp of the 60's, and it's a strange feeling of melancholy mixed in with absolutely incredible music. One of my favorites of the genre.
Trailer:
