A Mighty Wind

The third and last installment of Christopher Guest's "mockumentaries," this one centers around three folk-singing groups from the 1960s re-uniting for a concert many years later.

As someone who well remembers most of the folk singers from the '50s and '60s, and was familiar with Guest's other movies, I was anxious to see this. It was okay, but to be honest, I expected more, at least more laughs and a little better pacing. This was just a bit too slow and not as funny as his other films, especially "Best In Show."

There is some great music in here, to be sure, and not lip-synced, either, but most of that isn't heard until the last 30 minutes. Most of the same actors are in this film as in the previous two "mockumentaries," and I always appreciate the comedic talents of Catherine O'Hara and the rest of the crew.

The humor is unique, dry....very dry, and I appreciated it a bit more on the second viewing. The only annoying person, to me, was Eugene Levy's character "Mickey," a spaced-out loser whose act wears thin the more you see of him.

It's not a bad film; just not up to Guest's '"Best Of Show."

Another in a long list of films that have been recommended to me, `A Mighty Wind' was probably one of the funniest films I've seen this century. The mockumentary style of `This is Spinal Tap' has always been a favorite of mine, and this film, about the reunion of three folk groups after the death of the owner of their former record label is absolutely hilarious. Christopher Guest's usual cast is involved, though Eugene Levy and Harry Shearer stood out for me personally. (Although every time Shearer's character spoke I couldn't get the image of Principal Skinner from `The Simpsons' out of my head.)

Anyone with either an absurdist or dry sense of humor will find this movie funny. Speaking for myself, I rarely laugh out loud when watching films by myself at home and I was in tears from having fits of laughter throughout most of the film. The writing is above brilliant, and the acting and timing are dead on. I haven't seen the other two `recent' films that proceeded this one, `Best in Show' and `Waiting for Guffman', but after seeing `A Mighty Wind' I will definitely check them out in the very near future.

--Shelly

In the '60s and '70s, I was a MAJOR folk music fan, and a (very bad) would-be performer; I still have my old Yamaha guitar tucked away in a closet. For years now I've been a second shift engineer at the local PBS TV station... I'm the guy who runs the videotape while the SANE people around here are at home.

EVERY time we run a Pledge (or, as I refer to it, "The Big Beg"), it seems that they come up with ANOTHER nostalgic music reunion program... Doo Wop folks, Rockers, Surfin' music groups, and lately, Folkies.

The folk reunions have been, IMHO, sort of sad. The spirit is willing, but the flesh isn't quite up to recapturing the old glory days.

Judy Collins tries to sing the songs she did when she was 19, and her voice just can't come within a half tone of the high notes she used to hit.

Barry McGuire was an angry, fiery young poet, but now he just goes through the motions with dated stuff like EVE OF DESTRUCTION. It's hard to take him too seriously.

Even my favorites, Peter, Paul & Mary, have seen better days. Peter Yarrow looks like he should be running a pawn shop somewhere, Paul Stookey resembles a college professor who's just counting the days until retirement, and unfortunately Mary Travers hasn't aged very well at all... I remember her as a woman who used to OOZE a sultry, steamy sensuality, but nowadays, on high definition TV, she bears a very unfortunate resemblance to a bulldog!

Just the same tho, I have to admit that Peter, Paul & Mary's musical talent HAS lasted over the years.

When I discovered A MIGHTY WIND I thought I was going to die laughing with absolute joy... SOMEBODY besides ME saw these tries to capture the past in a bottle as a lost cause!!!

Ed Begley is MAGNIFICENT as Lars Olfen, the "PBN" executive producer; he has the Yuppie pseudointellectual pompousness of PBS paper shuffling executives down PERFECTLY!!! I KNOW Lars Olfen VERY well; I happily work the second shift just to AVOID these rancidly arrogant characters, who thankfully LEAVE the station every day at 5 PM!!!

The New Main Street Singers are a mix of THE NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS and the squeaky clean, Stepford Wife - like automatons of the old UP WITH PEOPLE cast... but with a delicious touch of gameyness that we ALL knew was just below the surface, added by the past exploits of Bohners.

The Folksmen are a hybrid of the old Chad Mitchell Trio (which, incidentally, was a foursome until they dumped Henry John Deutchendorf, later better known as John Denver!), and the Limelighters.

The PBS reunions sort of tacitly ask the question "Whatever happened to...", and A MIGHTY WIND answers it... EXPLICITLY.

LIFE is what happened to them. They became part of reality, just like the rest of us.

I have to admit that the musical performances in the film are EXCELLENT; for a lot of people who weren't really part of the '60s commercialized folk music scene, they do a VERY creditable job with the material. They could have been folkies for real!

The only joker in the deck tho; the musical material, if you listen very closely to the lyrics, is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!! Almost ALL of it, especially the song I NEVER DID NO WANDERIN', is a brilliant parody of the stuff we listened to and loved back in the '60's.

For anyone who knew the glory days of Bleeker Street in New York, or Old Town in Chicago, this is a film that will be an absolute joy. It shows both the GOOD parts of those days, and also shows up the silliness of some of the idealism in what we believed.

Christopher Guest's movies, like his performances, are generally subtle and always low-key. They are not for people who need laugh tracks to follow the humor and most of his work is so contextually-based that some knowledge of the subject he's dissecting is a definite asset. Guest, who was a performer in the very early SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, is, in many respects, the Anti-Belushi of modern American comedy.

Nevertheless, he shares with Belushi - and many of their contemporaries, who came from one or another branch of the Second City organization - a certain fondness for off-the-wall elements in his work; Guest's tend to be slipped in, quietly, while Belushi's popped out of exploding cakes.

A MIGHTY WIND is a spot-on satire of the American Folk Music movement of the early and mid-1960s. The narrative conceit is a memorial concert for a recently deceased impressario, organized by his son, which reunites three folk groups from the 60s.

The real elements of the film are the send-ups of a variety of tropes of the era, musical styles, personalities, and quite an array of music-business cliches. Remarkably, however, the songs are genuinely entertaining in themselves; both the writing and the performances. They're satirical, but so subtlely performed that it's easy to loose the thread of the lyrics and wind up mindlessly nodding heads and grooving along, which pretty neatly captures the popular music experience for the last several generations. Satire within satire.

The musical performances are excellent, recreating, almost frighteningly, the taste and texture of folk music of the era. And, bringing several real 60s folk acts to mind.

The acting is typical of Guest movies, such as SPINAL TAP and BEST IN SHOW; very quiet, restrained, low-key, with, apparently, a lot of dialogue improvised. The performers are mostly drawn from the same group Guest has used in the past: Eugene Levy (who co-wrote the script with Guest) and Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Ed Begley, Jr., and Guest, himself.

Comparisons with Guest's most popular picture, THIS IS SPINAL TAP are both interesting and tricky. Interesting because both movies were written and directed by the same man, and shared most of the same casts. Tricky, because while some seem to compare AMW unfavorably with TIST, a looking at these films, together, they have a lot in common. So much so, in fact, that it's reasonable to consider them a pair; very similar takes on two, distinct musical genres of a similar era. The writing, acting, tone, pacing of these two movies is very similar. The jokes are similar. The points of view are similar. The focus on both performers, and the behind-the-scenes people is similar. The real difference is the music.

This, in turn, tends to suggest that those who react very differently to these two films may be reacting more to the music, directly, and to the ambiance of the world around the particular musical genre more than anything else.

Guest's movies don't have many laugh-out-loud moments. Most of the humor is more the "big-smile", sometimes, the chuckle, kind. But, Ed Begley, Jr. has perhaps his best comic scene, ever, when he does a take as a Swedish-American public television producer dropping Yiddish into his conversation; one word per sentence. It's a totally dead-pan and very quiet performance which, like so much of Christopher Guest's humor, you will either get or not get. If you do, you may fall off your chair.

Eugene Levy, who co-wrote the script, with Guest, is also very good, having finally invented a second character after having spent something more than 30 years (since his Second City TV days) doing variations of one.

Who might enjoy A MIGHTY WIND? Anyone who remembers the era and the music, and anyone who enjoys show business insider takes. It's a more difficult call for those born later. And, if you have trouble keeping Janis Joplin and Joanie Mitchell distinct in your mind, you probably won't follow most of what's going on.

We have a duo, a trio, and a group of 9. These three fictitious 'folk' groups from the 60s reunite for a concert in this mockumentary. What makes it so interesting is (1) I was a young adult in the 60s and vividly remember the folk group wave and (2) Guest, Levy and the others do their own singing and playing of songs they wrote for the movie. I think its IMDb ratings which cluster around 7 and 8 are about right. Not everyone will like 'A Mighty Wind' (song from final concert), it has improvised humor and many of the same actors from 'Best in Show'. But for fans of the humor of Guest and Levy it is a very nice little movie. The DVD has interesting extras, and the commentary track by Guest and Levy discuss how, for example, Levy had to take lessons to get is guitar skills back, and how O'Hara learned to play the autoharp for this role.

The movie is 92 minutes long, which includes the 7 minutes of end credits. Of the 85 minutes of actual movie, the first 60 sets up the characters and groups, shows them in rehearsals, covers several back stories, then the final 25 minutes are the concert itself, actually performed before a live audience. There were a few truly outstanding folk groups in the 1960s, but there also were a whole bunch of mediocre ones. The three groups featured in this movie are as good as many of the 1960s groups that actually made a living entertaining. And, as at least one critic said, that's part of the problem with 'A Mighty Wind' - the groups are good enough, and the final concert is real enough, that much of the impact of the humor went away during the last act. The lampooning was gone, replaced by a legitimate set of performances.

Still, I found it thoroughly enjoyable, and my favorite of the 'Guest/Levy' movies.