A Mighty Wind

The first time I saw this movie, I laughed and thought it was pretty good. Then I saw it again. And again. And again. I bought it and watched it even more times.

I don't think the movie is "pretty good" anymore. It's made a permanent home in my Christopher Guest collection as one of the movies I go around quoting. I own the DVD, the soundtrack and even the songbook.

All of the cast members are hilarious as usual. I love The Folksmen trio of Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest. A little reminiscent of Spinal Tap goes folk. The New Main Street Singers have such a dark side it's funny to see their on-stage presence as such chipper people. And Mitch and Mickey are the wacky split up sweethearts of yesteryear.

I love this movie and look forward to the next release of this great comedic team!

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.

It's of course hilarious, but it's also his only mockumentary with real heart, and boy does it work. O'Hara and Levy lean on their decades of natural chemistry to make their post-romance relationship both gut-bustingly funny and sensibly sad. All three of the groups are uniquely perfect, and their musical performances are inspired. And if anyone wonders what made Fred Willard so beloved, just watch his tour de force introduction in this movie...it's everything.

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.

Some felt that this was too close to reality to be considered a parody, but I thought it was beautifully done - made fun of the cloying smugness of some "folkies", but mixed it with genuine pathos. I have a feeling Eugene Levy may have lost a couple of friends to bad acid trips - his portrayal was hilarious, but not cruel. Christopher Guest continues to amaze me with his light touch; most comedies put people in bad situations and make them squirm their way through; instead Guest takes apparently mediocre characters and puts them in situations that stretch their personalities.

Contains the single funniest comment I've ever heard about model trains.

Suggested double feature: This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, or Bob Roberts