A Mighty Wind

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.

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

It's amazing how well executed this movie is. It seems realisic and yet so..."movie!" Christopher Guest (who did a fine "guest" on Saturday Night Live in a game show skit..."Chocolate Babies?") did some great work on this and all of the characters are classic. Eugene Levy may be the best in this. His performance of Mitch, or rather the shell of what Mitch once was is hilarious. The best scene is, in my opinion, the scene in which Mickey's wife shows Mitch his model trains and model town. Levy's comments about seeing the town in the autumn ("I would have made tiny leaves...") are the funniest lines in the film. The Folksmen show off funny interaction scenes (yep, those are the guys from Spinal Tap) and The New Mainstreet Singers are definitely the commercial b*st*rds of this film. W.I.N.C.-a religion based on color. That's classic. I would recommend getting the DVD for the great deleted scenes, including a press conference in which Mitch talks about Canadian hip-hop, where kids rap about cleanliness.

I love this film. Despite it's rating, a great family movie. The sexual references are minor. There's just two scenes. One: A brief talk about a sex emporium and Two: References to starring in dirty movies. Get past these and mom, dad and the kids can have a good time. Just punch a hole in the record first.

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.

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