The Last Waltz: The Band's Last Concert, Directed by Martin Scorcese. 117 Minute

The Last Waltz: The Band's Last Concert, Directed by Martin Scorcese. 117 Minutes. DVD.
Directed by Martin Scorcese
BuzzFlash.com's Review (excerpt)
The Last Waltz is the most beautiful rock film ever made" (New York Times)

"MGM really did an outstanding job with this release. The movie itself is justly celebrated as one of the greatest concert documentaries of all time. The Band is brimming with energy and they play their farewell concert, and the music sounds fantastic in the 5.1 mix. You don't even have to be a huge fan of The Band to enjoy this movie, as long as you like classic rock. There are so many guest stars that join The Band, including Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, The Staples Singers, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and many others.

There are two outstanding commentary tracks on this dvd. One of them features director Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson (of The Band). Over the course of the film, they provide a great deal of insight into the making of the documentary. Equally valuable is the second audio commentary, which features many participants (the other surviving Band members, a few of the guest performers such as Dr. John and Mavis Staples, and several crew members, among others). Although the many participants were recorded separately, the track tightly edited with nary a dull moment. A nice touch: you can select a subtitle feature which will bring up the name of the person who is speaking while the commentary plays.

If all that weren't enough, the 20 minute featurette contains good recent interview footage with Scorsese and Robertson. And there is a 12 minute outtake which is an all-star jam session (the instrumental jam itself isn't all that exciting, but with that kind of line-up it's well worth watching). Even the Still Photo gallery had more care put into it than most dvds, with the photos divided into three sections, many featuring captions to identify what we're looking at.

The movie itself looks and sounds so good, it justifies the purchase. But the supplemental material puts this way above the 5-star level."

*****

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Special Features

* New 5.1 audio remix and new transfer
* Featurette: "Revisiting The Last Waltz"
* Archival outtakes: Jam 2
* Photo gallery

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