Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in the 1960s and 1970s, aggressive realism and the political agenda created cinematic movements such as the stylized cinema verite and the accurate reality direct cinema movements. Director Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz", the author relates, reveals The Band's farewell concert by creating a form of documentary that closely straddles the line between cinema verite and direct cinema. The author concludes this film remains one of cinema's greatest demonstrations of real and demonstrated emotional authenticity, shared sentiment by the audience, subject and filmmaker, which makes it of great importance in understanding the time, place and culture it captures.

From the Paper:

"A similar agenda is marked in the Maysles' film, which captures the Rolling Stones disastrous Altamont performance, where a member of the audience was stabbed by Hells Angel. The agenda seems to place responsibility with a generation of wishy-washy and irresponsible rockers. The confusion between drug use and the utopian dream are shown to have reached a devastating pitch at this deadly show, and the filmmakers channeled the responsibility of the generation through Mick Jagger"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aiex, N.K. (1984). 'The Last Waltz': Variations on a Theme. Toronto, Canada: Annual Meeting of the American Culture Association, 6.
• Bartholomew, D. (1979). 'The Last Waltz': Review. Film Quarterly, 56.
• Bouqueral, L. (2007). Bob Dylan, the Ordinary Star. Oral Tradition, 22(1), 151-161.
• Garbowski, C. (2001). The Catholic Imagination in Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz. Journal of Religion and Film, 5(2).
• Plaskete, G. (1989). Rock on Reel: The rise and fall of the rock culture in America reflected in a decade of 'rockumentaries.' Qualitative Sociology, 12(1).

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• Book Review # 33525 : "The Last Tycoon"
• Analytical Essay # 89616 : "'The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul'"

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