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.
