When Martin Scorsese released “The Last Waltz” in 1978, it was more than just a love letter to a musical group, it was a eulogy to an era. Ostensibly about the 1976 farewell concert for The Band, the documentary touched on tour fatigue, the group’s history, 60s nostalgia, and to the keen observer, the effects of substance abuse on functioning addicts. “Once Were Brothers” picks up the story 40+ years later, and while it has a number of notable music industry luminaries to contextualize The Band, the absence of any members of the group outside of Robbie Robertson gives it a narrow focus its predecessor lacked.
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Structurally, “Once Were Brothers” moves linearly vis a vis Robbie Robertson’s recollections about his boyhood and early adulthood as an aspiring musician. Whereas “The Last Waltz” was about the history of The Band as a five-man unit, “Once Were Brothers” is very much the story of Robbie Robertson, who was the founding member of the group and (by his telling, anyway) the main creative force behind their output. A full third of the documentary is spent on Robertson’s early years as a member of Ronnie Hawkins’ group, and then as the leader of the backing band for Bob Dylan, where the core membership of The Band formed.
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Director Daniel Roher never wants for any perspective when it comes to his talking head interview subjects, trotting out people like Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, David Geffen, Peter Gabriel, Jann Wenner, and many more to talk about The Band’s influence on 1960s and 70s music and culture. Though not conservative-minded, The Band had a decidedly anti-hippie aesthetic that synthesized country, rock, and blues into a genre that was all their own. In the late-60s and early-70s, no one was making music like they were, and for a time The Band enjoyed a level of personal and professional success most musicians can only dream of.
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It’s all interesting and presented well, yet for existing fans of The Band there’s little here that can’t be gleaned from “The Last Waltz” (and for those not familiar with the group, Scorsese’s documentary is a much better introduction). “Once Were Brothers” relies entirely on Robertson’s relation of events and drama within the group, and while people like Van Morrison or Grant Smith can and do provide their own insight, sadly no one else from The Band is available to offer a different perspective.
Although some archive interviews with deceased members of The Band pop up here and there, one must largely take Robertson’s word for things, which becomes problematic for the documentary when the group’s eventual disintegration is covered. Conflicts that arose due to substance abuse, royalty disputes, songwriting credit, and relationship fragmentation are all presented from Robertson’s exclusive point of view and robs the story of a fully formed perspective.
“The Last Waltz” was hardly a modest presentation of The Band, what with all five members getting various opportunities to self-mythologize, but that was at least a presentation of a unit that was the sum of its parts. Indeed, there was a middle-ground truth to be found between the competing narratives and Scorsese’s presentation of the final concert as the culmination of a 60s musical scene that was clearly running on fumes. “Once Were Brothers” hands the reins of The Band’s story over to Robertson to craft into a narrative that makes him look like the smartest, most dynamic factor in the group’s success, and while that may be true to a certain extent, it doesn’t do this documentary any favors.
Structurally, the doc moves well and is bolstered by photos, videos, and interviews that tell a compelling story, and keeps things moving at a good clip. Robertson is a talented storyteller who has indeed lived an interesting, influential life that deserves to be celebrated, and “Once Were Brothers” does just that. The meteoric rise and fall of The Band is similar to so many other groups that followed a similar trajectory, yet Roher’s documentary isn’t interested in contextualizing the story as a part of something bigger, but rather as a showcase for one unique tale.
In this regard, it does indeed work, for when Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen say something is influential and special, one should listen. That’s all this is, though: a book report on a musical group that was indeed exceptional, just like a lot of other groups of their era. “The Last Waltz” did this too, but it showed more than it told. It showed a group that in many ways was an avatar for the 60s, for while The Band survived that decade, by 1976 it was a corrupted shell of what it once was. It was fun, exciting, sad, and instructive in ways Robbie Robertson telling his own story never could be. [C+]