The Last Waltz

Synopsis: Thanksgiving, 1976, San Francisco's Winterland: the Band performs its last concert after 16 years on the road. Some numbers they do alone, some songs include guest artists from Ronnie Hawkins (their first boss, when they were the Hawks) to Bob Dylan (their last, when as his backup and as a solo group, they came into their own). Scorsese's camera explores the interactions onstage in the making of music. Offstage, he interviews the Band's five members, focusing on the nature of life on the road. The friendships, the harmonies, the hijinks, and the wear and tear add up to a last waltz.
Director(s): Martin Scorsese
Production: MGM
  2 wins & 3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.2
Metacritic:
88
Rotten Tomatoes:
98%
PG
Year:
1978
117 min
292 Views


OK?

OK.

- OK?

- Yeah, I'll start again.

Same slate still running.

Cutthroat.

Keep running. It'll get better.

Start all over again. Same slate.

OK, Rick, what's the game?

- Cutthroat.

- The object is?

The object is to keep your balls on

the table and knock everybody else's off.

You're still there, huh?

We're gonna do one more song

and that's it.

All right.

And happy Thanksgiving.

' Well, baby, don't you do it

' Don't do it

' Don't you break my heart

' Please, don't do it,

don't you break my heart

' My biggest mistake

was loving you too much

' And letting ya know

' Now you got me where you want me

' And you won't let me go

' If my heart was made of glass

' Well, then you'd surely see

' Heartaches and misery

' You been causin' me

' And I been trying to do my best

' You know I try to do my best

' Don't do it

' Don't you break my heart

' Please don't do it

' Don't you break my heart

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you.

Good night. Goodbye.

OK, look.

We've been together 16 years.

- Who?

- Who?

The Band.

- You want me to plug that in?

- Let's do it again.

The Band has been together 16 years.

Together on the road.

We did eight years

in bars, dives, dance halls.

Eight years of concerts

and stadiums, arenas.

We gave our final concert,

The Band's final concert,

and we called it The Last Waltz.

Why was it held

in San Francisco, in Winterland,

when you guys have been

on the road for 16 years?

Winterland was the first place

that the band played as The Band.

Some friends showed up

and helped us take it home.

Not just friends. They're more than that.

Would you ask me that again?

They weren't just friends. They weren't

just friends who came in to say hello.

You know what I mean? Get that fly!

No. They were more than just friends.

I feel they're probably

some of the greatest influences

on music on a whole generation.

We wanted it to be more than just a

concert. We wanted it to be a celebration.

Celebration of a beginning or an end?

Beginning of the beginning

of the end of the beginning.

Good evening.

' When I get off of this mountain

' You know where I wanna go?

' Straight down the Mississippi river

to the Gulf of Mexico

' To Lake Charles, Louisiana

' Little Bessie, girl that I once knew

' She told me just to come on by

if there's anything she could do

' up on Cripple Creek she sends me

' If I spring a leak, she mends me

' I don't have to speak, she defends me

' A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

' Well, now me and my mate

were back at the shack

' We had Spike Jones on the box

' She said "I can't take the way he sings

but I love to hear him talk"

' Now there's one thing in the whole

wide world I sure do love to see

' That's how that little sweet thing

of mine puts her doughnut in my tea

' I'm going up on Cripple Creek,

she sends me

' If I spring a leak, she mends me

' I don't have to speak, she defends me

' A drunkard's dream, if I ever did see one

' There's a flood out in California

and up north it's freezing cold

' And this living off of the road

is getting pretty old

' So I guess I'll call up my big mama

' And tell her I'll be rolling in

' But you know, deep down,

I'm sort of tempted

' To go and see my Bessie again

' I'm going up on Cripple Creek,

she sends me

' If I spring a leak, she mends me

' I don't have to speak, she defends me

' A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

' Oh, no, oooh-oooh-oooh

' Yodel yodel yodel oooh-oooh

' Oh, no, oooh-oooh-oooh

' Yodel yodel yodel oooh-oooh

' Oh, no, no, no, no

' Yodel yodel yodel oooh-oooh

' Oh, no, oooh-oooh-oooh

' Yodel yodel yodel oooh-oooh

' Yeah, yeah, you know,

I sure wish I could yodel, I know

' Yodely, yodely, yodely-oh

' Yodel yodel yodel oooh-oooh

' Oh, no, oooh-oooh-oooh

' Yodel yodel yodel oooh

It was kind of... We didn't know where we

were going, we didn't know what it was.

But, for some reason,

it seemed like a good idea.

We got to this place, a joint,

in Fort Worth, Texas.

It was burned out, bombed out. The roof

wasn't even on the place any more.

And that's when they decided

to call it the Skyline Lounge.

And we got there and set up and...

A big place.

Huge. Bar, way at the back

and a big dance floor.

- Real old.

- So we set up the first night.

We go down to the place to play.

We go in and, in this huge place, there's

about three people in the audience.

A one-armed go-go dancer

and a couple of drunk waiters.

- A couple here, a couple there.

- Somebody fires a tear gas...

And a fight starts.

There isn't enough people

in the place to get angry.

And we found out a few years later

that it was Jack Ruby's club.

' Go out yonder, peace in the valley

' Come downtown,

have to rumble in the alley

' Oh, you don't know the shape I'm in

' Has anybody seen my lady?

' This living alone will drive me crazy

' Oh, you don't know the shape I'm in

' I just been down by the water

' But I ain't gonna jump in, no, no

' I'll just be looking for my maker

' And I hear that's

where she's gone? Oh!

' Out of nine lives, I spent seven

' Now how in the world

do you get to heaven?

' Oh, you don't know the shape I'm in

' Well, I just spent 60 days

in the jailhouse

' For the crime of having no dough

' Now here I am back out on the street

' For the crime of having nowhere to go

' Save your neck or save your brother

' Looks like it's one or the other

' Oh, you don't know the shape I'm in

16 years ago, when we started, we started

with a guy you might have heard of.

We'd like to start with him.

The Hawk! Ronnie Hawkins!

He called me up and I said

"Sure I'd like a job.

What does it mean? What do I do?"

He said "You won't make much money

but you'll get more p*ssy than Sinatra. "

' Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley,

have you heard?

' Baby's gonna buy me a mockingbird

Whooooo!

Big time, Bill! Big time! Big time!

' I walked 47 miles of barbed wire,

use a cobra snake for a necktie

' Got a brand-new house on the roadside,

made from rattlesnake hide

' Got a brand-new chimney made on top,

made from a human skull

' Come on, Robbie, let's take a little walk,

tell me who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Arlene took me by the hand, says

"Who are you, Ricky? I understand"

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

Argh!

Arrrgh!

Arrrrrrgh!

Arrggghhh!

Come on, Robbie!

' I got a tombstone hand

and a graveyard mind

' I've turned 41, I don't mind dyin'

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' I ride around the county

and use a rattlesnake whip

' Take it easy, Garth,

don't you give me no lip

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

' The night was black

and the night was blue

' Round the corner an ice wagon flew

' Bump was hit and somebody screamed,

you shoulda heard just what I seen

' Who do you love?

' Who do you love?

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Mardik Martin

Mardik Martin (born September 16, 1936), is an American screenwriter of Armenian descent. He was born in Iran and raised in Iraq. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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