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I finally understand my parents. I have the new
hilarious comedy A Mighty Wind, directed by Christopher
Guest, written by Guest and Eugene Levy, to thank for this
amazing forward step in parent/child relations. For years
they berated me about how I didn’t understand where they
were coming from (that whole “1960’s thing”),
and how their youth was a wonderful time, full of peace, love,
understanding and slightly out-of-tune protest songs. It was
only after watching A Mighty Wind that I fully understood
what it was like to be alive during that magical time. I also
understand what it must be like to be alive 30 years later,
after all your dreams for a utopian society have been dashed
against the rocks of reality, your once youthful looks have
faded, and all you have left are hazy memories and a collection
of scratched-up records.
Warning: in an effort to further build the bridge of understanding
between my parents and me, this review will reference various
folk music groups and ideas from the 1950’s and ‘60’s.
You will not get these references. Ask your parents about
them. They’d love to hear from you. You don’t call
them often enough. And you probably need a haircut.
A Mighty Wind opens up with the death of former folk
music impresario Irving Steinbloom, who, in his prime, was
the guiding force behind such successful (and not-so-successful)
acts as The Folksmen (loosely based on The Kingston Trio);
The New Main Street Singers (based on The New Christy Minstrels);
and Mitch and Mickey, and the oh-so-serious husband and wife
duo that traded kisses and other assorted bodily fluids during
a performance (based on the short lived – due to suicide
– duo Mimi and Richard Fariña). Yes, I know you
never heard of any of these performers. Neither has anyone
else. Except for your parents. They used to smoke weak pot
(or “grass”, as it was known back then), listen
to these records, and discuss how they really dug civil rights,
man, and how they were planning to sign up for Freedom Summer
and go missing in Mississippi as soon as they graduated from
City College.
Following the death of said impresario, it is up to his son
Jonathan Steinbloom (the brilliantly nebbishy Bob Balaban)
to organize a concert with all of the acts that his father
used to manage. What follows is a “mockumentary”,
done in the same improv style of Guest’s previous films:
Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, and the grandpappy
of them all, This is Spinal Tap. We follow the reunions
of the three bands as they rehearse their old songs and re-hash
their old neuroses.
The Folksmen are played by Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael
McKean, who in former lives were the core members of the great
heavy metal band Spinal Tap. It is wonderful to see these
three performers work together again, finishing each other’s
nonsensical sentences in an effortless rhythm. Everything
these actors do is uproarious in a seemingly effortless way,
from their first meeting at a backyard barbeque, to their
rehearsal of a left-wing revolutionary folk song about the
Spanish Civil War. This marks the first time ever that someone
managed to make a joke about the Spanish Civil War. Both of
these brilliantly funny events reference Wasn’t That
a Time, the documentary about The Weaver’s reunion concert
in 1981. (Again, ask your parents. They probably have that
film on VHS and know all the words to “Goodnight Irene”)
Also on the bill were The New Main Street Singers (“new”
because they only have one original member), led by John Michael
Higgins, Jane Lynch and the dementedly perky Parker Posey.
The New Main Street Singers are the worst kind of apple-cheeked
folk group, where no smile is large enough and no pair of
pastel pants is bright enough. Yet the real stars of the show,
and of the movie, were Mitch and Mickey, played by SCTV veterans
Eugene Levy (who also helped write the “screenplay”)
and Catherine O’Hara. Mitch and Mickey used to be the
folk world’s sweethearts; a married couple that played
beautiful love songs together and ended every show with a
sweet kiss. But that was before the break up, the therapy
and Mitch’s many stays in mental hospitals. Levy, as
the broken down Mitch, manages to make pathos funny. He wanders
through the film with a dazed expression on his face, as if
he is only one bad day away from another nervous breakdown.
I still haven’t gotten to Ed Begley Jr.’s Yiddisher
Swede, Larry Miller and Jennifer Coolidge as the world’s
worst P.R. agents, and Fred Willard as a clueless talent agent
with delusions of wit. I haven’t gushed enough about
how the entire film was basically improvised by the cast;
a troupe of actors who must be so comfortable with each other
(having all appeared in Guest’s past films) that, to
paraphrase Coolidge’s twit of a P.R. agent, “It’s
like we share one brain between all of us.” I haven’t
even begun to describe how every song in this film (written
by the members of the cast) is earnestly god-awful yet brilliantly
funny; you’ll have to listen carefully to catch some
of the best musical double entendres written ever since Tom
Lehrer stopped making albums.
I know you haven’t heard of Tom Lehrer. Again, ask your
parents. Or better yet, go to your local library. Read some
books about the folk movement. There was a lot more to it
than bad acoustic strumming and three-part harmony. There
was real passion to it, a real desire to change the world.
Learn about how The Weavers got blacklisted during the 50’s.
Read how Pete Seeger had to be physically held back from cutting
Bob Dylan’s cord when he went electric at the ’65
Newport Folk Festival. Find out how America barely noticed
when Phil Ochs killed himself after Nixon was re-elected in
’72. And you can learn if he tries hard enough, one man
with a guitar and a dream can change the world.
Or better yet, pick up an old guitar, learn a few chords,
meet a nice girl, and together the two of you can do your
best to change the world with a song and a dream. And thirty
years later, you can bore your kids about your salad days,
too.
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Above:
Harry Shearer, Michael McKeon & Christopher Guest in A
Mighty Wind
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