Ronnie Hawkins Movies

Harry Dean Stanton narrates this documentary that takes a look at the career of the musical group the Band. The group emerged in the late 1960s and their musical style was something new for the times -- a style that went beyond the psychedelic musical movement of the 60's. Go behind the scenes and see the private and professional lives of the band members. Hear how they became a group and what inspires their musical style. This video highlights music from the albums Music From Big Pink, and The Band. See film footage from performances of: "The Weight, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Up On Cripple Creek," and "Life is a Carnival." ~ Beth Deki, Rovi

When porn-star Roxy Du Jour (Sally Kellerman) dies with her clothes off while filming her latest project, Saint Peter (Al Waxman) informs her she must do a good deed before she is allowed to pass through the gates of heaven. Roxy's ghost is sent back to Earth to be the patron saint of sex to Rudy (Patrick Dempsey), the dorky virginal teenager who longs for his first sexual encounter. Roxy gives Rudy several tips that only serve to further frustrate Rudy. He has his eye on The Love Goddess (Shannon Tweed) while turning down the continual advances of Wendy (Isabelle Mejias). Kellerman's performance is the only bright light in this insipid sex comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A notorious artistic and financial failure, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was blamed for critically wounding the movie Western and definitively ushering out the 1970s Hollywood New Wave of young, brash, independent filmmakers. Taking a revisionist, post-Vietnam view of American imperialism, Cimino used the historical Johnson County War incident in Wyoming to create an impressionistic tapestry of Western conflict between poor immigrant settlers and rich cattle barons led by Canton (Sam Waterston) and his hired gun Nate Champion (Christopher Walken). Attempting to mediate is idealistic Harvard graduate and county marshal Averill (Kris Kristofferson), who is both Nate's friend and his romantic rival for the affections of Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert). However, war erupts, at great cost to all involved. Flush from his success with the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter (1978), Cimino demanded creative control, and his insistence on shooting on location and building historically accurate sets and props multiplied the film's original budget to a then-astronomical $36 million. When United Artists premiered the original 219-minute version (sight unseen), they discovered that Cimino had produced an elliptical epic, compounding the box-office difficulties of making a Western without any major stars. Critics howled about Cimino's incomprehensible self-indulgence, and United Artists pulled the film after several days. Re-released five months later, 70 minutes shorter, Heaven's Gate bombed again, and MGM bought out the financially crippled United Artists. The ailing Western genre virtually vanished during the 1980s, Cimino's career never recovered, and Hollywood studios had had enough of bankrolling financially risky ventures by "auteur" directors. Heaven's Gate's reputation recovered somewhat after its video release, as it garnered praise from some viewers for such visually remarkable sequences as the Harvard dance and the final battle, as well as for David Mansfield's haunting score. Steven Bach's book Final Cut provides a full production history. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Martin Scorsese's documentary of the 1976 final performance of the legendary Sixties rock group The Band is at once a show featuring some of the greatest rock performers of their generation and a bittersweet look back at an era that was just beginning to fade. As Scorsese guides the group through interview segments discussing their 15 years together, these relatively young men sound like battle-weary survivors. But The Band were in splendid form for this show, and their multiple guest stars pulled out all the stops, especially Muddy Waters, whose "Mannish Boy" is so powerful it nearly burns a hole in the screen; Van Morrison, with a rousing performance of "Caravan;" and Bob Dylan, whose "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" displays the brilliant cockiness of his barnstorming days with this band. The all-star camera crew and superb stereo sound mix create what is considered to be of the best-looking and sounding rock films ever (as the opening credit says, play this movie loud!), and two studio-shot sequences with Emmylou Harris and The Staple Singers stand on their own. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi