Roger McGuinn Movies
- 2007
Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich turns to the documentary form for the first time with this lengthy profile of one of rock and roll's enduring talents. Tom Petty: Running Down A Dream presents an in-depth look at Petty's life and career and his work with his long-time band the Heartbreakers, ranging from Petty's earliest musical influences (which includes meeting Elvis Presley when the King came to Florida to shoot a movie when Petty was just eleven years old) to the critical and commercial success of his 2006 album Highway Companion. Along the way, the film offers glimpses of Petty's early bands (including the Sundowners and Mudcrutch), his battles with record companies over royalties, record prices and control of his music, his collaborations with other artists (among them George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Roger McGuinn), his relationship with his fellow Heartbreakers, and of course his music, with plenty of footage of Petty and the Heartbreakers strutting their stuff on stage. Produced as a special event for The Sundance Channel, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Running Down A Dream enjoyed a brief theatrical release before its debut on cable television. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, (more)
- 2004
- Add Roger McGuinn's Guide to Home Recording on a Computer to QueueAdd Roger McGuinn's Guide to Home Recording on a Computer to top of Queue
Roger McGuinn's Guide to Home Recording on a Computer features the former member of The Byrds offering instructions on how to produce quality musical recording in one's own home. The award winning musician explains how to track vocal and music tracks, overdub, and how to mix them together. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- 2003
- Add Roger McGuinn's Basic Folk Guitar: Easy Arrangements for Traditional Favorites from the Folk Den to QueueAdd Roger McGuinn's Basic Folk Guitar: Easy Arrangements for Traditional Favorites from the Folk Den to top of Queue
As the leader of the legendary group the Byrds, Roger McGuinn helped fuse folk music with rock and roll and brought an exciting new sound to the charts. In this instructional video, McGuinn goes back to the essentials of his roots in folk music, demonstrating the basic techniques of the acoustic guitar and how to approach some of the classic songs of the American folk repertoire. Roger McGuinn's Basic Folk Guitar: Easy Arrangements For Traditional Favorites From The Folk Den features McGuinn's arrangements for "All My Trials", "Wayfaring Stranger", "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue", and many more; while the bulk of the lesson focuses on the six string guitar, McGuinn also shows off a bit of his trademark 12-string style on a few numbers. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1996
- Add The 12-String Guitar of Roger McGuinn to QueueAdd The 12-String Guitar of Roger McGuinn to top of Queue
Roger McGuinn, former guitarist for The Byrds, both performs and hosts in this instructional video geared towards fellow 12-string guitar players. Featuring in-depth analyses of some of The Byrds' greatest hits, McGuinn highlights the techniques employed for "Mr. Tamborine Man," Turn, Turn, Turn," Eight Miles High," and "Mr. Spaceman," among others. McGuinn also offers instruction on picking sytles, bass lines and runs, blues scales, and several other techniques, as well as detailed advice on maintaining a 12-string guitar, the best recording methods, and various tips of the trade.
~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- 1982
In a careful, step-by-step manner, this documentary traces the lives and careers of the Beatles from childhood to breakup. The post-Beatle lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo are gingerly touched upon in the film's closing sequences, with emphasis given the senseless 1980 murder of John Lennon. Through rare family photos, early home movies and TV kinescopes we are shown the matriculation of the Beatles from a bedraggled punk group to a well-tailored, mop-topped foursome under the aegis of Brian Epstein. We are also briefly introduced to might-have-been Beatles Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best. George Martin, the producer who oversaw such late-1960s Beatles projects as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, reveals several intriguing trade secrets and wonderful bits of backstage gossip. By incorporating shots of Beatles merchandising, imitation groups, and the ear-piercing reactions of the Fab Four's fans (as well as several shots of disillusioned young ladies during the team's waning years), the amazing impact of the foursome on the 1960s music industry is forcefully brought home. Malcolm McDowell narrates this priceless pop-culture montage. The Complete Beatles was originally produced for home video by MGM/United Artists, the company which in 1982 held the video rights for the Beatles flicks A Hard Day's Night and Help. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gerry Marsden
- 198z
Kissimee, Florida, was host to a Roger McGuinn concert with titles such as "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Tiffany Queen." ~ Rovi
- 1978
- R
Bob Dylan made this concert film that chronicles a 1975/1976 performance of his Rolling Thunder Revue. In between songs he, his wife Sara Dylan, along with Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, and other counterculture figures perform philosophically based improvisational pieces. During the skits, Dylan plays the ambiguous Renaldo, while Ronnie Hawkins and Ronee Blakely play Dylan and his wife. Songs include "Isis, I Want You," "It Ain't Me Babe," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Hurricane," "Romance in Durango," "One Too Many Mornings," "One More Cup of Coffee," "Sara," "Patty's Gone to Laredo," "Just Like a Woman," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowland," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," (Bob Dylan), "Chestnut Mare" (Roger McGuinn), "Diamonds and Rust" (Joan Baez), "Suzanne" (Leonard Cohen), "Need a New Sun Rising" (Ronee Blakely), "Salt Pork West Virginia" (Jack Elliott), "Kaddish" (Allen Ginsberg), "Cucurrucucu Paloma" (Tomas Mendez), and "Time of the Preacher" (Willie Nelson). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Dylan, Sara Dylan, (more)
Tossing wristwatches away, two bikers hit the road to find America in Dennis Hopper's anti-establishment classic. After a major cocaine sale to an L.A. connection (Phil Spector), free-wheeling potheads Billy (Hopper) and Wyatt, aka Captain America (Peter Fonda, who also produced), motor eastward to party at Mardi Gras before "retiring" to Florida with the riches concealed in Wyatt's stars-and-stripes gas tank. As they ride through the Southwest, they take a hitchhiker (Luke Askew) to a struggling hippie commune before they get thrown in a small-town jail for "parading without a permit." Their cellmate, drunken ACLU lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson, replacing Rip Torn), does them a "groovy" favor by getting them out of jail and then decides to join them. Babbling about Venusians, George discovers the joys of smoking grass, but an encounter with Southern rednecks soon proves how right he is about the danger posed by Billy's and Wyatt's unfettered life in a country that has lost its ideals. With the straight world closing in, Wyatt and Billy try to revel in New Orleans with some LSD and hookers (Karen Black and Toni Basil), but the acid trip is shot through with morbidity. Once they reach Florida, Billy raves about attaining the American dream; Wyatt, however, knows the truth: "We blew it."
Produced and directed by two Hollywood iconoclasts with under a half-million non-studio dollars, Easy Rider shook up the languishing movie industry when it grossed over 19 million dollars in 1969; it captured the spirit of the times as it woke Hollywood up to the power of young audiences and socially relevant movies, along with such other landmarks of the late '60s as Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, and 2001. Shot on location by Laszlo Kovacs, Easy Rider eschewed old-fashioned Hollywood polish for documentary-style immediacy, and it enhanced its casual feel with improvised dialogue and realistically "stoned" acting. With a soundtrack of contemporary rock songs by Jimi Hendrix, the Band, and Steppenwolf to complete the atmosphere, Easy Rider was hailed for capturing the increasingly violent Vietnam-era split between the counterculture and the repressive Establishment. Experiencing the "shock of recognition," youth audiences embraced Easy Rider's vision of both the attractions and the limits of dropping out, proving that audience's box-office power and turning Nicholson into a movie star. The momentarily hip Academy nominated Nicholson for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Fonda, Hopper, and Terry Southern for their screenplay. Though none of its imitators would match its impact, Easy Rider remains one of the seminal works of late '60s Hollywood both for its trailblazing legacy and its sharply perceptive portrait of its chaotic times. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
Produced and directed by two Hollywood iconoclasts with under a half-million non-studio dollars, Easy Rider shook up the languishing movie industry when it grossed over 19 million dollars in 1969; it captured the spirit of the times as it woke Hollywood up to the power of young audiences and socially relevant movies, along with such other landmarks of the late '60s as Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, and 2001. Shot on location by Laszlo Kovacs, Easy Rider eschewed old-fashioned Hollywood polish for documentary-style immediacy, and it enhanced its casual feel with improvised dialogue and realistically "stoned" acting. With a soundtrack of contemporary rock songs by Jimi Hendrix, the Band, and Steppenwolf to complete the atmosphere, Easy Rider was hailed for capturing the increasingly violent Vietnam-era split between the counterculture and the repressive Establishment. Experiencing the "shock of recognition," youth audiences embraced Easy Rider's vision of both the attractions and the limits of dropping out, proving that audience's box-office power and turning Nicholson into a movie star. The momentarily hip Academy nominated Nicholson for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Fonda, Hopper, and Terry Southern for their screenplay. Though none of its imitators would match its impact, Easy Rider remains one of the seminal works of late '60s Hollywood both for its trailblazing legacy and its sharply perceptive portrait of its chaotic times. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, (more)
