Van Morrison Movies

In 1970, a music aficionado and entrepreneur named Michael Eavis staged a "pop, folk, and blues" festival on a dairy farm in the English community of Glastonbury, not far from Stonehenge. 1,500 attended the "Glastonbury Fayre," and a second festival followed in 1971. By 2005, The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts had grown into the biggest pop music festival in the world, playing host to the biggest names in rock, reggae, electronic, blues, and world music for a crowd of up to 150,000 people over the course of a three-day weekend in June. Filmmaker Julien Temple offers a backstage look at the history of this event, as well as a cross section of the memorable performances which have taken place on the festival's stage in the documentary Glastonbury. Performers featured in archival footage include R.E.M., David Bowie, New Order, Radiohead, Coldplay, the Velvet Underground, Nick Cave, Oasis, Blur, Björk, and many more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Part of The Blues documentary film series on PBS, Red, White & Blues is directed by British filmmaker Mike Figgis. This installment explores the impact of black American blues music on mostly white audiences in the U.K., who then reintroduced the style to mainstream America during the British invasion of the early '60s. Kids from London, Birmingham, Manchester, and other parts of England were heavily influenced by the "race music" that middle-class white America largely ignored. Figgis himself was involved in the British blues music scene in one of Bryan Ferry's early bands. Tom Jones, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, and Lulu come together for a live improvised recording session at Abbey Road Studios. Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Mick Fleetwood, and Steve Winwood offer commentary in interview segments. Red, White & Blues was originally broadcast by PBS on October 3, 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Part one of this acclaimed PBS series explores the earliest roots of the Irish people in the New World. Centering on the crucial event of the Potato Famine, this tape examines the causes of what would become one of the greatest mass migrations in world history. The conditions faced by early arrivals in the United States are examined, including the prejudice that made the end of the remarkable journey so bittersweet for thousands of families in search of a new life. Serious in tone and well documented, this tape is appropriate for use in the college classroom. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

Part two of the acclaimed PBS series explores the path taken by new Irish arrivals in the New World. Irish roles in the building of the American nation are examined, as well as the emergence of Irish-American heroes including such figures as John L. Sullivan and John Mackey. Still dogged by prejudice and often persecuted because of their heritage, the Irish often had no one but each other to turn to. The video examines such groups as the Molly Maguires and their role in the fight for early acceptance. Serious in tone and well documented, this tape is appropriate for use in the college classroom. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

Two teenaged lads vie for the attention of a nubile young German tourist visiting the beautiful Irish countryside in this heartfelt coming-of-age drama. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Polygram Music Video presents Van Morrison: The Concert, recorded during a live performance at the Beacon Theatrer in New York on November 1989. Singer/songwriter Morrison sings over a dozen classic songs, including "I Will Be There," "Moondance," and "Gloria." He also performs "Thank God for Self Love" with Mose Allison and "Boom Boom" with John Lee Hooker. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

This large musical project features Pink Floyd, along with a cast of hundreds in the performance of The Wall. Includes a look at the historic Berlin Wall collapse and features interviews and some behind the scene views. ~ All Movie Guide

The directorial debut of Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of the television series Moonlighting (1985-89), this intense, gritty drama was received as one of the best-ever cinematic treatments of substance abuse. Michael Keaton stars as Daryl Poynter, a hustling, successful Philadelphia real estate agent who has become addicted to cocaine. He's already got problems, including nearly a $100,000 embezzled from his employer and lost on the stock market, when he wakes up one morning with a young woman dead in his bed from a coke overdose. His company is asking questions about the missing funds, and the dead girl's father is plastering his neighborhood with posters accusing Daryl of being a murderer, so he decides to hide out in an anonymous drug treatment program. There, however, Daryl runs into tough-minded counselor and former addict Craig (Morgan Freeman), who has heard all of Daryl's lies and tricks before. Daryl also finds romance with an abused fellow addict, Charlie Standers (Kathy Baker), and understanding with his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor (M. Emmet Walsh). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Michael Lamb (Liam Neeson) is a member of the Christian Brotherhood, working as a teacher in a private special-ed school in Ireland. Having recently endured the loss of his father, Lamb befriends a young, epileptic student. The wicked behavior of unscrupulous brother superior Ian Bannen compels Lamb to head to London, accompanied by the boy. The ironic climax finds the lad losing his life as an indirect result of Lamb's kindness. Based on a novel by Bernard McLaverty, Lamb is graced with a compelling musical score by rock star Van Morrison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

There are documentaries, "rockumentaries," and docudramas. Free however, is a unique mixed "rockumentary" and docudrama. The rock festival filmed took place in 1970 on Randall's Island in the New York City area, and includes performances by (among others) Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf and Van Morrison. However, the 1970 festival was also the scene of a tremendous power struggle over box-office receipts which resulted in the festival never being held again. The docudrama portion of the film re-enacts the story of that conflict. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Maverick director Floyd Mutrux made his feature debut with this offbeat semi-documentary look at the realities of the Los Angeles drug scene. Mutrux and his camera crew follow a handful of real-life heroin addicts as they go through their daily routines of scoring dope and whiling away the hours until their next fix. (The dealers are played by actors, among them William Fraker, a noted cinematographer who helped shoot the film, and Billy Gray, a former child star from Father Knows Best.) Dusty and Sweets are a thirty-something couple whose often strained relationship is held together by their shared dependence on heroin. Kit is a blasé male hustler who turns tricks to support his habit. Tip is a self-described "everyday card-carrying dope fiend" who demonstrates his technique for ripping off supermarkets and explains how to keep up a habit behind bars. And a cheerfully blank teenage couple seem to spend their days either shooting up, nodding off, or wondering where to get more dope. Though featuring enough on-screen skin popping to make nearly any audience wince, Dusty and Sweets McGee's beautiful photography and languid mood captures the blissfully narcotic allure of Los Angeles in a way that makes the film compelling, while allowing its subjects to seem both human and tragic. Dusty and Sweets McGee also includes a soundtrack of vintage rock and roll radio, and a brief appearance by the group Blues Image, playing their sole hit "Ride Captain Ride". ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide