Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
New York University Film and TV professor Jim Brown, in his other career as a maker of documentaries, has already come out with two films about The Weavers, the folk music supergroup of the 1950s. It’s only natural, then, that he should be responsible for Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, which tells the life story of the group’s most famous and influential member.
Brown’s film does unequivocal justice to its subject, perhaps the finest exemplifier of the artist’s potential to affect change in society; an individual who played a major, lasting role in many of the most important social movements of the 20th century. It’s a fascinating portrait of a man driven to do more than make his mark on musical history. To Seeger, his music served the greater purpose of providing a source of unification for those outside the societal mainstream, a means for communal healing and a place for peaceful dissent from the injustices promulgated in Vietnam and elsewhere.
The movie comprehensively outlines the major events in Seeger’s life and career. Brown charts the Newport Folk Festivals, the rise and fall of The Weavers, Seeger’s famous nationally televised performances of protest songs like “Bring Them Home”, and the controversial Peekskill concert that wasn’t. The filmmaker explores Seeger’s personal life with Toshi, his wife of many years, as well as the endless conviction and passion he continues to bring to major social causes. The picture features remarkably vivid footage of Seeger in concert, perfecting his special knack, acknowledged in an interview with Bob Dylan, for facilitating audience involvement.
Brown further benefits from Seeger’s continuing vivacity in his mid ’80s. Where most pictures of this ilk might rely solely on talking heads and the prior recordings and/or writings of its subject, the director smartly asks the elderly, but still passionate Seeger to narrate his own story. That lends the movie a rare, compelling intimacy, which creates a fully formed grasp of the man, the legend, and the generation-transcending power of his beautifully simple music.
© 2007 Robert Levin. All rights reserved.
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