Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson & The Band

Told from the perspective of guitarist-songwriter Robbie Robertson, the story of The Band, one of rock music's most influential groups.

Excellent documentary. Shows well the origins of The Band, their early history, playing with Ronnie Hawkins, the Dylan era, forging their own path, how things started to unravel, how it ended and post-breakup. Also shows their profound influence on music with the Dylan electric folk revolution and their debut album being watershed moments in music history.

Great use of archival interviews and concert footage plus interviews made for the film. Other than Robbie Robertson and other members of The Band, the list of interviewees is like a who's who of the entertainment industry: Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Martin Scorsese, Taj Mahal, Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, David Geffen.

More than just giving the history of The Band you also get a great sense of the camaraderie in the band and the feeling of brotherhood between the members. This makes for joyous viewing during the good times and emotional viewing once things start to unravel. A very engaging experience.

A negative is that the story is essentially told from Robbie Robertson's perspective so we never get the full picture regarding the decline and break-up of The Band or the aftermath. For most of the movie the perspective doesn't matter as the narrative and content are quite objective but the aforementioned periods could have done with a second point of view. Not really the producers' faults though: at the time the documentary was made three of the other members of The Band were dead and the fifth, Garth Hudson, was a recluse. Plus, the film's title alone lets you know this is as much about Robbie Robertson the individual as The Band.