Pete Seeger - The Power of Song (2007)
95 %
Reviews Counted: 20 Fresh: 19 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.1/10
Consensus:
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song is both a tribute to a legendary singer and an informative account of the birth of American counterculture.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Theatrical Release: Oct 26, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Pete Seeger is a revered singer and performer, an ambassador of the world's folk music traditions, and a patriot, but whenever Jim Brown's very moving documentary verges too close to hagiography, interviews with the gently self-effacing subject himself steer the focus back onto the issues... [More]
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Starring: Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Maines, Joan Baez
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Reviews
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
irector Jim Brown tells the story well even if he refuses to address any of the singer's missteps (such as becoming infuriated when Dylan first plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival).
Comment
01/18/08
Top Critic
Forget the controversial politics (that's what folk music is all about), this is a fascinating story with great music, despite the tedious last 15 minutes.
11/10/07
A stirring, revelatory film, which captures Seeger as the media-age Johnny Appleseed of folk.
11/07/07
Top Critic
Fans like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan express unvarnished awe, but it's the well-told arc of Seeger's life that makes the strongest impression, as director Jim Brown takes us from the highs to the lows and back up again.
10/26/07
Top Critic
As the loving documentary, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, makes clear, Pete Seeger is still busy, still angry, still hopeful, still singing.
10/26/07
Top Critic
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song could have been called Pete Seeger: The First Punk. As the film traces the singer's long life, it also, inevitably, tracks the evolution of American countercultures through much of the 20th century.
10/25/07
Top Critic
Top Critic
More than an appreciation, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song is an inspiration.
10/19/07
The Power of Song shows this icon of 20th-century music to be a man of passion and principle, and a true American. An important figure, an important film.
10/11/07
Top Critic
[Seeger] traversed decades, styles, even continents to bring the people's music to the people. This distinction is made with suitable and skillful great appreciation by director Jim Brown in Pete Seeger: The Power of Song.
10/05/07
Top Critic
Top Critic
You sense that Seeger may feel his greatest legacy is not what he accomplished, but what his presence gave others the courage to accomplish. Even if it was just singing along with a roomful of strangers.
09/27/07
You sense that Seeger (still around and spry at 88) may feel his greatest legacy is not what he accomplished, but what his presence gave others the courage to accomplish. Even if it was just singing along with a roomful of strangers.
09/27/07
If you've never heard of Pete Seeger or if you've known him all your life, see this film. Walking out, you might just be ready to put the world together.
09/21/07
Director Brown has made a career of chronicling the history of American folk music, and Pete Seeger: The Power of Song is a worthy companion piece to his 1982 debut, The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time?
09/20/07
The filmmakers treat this aged curmudgeon almost too reverently, but it is hard not to be awed by this gentle, resolute soul because of the ideas he steadfastly and faithfully represented.
09/14/07
Top Critic
I don't know if Pete Seeger believes in saints, but I believe he is one. He's the one in the front as they go marching in.
09/14/07
Top Critic
As certain to get auds singing as the man himself, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song is a terrific, multilayered portrait of a singer whose legacy extends beyond music and into every major social action movement since the 1940s.
09/08/07
Top Critic1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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