Dir. Martin Scorcese, USA, 2003, 110 mins
Cast: Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker
Anyone familiar with Martin Scorsese's work knows that music and the blues specifically often plays a major function in his films. This documentary gets right to the heart and soul of the genre, even taking a trip back to Africa to examine how the blues originated and was transported to America. Feel Like Going Home tells of a modern day blues guitarist's trip to Mississippi to go back to where the blues first originated over a hundred years ago. Scorsese's influence and passion about the subject is obvious and his own voiceover appears sporadically throughout. The film explores a range of instruments and contains interviews with a number of blues musicians as well as those with first hand stories of blues legends such as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Son House. Their world is re-visited and brought to life again by the young guitarist as he continues on his journey to discover his origins as well as the origins of the music that he plays. Feel Like Going Home is clearly a labour of love for Scorsese, who managed to find time to make this in between Gangs of New York and his upcoming The Aviator. He keeps the story as simple as possible letting the music and the interviewees tell the tale of the birth of blues music. At a trim 73 minutes, the film is not a definitive history of the genre but it does provide a brief overview and what comes across, more than anything, is the music. Music that has survived through people like the young guitarist, passed down through generation and generation by the millions of his ancestors who knew and learnt how to play the cain, the guitar and the harmonica. This film doesn't work due to Scorsese's technical genius as a filmmaker or the narrative or the structure, it bases itself purely on the strength of the music that it features. In this aspect it succeeds completely. David Colenutt
|
