Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song is a documentary directed by Jim Brown. Pete Seeger was a truly great man. He was an icon of folk singing and activism in the 20th Century and well into the 21st. He never stopped singing, and he never stopped fighting for freedom, democracy, and a better and cleaner world.Any biographic film about Pete Seeger would be interesting, but this documentary is extremely well crafted and truly fascinating.Pete was alive when the film was produced, so director Brown was able to interview him extensively. We also get interviews with Pete's family and his friends. These included Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, and Johnny Cash. Also, we see plenty of archival footage, including Pete testifying before the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee, and Pete accepting the National Medal of Arts at the White House.We watched this film at home on DVD. The copy we own is part of the American Masters series, and contained a CD of Pete performing about two dozen songs.If you love folk music and progressive struggles, this is a must-see movie. If you don't like folk music, but you love progressive struggles, you should still see it. If you don't believe in progressive struggles, the film will make you angry. Pete made plenty of people angry, but he made life better for millions and millions of people. Some of us will never forget him.

The glorious documentary "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" provides us with a beautiful and inspiring portrait of a man whose life and music helped to define an era. Seeger has always been an artist who viewed music not merely as a form of entertainment but as a vehicle for social change and as a means of bringing people together. And it is this legacy that is captured so movingly in "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song." The movie chronicles Seeger's beginnings as the son of musicians who would travel around the countryside bringing classical music to the rural masses. The movie then goes on to depict Seeger's introduction to folk music by the very people his parents would play for; his becoming an activist for worker and civil rights during the Great Depression; his riding the rails with Woody Guthrie, inspiring people with pro-labor ballads. It then moves on to his time as a soldier during World War II (no reflexive anti-military guy he); his marriage in 1943 to Toshi, a fellow folk singer and the true love of his life; his building his own house in the woods for him and his family to live in; his acceptance, then eventual rejection of Communism as a workable ideology (ironic, considering what was to happen to him soon afterwards). Then we move onto the late 1940s when Seeger hit it big as a member of The Weavers, the first group to truly bring folk music to a mass audience. And we get to see just how quickly one can tumble from the pinnacle of fame, for the band soon fell victim to McCarthy Era hysteria, being suddenly blacklisted - its concerts cancelled and its records destroyed - for what were perceived to be its communist leanings. Seeger himself appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the mid-1950s, where he refused to sign a loyalty oath, resulting in his being blacklisted from TV for the next 17 years (it was the Smothers Brothers who eventually had the courage to buck the establishment and bring him back on).Yet, all during this time, he remained instrumental in creating a folk-music revival that swept the nation and that would provide the soundtrack for much of the social activism that was to flower in the 1960s - activism that came in the form of minority rights, antiwar protests and increased environmental awareness (Seeger spearheaded the drive to clean up the Hudson River). The ultimate irony - and the ultimate tribute to the effectiveness of Seeger's position - comes near the end of the movie, as we see him receiving the coveted Kennedy Center Honor before an audience of tear-stained fans and fellow musicians. Not bad for a man who, just a few decades earlier, had been accused by the American government of being everything from a Commie to a subversive to a traitor, merely for staying true to his conviction that all men and women should be treated with dignity and respect and that they should strive to live in harmony together - and for expressing that sentiment in his music. As Seeger's son says, it only goes to show just how right the man and his causes were all along - and how persistence in the cause of Good, no matter how long the struggle, will always pay off in the end.In addition to priceless archival footage of Seeger performing at various stages in his career, director Jim Brown provides a generous helping of interviews to help round out Seeger's story. The interviewees run the gamut from friends and family members to recognizable artists such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Maines, Arlo Guthrie, Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers and Bonnie Raitt - musicians and songwriters who owe so much to Seeger for their own artistry and success. And, best of all, Seeger himself, now a frail man in his 80s but still endowed with a tremendous passion and hope for the world, is given the chance to relate the story of his life in his own words.And, of course, always there is the music, providing a stirring backdrop to the man's life - songs he either wrote or sang (or both) like "If I Had a Hammer," "Goodnight Irene," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Guantanamera," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "We Shall Overcome," each and every one of them a classic and a standard.While watching this film, I couldn't help but be struck by the eerie parallels between that earlier period and our own. In an era in which people are once again being demonized as "Marxists," "Socialists," and "Communists" by loudmouthed, know-nothing demagogues, Seeger's story and the stances he took couldn't be more timely or relevant. It's more than a bit depressing to realize that issues and struggles that many of us believed to have been long resolved and long settled have once again reared their ugly heads. It's a reminder, sorely needed apparently, that the fight for social justice never truly ends, and that it takes all of us working together to bring about that world of equality and human advancement that we should all be striving towards every single day of our lives. And, more than anything, that's been the message of Seeger's life and music for nigh unto three-quarters of a century now.I honestly cannot imagine a more uplifting and inspiring movie than "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song."

Oberlin College, 1959. Pete Seeger (who?) was giving a concert. Nothing else for me to do. So I went. This was one of the first times I'd gone to a live musical performance, so perhaps that's why I was totally blown away. Probably not, though. No, I don't remember a single one of the songs he sang. What I do remember, though, is the way I felt -- we all felt -- as members of an auditorium-wide family. We listened; we sang along, we played the "Divide the audience into groups and sing rounds" game. Or maybe the men sing one verse and the women sing another. It was fun. It felt good.I don't think anyone there thought that we were participating in an historical movement. I know I didn't. But we were. The perspective just wasn't there for us at that time.This movie provides the perspective. As a performer, Seeger's musicianship is impressive. His reedy voice delivers lyrics strongly and convincingly. But there's more. He has said that rather than have the audience sit attentively, quietly and respectfully, listening to him sing, he wants to hear them sing. He helps them sing. He cajoles, tweaks, shames, damn near forces them to sing.While this documentary is not a sermon, Seeger himself has an agenda and it is shown. He has been called "An Inconvenient Artist." His music is good music. It has been given credit (or blame) for influencing several generations of young people to ask the difficult questions about their government and themselves. Two small "bits" that I especially enjoyed were Arlo Guthrie on dealing with pamphlets and why the FBI was responsible for the renewed interest in Folk Music in the 50's and 60's.The movie, like Seeger, is entertaining. The time (90 minutes) will pass all too swiftly. It might be difficult to find (Art Houses and such). Take the time to look for it and go see it. I predict that you will be glad you did. Trust me: have I ever lied to you before?

Since childhood, I've been a fan of folk music. Before the Beatles, I was not a rock-n-roller. I was a folkie. So the documentary, "Pete Seeger: The Power of Music," was a must-see film.This film was every bit as good as I thought it would be. It covers both Seeger's music and the politics that both inspired and was inspired by it.Being a lefty, I am sympathetic to Seeger's humanistic politics. But the music, oh the music, is so wonderful. The film reminds us why Pete was as important to twentieth-century music as the Tin Pan Alley composers and musicians (the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, et al), the R&B/rockers (Little Richard, Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, et al), and all the folkies he inspired (Bob Dylan; Peter, Paul, and Mary; the Kingston Trio, et al).If this film comes to your town, go and see it. Something magical is likely to happen when you do. You will suddenly hear people in the audience do something unheard of in a movie theater. You will hear them singing along. And rather than being annoying, the gentle harmonies will embrace you like your favorite warm jammies on a cold winter night.Enjoy! (9.5 out of 10)