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The 10 Greatest Rockumentaries of All-Time
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Wattstax (1973)
Director: Mel Stuart
Warner Home Video, $19.98
Criminally underrated and largely unseen for decades, this electrifying look at an all-day celebration of R&B and soul in L.A.’s African-American Watts district is finally beginning to receive some long-overdue recognition as one of the 1970s’ key music documentaries. Produced by the Stax record label as an alternative to white-dominated music festivals for the black community, the Wattstax event featured performances by Isaac Hayes, Luther Ingram, The Staple Singers and Rufus Thomas, who is hilarious in his interactions with the crowd. In addition to the music, director Mel Stuart (who also helmed Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) incorporates stand-up comedy from Richard Pryor, speeches from Jesse Jackson and interviews with Watts residents, forming a rich filmic tapestry of African-American life during this period. It might not be a “rockumentary” in the truest sense—the performance by The Bar-Kays, resplendent in white afro wigs, defies any categorization—but it is one of the best pop music films ever made.
The Last Waltz (1978)
Director: Martin Scorsese
MGM Home Entertainment, $14.98
Along with 1984’s Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz stands as a textbook example of how one should photograph and edit a concert film. One would expect nothing less from Scorsese, on hand to record The Band’s 1976 Thanksgiving Day farewell concert at San Francisco’s Winterland Theater. The set would have made for a superlative rockumentary in and of itself (their live performance of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” might be the best recording of that song), but to note that they said goodbye with a little help from their friends would be an understatement. The Band is joined by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, an unusually exuberant Van Morrison, The Staple Singers, Ron Wood, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond (don’t laugh, it’s actually a great number) and Dr. John, among others. Scorsese captures these once-in-a-lifetime acts with admirably no-frills restraint. Ironically, for such a rock-driven project, this is among the director’s most classically composed, sedate films, which lets the music take center stage, so to speak. The film is occasionally weighed down by interviews with Robbie Robertson and his cohorts that seem pretentious by today’s standards—musicians are almost always better when they’re playing—but that’s one minor quibble with this classic.
Style Wars (1983)
Directors: Henry Chalfant & Tony Silver
Passion River Films, $27.95
Style Wars might seem like an odd selection for a list of great rockumentaries, as the film doesn’t cover the terrain of rock ‘n’ roll, but rather the early days of hip-hop and rap. Also, music isn’t the central focus of the film. Instead, the film records the graffiti spray-painted onto subways and buildings by young artists expressing themselves with limited means. As a picture of inner-city life in New York in the early 1980s, it stands as one of the first features to depict the graffiti subculture, breakdancing and early hip-hop and rap, featuring key early tracks from the likes of the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash. Although neither a rock film nor a concert movie, Style Wars does what only the best music documentaries manage to do: It not only spotlights groundbreaking music, but also offers a unique glimpse of a very specific era and cultural movement.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Oliver Summers on 4/14/08 at 6:12 pm
Wow, this is a really daring list you got here. Way to go out on a limb and list some movies that maybe, oh, not everyone in the world has already seen. And you got paid to write this. What, did you enter “rock docs” into Google and copy the first list you came across? “Derivative” would be too kind a word to use for this list. How about “unnecessary.”
- Comment by Simon Witter on 5/31/08 at 7:42 pm
I’ve got to agree with Oliver Summers, this is a really tragic list - the sort of turgidly predictable affair you could expect from some muppet on Amazon. It is also - apart from ‘The Filth & The Fury’ - frustratingly US-centric. And even in the American field, you’ve missed the true greats. Tom Waits once said that the two films that reminded him most eerily of every minute of his career in music were ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ and Martin Scorcese’s ‘The King Of Comedy’. I understand exactly what he means by that.
Apart from a lack of lateral thinking, you’re clearly also ruling out great music-based biopics like ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’, ‘Great Balls Of Fire’, ‘The Doors’, ‘Tommy’, Quadrophenia’ and ‘Closer’, which is fine. But fans of fascinating rockumentaries would still be well-advised to check out some, or all, of the following.....
Rude Boy
Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster
Festival Express
24 Hour Party People
Slade In Flame
Pink Floyd Live In Pompeii
The Song Remains The Same
Human Traffic
That’ll Be The Day
Get Up Stand UpThey all have great merit, and they’re just the start.
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This story was published in the Spring 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Shining a Light on 10 Great Rockumentaries
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