A Mighty Wind

A Mighty Wind
A Mighty Wind

Original theatrical poster
Directed by Christopher Guest
Produced by Karen Murphy
Written by Christopher Guest
Eugene Levy
Starring Catherine O'Hara
Eugene Levy
Christopher Guest
Michael McKean
Harry Shearer
Jane Lynch
Parker Posey
Fred Willard
Music by Christopher Guest
Cinematography Arlene Nelson
Editing by Robert Leighton
Studio Castle Rock Entertainment
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) April 16, 2003 (2003-04-16)
Running time 91 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $6,000,000
Box office $18,750,246

A Mighty Wind is a 2003 mockumentary about a folk music reunion concert in which three folk bands must reunite for a television performance for the first time in decades. It was directed (and co-written) by Christopher Guest. The film is thought to reference the 2003 tribute concert to folk music producer Harold Leventhal that reunited several of the folk groups that Leventhal had managed.[1]

Guest co-stars and utilizes his company of actors from previous films such as This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show for this film. They include Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Jr., Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Dooley, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock, Rachael Harris, Don Lake, Jane Lynch, Larry Miller, Jim Piddock, Deborah Theaker, and Parker Posey.

A song composed for the film by McKean and wife Annette O'Toole was nominated for an Academy Award.

Contents

Plot

When influential folk music producer Irving Steinbloom dies, his children organize a memorial concert featuring his three most famous acts: The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey.

The Folksmen trio consists of Mark Shubb (Harry Shearer), Alan Barrows (Christopher Guest), and Jerry Palter (Michael McKean). Their most famous folk song was "Old Joe's Place."

The New Main Street Singers are the second generation of the original Main Street Singers, formed by George Menschell (Paul Dooley), the sole survivor of the original group. Menschell sings and holds a guitar he cannot play. Performers include Terry Bohner (John Michael Higgins) and his wife Laurie Bohner (Jane Lynch). Laurie is a former adult film star and with her husband, is co-founder of Witches in Nature's Colors (WINC), a coven of modern-day witches that worships the power of color. Another member is Sissy Knox (Parker Posey), a former juvenile delinquent and daughter of one of the original Main Street Singers. They are managed by Mike LaFontaine (Fred Willard), whose fifteen minutes of fame came by way of a failed 1970s TV sitcom, Wha' Happened?, which lasted less than one season. The group, which is otherwise entirely white, includes one Filipino American member, Mike Maryama (played by Mark Nonisa).

Mitch Cohen (Eugene Levy) and Mickey Crabbe (Catherine O'Hara) are a romantic duo that released seven albums together until their traumatic break-up decades earlier. Their most famous song is "Kiss At the End of the Rainbow," during which the pair would actually kiss on stage.

After the three groups agree to the reunion performance, to be televised live on PBN, they begin rehearsals. The show itself goes off with only two hitches: two acts plan to play the same song, and Mitch temporarily disappears. In the finale, everyone joins together to sing "A Mighty Wind."

Six months after the reunion, Mickey is performing "The Sure-Flo Song" at her husband's trade show booth. Mitch is writing poetry again, claiming to be in a "prolific phase." Folksmen Mark Shubb is living life as a transgender woman, while still singing in his famous bass voice. LaFontaine is reviving an idea for a sitcom starring the New Main Street Singers. He wants to call it "Supreme Folk" and have each play Supreme Court judges by day, folk singers sharing a house by night.

Production

In an interview about the film, Annette O'Toole claimed that many of the songs were written when plane groundings in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks meant she and husband Michael McKean had to drive from their home in Los Angeles to Vancouver, where O'Toole's television series Smallville was being filmed.

In the commentary for the DVD release, Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy say that in a scene that was cut from the finished movie, it is explained that Menschell cannot play the guitar, but that just before a performance of the original Main Street Singers, he got a stain on the front of his shirt and covered it up by holding a guitar for the performance, something he continued to do for all subsequent performances.

The Town Hall scenes were filmed at the restored Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.

Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews. Movie review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of critics gave the movie a positive review, with the consensus, "Though not as uproariously funny as Guest's previous movies, A Mighty Wind is also more heartfelt." Roger Moore called the film "mature, heartfelt and keenly observed." Roger Ebert, on the other hand, stated that "The edge is missing from Guest's usual style," giving the film two-and-a-half stars out of four.

One of the songs from the movie, "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, and was performed at the 76th Academy Awards by Levy and O'Hara (in character). The title song won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media at the 46th Grammy Awards.

Box office

The film had a moderate intake for its opening day, grossing $307,931 in total. It went on to gross $2,112,140 in 133 theatres for an average of $15,880 per theatre. With a domestic total of $17,583,468 and a foreign total of $969,240, the film brought in a total of $18,750,246 during its theatre run.

References

External links


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