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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent PBS documentary about the life of Woody Guthrie, the great American singer/songwriter (and godfather/forerunner of the folk music explosion of the early sixties). The film tells about his upbringing in a fairly well off family--a secure childhood abruptly ruined by his mother's descent into dementia and violence due to Huntington's disease. This tragic turn of events sends Guthrie into foster homes and eventually helps turn him into a prolific and original American hobo-gypsy songwriter. But Guthrie was a man of many talents; he was a gifted draughtsman, writer, radio host, comedian, "ladies' man", and actor (considering the poetic license employed when presenting his unsophisticated "hick" persona). The film is narrated by Peter Coyote and features interviews with Joe Klein (Guthrie's biographer), Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen, as well as family members and friends of Guthrie. Conspicuously absent are Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. Still, the film is well-put together; it features some great images and films of Guthrie as well as many priceless recordings of him talking and singing. The narration explains the social context for Guthrie's often very political songs. Most notably, we are informed that the song "This Land is your Land" was penned as an angry reply to "God Bless America"--Guthrie feeling that it is up to Americans to make this country great, not God (Hallelujah!). Besides being informative, the film is moving in its portrayal of Guthrie's tragic last years as he succumbed to the same disease that had destroyed his mother. Ultimately "Woody Guthrie" depicts the songwriter as a flawed but heroic American musical genius.
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Every American who has listened to the radio knows Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." The music of the folk singer/songwriter has been recorded by everyone from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to U2. Originally blowing out of the Dust Bowl in Depression-era America, he blended vernacular, rural music and populism to give voice to millions of downtrodden citizens. Guthrie's music was politically leftist, uniquely patriotic and always inspirational.
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