Friday, August 22, 2008
HERO
Today's movie was the documentary
Pete Seeger; The Power of Song (2008)
I first saw Pete Seeger when I was a freshman at MIT. He sang as part of a fundraiser for some campus function.
He changed my life.
I had never heard such simple ideas. I had never seen such a courageous man.
This was in the middle of his problems with HUAC and he would be blacklisted from radio or television for 17 years until the Smothers Brothers had him on their show. The network censored the anti-Viet Nam War song Big Muddy and they fought it. Seeger was brought back for another show to sing it again.
The film captures all of this period and more. I learned a lot that I did not know about him.
He is 89 now. A hero.
I remember that the main part of his performance was getting all of us to sing. And that is the point of this film. Seeger gets participation. It is one of his core beliefs. I sang along to the film today!
It is a great movie and everyone should see it. I want to see it again sometime. That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.
