Reviews: Review of “Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, with Dave Letterman”, a documentary by Morgan Neville (Disney+)

David Letterman travels to Dublin to reunite with his friends Bono and The Edge and witness the new stage of life and art for both musicians.

Morgan Neville is one of the most prolific and versatile documentarians in the United States. He won the Oscar for 20 steps from fame / Twenty Feet from Stardomalso achieved great prestige with titles such as Best of Enemies, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, but where he ventured the most was in the portrait of musicians of the stature of Brian Wilson, Sam Phillips, Johnny Cash, Iggy Pop and Keith Richards, among others. Along these same paths -although with its particularities- this production goes along, which also coincides with the launch this Friday, the 17th of Songs of Surrenderalbum with new versions (more austere, more acoustic and even with certain changes of lyrics as in the case of, for example, Sunday Bloody Sunday) of 40 songs from the different stages of the band U2.

Promotional documentary? Live concert? File work? Interview famous artists reflecting on their careers? A meeting of friends in a picturesque city like Dublin for that return home that is announced from the title? There is a bit of all that in this uneven, somewhat chaotic, derivative and cumulative, but ultimately fascinating (especially for U2 fans) film produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.

Dave Letterman -undisputed king of late night shows for three decades- traveled to Dublin for the first time to participate in this film about Bono and The Edge. How? At times, interviewing them; in others, chatting in a relaxed way; but also presenting them on stage before an acoustic show (with some strings) in a small theater in the capital of the Republic of Ireland as The Ambassador or participating with them in a musical meeting in a typical pub to sing traditional folk songs from area.

In addition to recording and singing renewed classics, Bono and The Edge (Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton did not participate) confessed to Letterman regarding the various crises they have gone through during the almost five decades of the band’s career and agree that this return to Dublin, to lifelong friends and to the old songs already stripped of the epic, the bombast and pomp of yesteryear are part of a return to the intimate, to purity, to a certain lost essence.

Although at times this whole operation seems a bit forced and even artificial and the documentary gets lost in Letterman’s misadventures through the streets of the city, there are a few truly valuable, genuine and intense moments in the almost hour and a half of this film by Morgan Neville, which also includes some very beautiful live tracks.

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