A Collaboration for the Ages: Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese

News dropped on Twitter that the first night at Telluride in the mountains and under the stars, The Last Waltz will be the tribute screening. There is no better film for that outdoor theater than this one, especially this year, when Martin Scorsese’s sublime Killers of the Flower Moon will at last screen for audiences. It is one of those inexplicable tragedies that Robertson will not be around to see just how celebrated his score for this film will be.

This might lead some to speculate that Martin Scorsese and Killers of the Flower Moon might be Telluride bound. From what I’ve heard, it won’t be. That doesn’t mean Marty himself may or may not be there, perhaps for a tribute to Robbie Robertson. Scorsese was there once before, in 2019 for a tribute to Adam Driver. 

That same year, Scorsese and Robertson introduced The Last Waltz at TIFF:

Either way, the score for Killers of the Flower Moon is likely to give the score for Oppenheimer a run for its money. The two films will be competing head to head for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor, at the very least. Scorsese’s directing is, it should go without saying, on a level very few directors will ever reach. Within the first five minutes, you are clearly in the hands of a master. Nobody directs like he does.

Scorsese does often borrows the urgency of rock songs to drive so many of his propulsive films. But since Killers takes place in the 1920s, it’s harder to do that – which is why Robertson’s score is so important to the film. The collaboration  of the two men has lasted decades by now, but with Killers of the Flower Moon, Robertson’s music will be among the most remembered aspects of the film.

Robbie Robertson will be at the forefront of everyone’s mind while watching the movie, and certainly while paying tribute to it. That’s why the choice to play The Last Waltz at Telluride at a public screening is such a great idea. You can’t watch that movie and not think about how rare any of us experiences music like this anymore.

If you are a Bob Dylan fan, like me, and a Martin Scorsese fan, like me, then you will have lost your mind with The Last Waltz, a documentary on what would have been the last concert for The Band. Those of us who were crazed fans of all of the film’s participants — though the Neil Diamond song was always the bathroom break one (I have come to appreciate it) — know all of the film’s famous quotes, and especially the one delivered by Scorsese himself, “get that fly.”

I can’t find the exact scene on Youtube but here’s Marty with Rick Danko grooving:

This isn’t from The Last Waltz but here’s a great video of Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson, stoned out of their minds, around the same time as the film listening to “Van the Man’s” Tupelo Honey:

And here’s Van the Man in The Last Waltz singing Caravan – one of the best songs he ever wrote:

It’s mind-boggling to think about what these two great artists have accomplished in their lifetimes. I know it must have been painful for Scorsese to say goodbye to such a great friend and collaborator but with Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese has given him his own last waltz, and what a dance it is.