Banjo Movies

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Herminia Remmen

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Aug 4, 2024, 5:07:29 PM8/4/24

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Other Banjo-Related Topics: Clawhammer/Old-Time

ARCHIVED TOPIC: Clawhammer banjo in the movies

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Two more that come to mind are Andersonville and Ride with the Devil, both Civil War movies. If my memory serves me right, Bob Flesher was involved with Andersonville and Dirk Powell with Ride wit the Devil.

My band got to do a short scene in a low budget independent film titled "Racing Daylight". The producer had a lot of Hollywood friends and so I got to meet and have lunch on the set with Melissa Leo and David Strathairn, the leading actors in the film. I am proud to say that the banjo and playing style fit the 1860's time frame of the film.

Wayaall, you young whippersnappers is probly too young to reclekt but back in '80 Tom Sauber frailed the heck outa mah Frank Proffitt banjer fer a movin pitchur we was heppin out bout the James and the Younger boys but its only in the pitcher not on the reckerd. I reckon some of you wasnt even borned then.

Curt, are you talking about "The Long Riders"? Seem to recall the banjo player gets threatened when he plays the wrong anthem. There's a Ry Cooder soundtrack CD but that scene's got dialog so it's not on the album.

Paul Newman plunks a banjo version of "Plastic Jesus" in "Cool Hand Luke".

Walter Brennan banjo-syncs a nice little Buckbee 5-string to an offscreen tenor in "Banjo on My Knee" (1936 film with Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck as hillbillyish "river folk". Brennan does a one-man band act a couple of times with banjo and percussion.)

Neither film would be useful to study for clawhammer technique.

"The Night of the Hunter" had Robert Mitchum playing a pious Bible quoting serial killer. Character actor James Gleason appeared therein wielding a fine looking open back that he strummed while singing a little ditty. I've no idea what the make. Being an old movie meant that the instrument was an antique in the making at that time.

We're all forgetting the granddaddy of all banjo movies, "Deliverance." While it wasn't clawhammer we were 'hearing', it was certainly some kind of clawhammer/fingerstyle variant we were 'kind of' seeing.

That was a field recording of the African American banjo player Sidney Stripling made by John Work III for the Library of Congress. I believe the recording Scorsese used was titled "Breakaway" and has always sounded more like up-picking than clawhammer to me.

Six or seven years ago, I got to play clawhammer banjo on a songwriter demo session in Nashville for a movie that was stated for production by Billy Bob Thornton. The movie was listed on his website as a "coming attraction." It was a true story about a coal mine disaster in Kentucky in the 1920s.

Unfortunately- the movie was never made. Even if it had been produced, I would not have played on the real soundtrack. I'm sure it would have been produced elsewhere. But the session in a Nashville studio was big fun. It was great to fantasize about the possibility of working on a big Hollywood film.

Banjo is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language musical action drama film , directed by Ravi Jadhav and produced by Krishika Lulla under the banner of Eros International.[2] Principal photography began at the end of January 2016[3] and the film was released on 23 September 2016.[4] Riteish Deshmukh and Nargis Fakhri starred in the film.[3][5] The film received mixed reviews upon its release and was declared a flop at the box office.[6][7]

Mickey (Luke Kenny) is an American, temporarily based in Mumbai, who is in search of an instrumentalist capable of playing the (Indian) banjo. While trying to contact his music festival aspirant friend Christina (Nargis Fakhri), he comes across a local concert organised by a band of poor friends: five of them, led by Taraat (Riteish Deshmukh), who, unknown to Mickey, is the right match for him and Christina to show up at the festival. Christina, upon arrival in Mumbai, is forced to seek out odd jobs and portray Mumbai as dirty, but when, through a local MLA, she meets Taraat, who falls in love with her at first sight, she begins recognising the city as a good place. Taraat is at loggerheads with the leader of an underpaid rival band, who frames him wrongly for the assassination of the MLA who had introduced Taraat to Christina. By that time, in a twist of fate, Christina, while trying to chase the sounds of a banjo being perfectly played, discovers it is Taraat, and convinces him.

Following the assassination, Taraat is disowned by his friends, who accuse him of committing a crime, under what is obviously a false impression. However, when the rival band's lead musician admits his mistake, the friends get back together. Finally, they are given a chance by popular music baron Shamin Nair (Mohan Kapoor). However, shortly after Christina returns to the States, Nair humiliates Taraat, who threatens Nair and dares him to steal the show. When the band makes an entry, Nair is convinced of the band's power as it plays a sway-away song based around Lord Ganesha. Finally, after Mickey sends a recording of the song to Christina, Taraat is contacted by her to come to the US for attending the festival.

It makes sense then, that whenever I tell someone I play the banjo, they inevitably ask me why and I can guarantee that no guitar player gets asked that question with the same kind of accusatory tone.

For some more modern acts, Rhiannon Giddens, as well as Bel Fleck and Abigail Washburn, are all great. Giddens plays the banjo in the band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, but her solo music is also very good. Fleck and Washburn are a banjo power couple, if ever there was one. Fleck plays three-finger style while Washburn plays clawhammer style and hearing them play is sweet perfection.

When it comes to misrepresenting the south, perhaps the biggest offender them all is the movie Deliverance, with its dark portrayal of the people of north Georgia as backward hicks with a propensity for sexual deviancy.

Working outside in the warm Georgia sunshine allowed him a chance to smoke a cigarette or two, while occasionally rounding up shopping carts. Although I was unable to get him to take off his glasses, from time to time I was able to see around his glasses and saw the unique vestigial eyes he was famous for; the same sleepy eyes that caught the attention of the casting crew that came to his school in 1972.

As our meeting progressed, I observed groups of well-dressed people walking into the store. Being Sunday, it was probably the after-church crowd. More than once I witnessed African Americans and white folks strolling in groups together, smiling as they conversed. At one point, a group of young women walked out of the store, all wearing hijabs, laughing comfortably as they walked past, with nobody gawking and staring. It was surreal seeing everyone respectfully going about their business in a part of the country that the movies and TV shows had led us to believe was the heart of prejudice and racism, backwardness, and ignorance.

I pointed out to Mayor Green that even the Hate Map, produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center, showed that, aside from a KKK organization based in Ellijay, GA, the rest of north Georgia had no formal racist organizations. He nodded his head.

Thoroughly enjoyed the article. I started my hike March 24 and got off the trail after completing 32 miles. I am definitely not finished hiking the AT and plan on completing the rest of Georgia after I lose some weight and my knee feels better. I have been fortunate to meet wonderful people both on and off the trail and your article is just another reminder of the kind of people that are common along the trail. Thanks for posting.