Sweet Sounds

By J.C.

THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH Directed by SAUL SWIMMER

When George Harrison brought some musician friends together last summer to do a benefit for the war victims of Pakistan, the occasion became an event. The musicians (Harrison, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan among them) were loose and enthusiastic, the audience wildly receptive. To gether they generated the reciprocal excitement of a revival meeting.

The film catches the music perfectly, but misses much of the atmosphere.

The photography is so static that the movie sometimes seems paralytic. Occasionally Director Saul Swimmer will suffer a pang of social conscience and cut away to grainy documentary footage of starving refugees.* He does this so casually and irregularly, however, that the effect is gratuitous.

What Swimmer does capture is the casual communion between the musicians. There are three moments of particular intensity: Bob Dylan's natural virtuosity winning out over his nervousness, Ravi Shankar's astounding mini-concert of Indian music, and Billy Preston's spontaneous dance for joy in the middle of his song of praise to God.

Scenes like this make The Concert for Bangladesh more than a souvenir supplement to a record album.

*Allen Klein, head of the Beatles' Apple film company, which produced the movie, insists Apple will make no money from it, only recover advertising and production costs. The profits will be donated to UNICEF. A similar arrangement was made for the album of the concert, but New York magazine recently alleged part of the proceeds remain unaccounted for. Klein denies it, is suing New York for $ 150 million in damages.

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