Trivia / The Last Waltz

• All-Star Cast: It's honestly easier to name the rock heavyweights of The '70s who aren't here. A Beatle (Ringo Starr) and a Stone (Ron Wood) even show up.
• Cut Song: The entire concert ran around five hours, so obviously a lot of it had to be excised for the film. One result is that Stephen Stills and Carl Radle, who both took part in the jams during the first encore, don't appear in the film.
• Dueling Works: Came out a couple months after Bob Dylan's own attempt at Le Concert Film Artistique, Renaldo and Clara, which was filmed during his 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour with Joan Baez and others. Dylan initially refused to be filmed during the Last Waltz show because he didn't want this film to compete with his own. Finally he agreed to allow two of his four songs to be included. Interestingly, Ronnie Hawkins appears in both films. The reception of the two could not have been more different: Renaldo and Clara was a financial and critical flop which very nearly became a Creator Killer, while The Last Waltz was a beloved hit. Ironically, Scorsese was drafted by Dylan to make a Rolling Thunder Revue documentary in 2019 (which ended up mixing concert footage with Mockumentary elements).
• What Could Have Been: Gordon Lightfoot was attending the concert as a VIP guest. When he arrived, Robbie Robertson invited him to perform, but Lightfoot politely turned down the offer, since he didn't have his guitar with him and he didn't like performing without a chance to rehearse.

---