Be Here to Love Me
Original title: Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
1.4K
YOUR RATING
Be Here to Love Me - Chronicles the fascinating and often turbulent life of musician Townes van Zandt.Be Here to Love Me - Chronicles the fascinating and often turbulent life of musician Townes van Zandt.Be Here to Love Me - Chronicles the fascinating and often turbulent life of musician Townes van Zandt.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn a 2005 interview with Under the Radar, Margaret Brown explained her approach to telling the story of Townes van Zandt: "I think a lot of my producers were worried that the film would be really elliptical and not a normal kind of music doc and it wouldn't be received well. One of my producers, at Toronto when it opened, he gave me this whole speech beforehand about how I had to explain the film to the audience or they weren't gonna be able to follow it. It seems like everyone kind of goes with it and they feel like they're falling into it and they like it. But maybe people didn't tell me because they know I'm the filmmaker and I might be fragile. I have no idea. I wanted the film to feel like a tapestry. Like the way you meet somebody, you don't hear about their birth and end with their death... I wanted the film to feel like if you went on 10 dates with Townes and you were gradually revealed certain things. Sometimes it may be in order chronologically, but other times, the way things build on each other is not chronological. People don't think that way. Why should films be structured that way?"
- Quotes
Townes van Zandt: Breaking even is ending up in Purgatory as far as I can tell. I figure there's heaven, purgatory, hell and the blues. I'm trying to crawl up from the blues, purgatory for me would be... Home Sweet Home!
- ConnectionsFeatures Heartworn Highways (1976)
- SoundtracksRake
Written by Townes van Zandt
Performed by Townes van Zandt
Courtesy of Tomato Records
Copywright: BUG
Featured review
For fans this is a must see classic. for the rest of us this is an okay look at a guy who wrote songs
The life and times of songwriter Townes Van Zandt told through clips, interviews and his music.
I always knew the name but never had any idea what he wrote. The one song you're probably most likely to know is Poncho and Lefty which was a hit for Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson And Merle Haggard. This documentary filled me in, to some degree, on the man and his music, but it never really made me understand the man any more than I did before. The film certainly didn't turn me into a fan of his. Townes was an amazing songwriter who said his songs were "mostly sad and the rest are hopeless". He wrote, performed and then drank and did drugs in order to deal with his personal demons. I'm really not to sure what those demons were, they just were sort of there, or so it seems from the movie. The movie isn't clear about many details in Townes life, its really just a portrait of the man as a person you might meet on the street, it doesn't really give you any sense of what he did (other than write songs) or when he did it. He had some kids and he had some wives, but there isn't really any attempt to sort that out, nor is there any attempt to give you any sense of what he did other than write songs (this is not a movie to see if you want dates and places) Its a good movie. Its not a great one. It does give you a sense of who this person was as if he were a random person, but it doesn't really tell us why he is so important and so well loved. For me its a bunch of people telling his story and saying he's great, but not explaining why. I enjoyed it, but I really wish I knew more about him other than he wrote songs.
I always knew the name but never had any idea what he wrote. The one song you're probably most likely to know is Poncho and Lefty which was a hit for Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson And Merle Haggard. This documentary filled me in, to some degree, on the man and his music, but it never really made me understand the man any more than I did before. The film certainly didn't turn me into a fan of his. Townes was an amazing songwriter who said his songs were "mostly sad and the rest are hopeless". He wrote, performed and then drank and did drugs in order to deal with his personal demons. I'm really not to sure what those demons were, they just were sort of there, or so it seems from the movie. The movie isn't clear about many details in Townes life, its really just a portrait of the man as a person you might meet on the street, it doesn't really give you any sense of what he did (other than write songs) or when he did it. He had some kids and he had some wives, but there isn't really any attempt to sort that out, nor is there any attempt to give you any sense of what he did other than write songs (this is not a movie to see if you want dates and places) Its a good movie. Its not a great one. It does give you a sense of who this person was as if he were a random person, but it doesn't really tell us why he is so important and so well loved. For me its a bunch of people telling his story and saying he's great, but not explaining why. I enjoyed it, but I really wish I knew more about him other than he wrote songs.
helpful•56
- dbborroughs
- Oct 2, 2006
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $129,988
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,098
- Dec 4, 2005
- Gross worldwide
- $129,988
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
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