What many U2 haters dislike about the band often boils down to one word: Bono.
Posted at 7:00 am
They dislike his preaching side. His bombast irritates her. His militancy annoys her. David Letterman knows this and confronts the singer in Bono & The Edge: A Sort Of Homecoming: “Are you embarrassing them? he asks, referring to the other members of U2.
“Yes,” the singer replies without scrolling.
In particular, his commitment to debt relief for African countries led him to work hand-in-hand with elected Republicans, with whom the other members of the group did not want to be associated. He did it anyway. He even invited one to a concert, although The Edge themselves asked him not to.
“I tested her patience,” Bono admits, unrepentant but grateful, in an episode of the documentary, which premieres on Disney+ on Friday.
Bono & The Edge: A Sort Of Homecoming, with David Letterman offers several sketches of this genre, in which the singer and guitarist openly confront the star host. The former American ether king (whom Bono calls “His Daveness”) is no stooge here. This film, one initially believes, is his quest through the streets of Dublin. Then, no, it’s a film about U2… The result is a documentary in bastard form, punctuated by touching intimacies, but which does not always know whether it is telling the aesthetic search of a group or that of an animator’s journey that is still a bit wanna be funny
yearning for transcendence
David Letterman is traveling to Ireland for two reasons: to tell the story of the group’s beginnings and to host a concert at Dublin’s Ambassador Theater where Bono and The Edge will re-issue some of their songs in acoustic versions (sometimes with strings and choir). . Bono wanted to know if these songs had any value “when you take the clout out of a rock band like U2”.
IMAGE FROM BONO & THE EDGE: A KIND OF HOMECOMING, WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, PROVIDED BY DISNEY
David Letterman (right) sometimes pulls touching secrets from The Edge (left) and Bono (center).
And then ? Answering the question is not the aim of the film, which nevertheless shows some beautiful sequences of this spectacle. We’ll be able to better judge during Friday’s release of the Songs Of Surrender disc, which includes these new versions (though perhaps not the same as those featured in the documentary). What’s striking, though, is that while it’s possible to take the rock aura out of certain U2 songs, it’s harder to squeeze out Bono’s rock attitude…
Most of what David Letterman says has been heard or read elsewhere. But not so directly. In particular, the animator returns to one of the essential elements of U2: his desire to make music that has a spiritual resonance beyond pop culture. It’s not a detail: without it, the group would not have existed for a long time.
The film recalls The Edge experiencing an existential crisis in the early 1980s, wondering how to combine his faith (he was part of a charismatic Christian group like Bono and Larry Mullen’s son) and his desire for rock. He came within a hair’s breadth of dropping everything. However, he had an epiphany: Sunday Bloody Sunday, an anti-militarist hymn for which he laid the foundations (words and music) and which brought him at peace with his aspirations.
Bono & The Edge: A Sort Of Homecoming, Starring David Letterman doesn’t dig into everything with the same ability.
If the desire to connect with the crowd, songwriting and desire for transcendence are addressed well, his attempt to link the group’s development to that of mentalities in Ireland is less convincing. We don’t see at all the connection that the film suggests between U2 and the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights in Ireland…
The documentary’s strength lies in conveying touching intimacy to Bono and The Edge. Without forcing anything. Yes, there were tensions within the group, the guitarist admits. Yes, Bono (and everyone else) has considered disembarking at one point or another. But they hold. They’re actually holding on.
“We’re not in competition with each other,” summarizes The Edge to explain this unfailing friendship, unique in rock history and adapted over the decades. “I would put my life in his hands,” says Bono of The Edge. I have already done that. And it was the right choice. »
Coming to Disney+ on Friday
documentary
Bono & The Edge: A Homecoming Of Kind, starring David Letterman
Morgan Neville
Bono and The Edge invite David Letterman to Dublin for interviews and a special performance re-imagining some iconic U2 songs.
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