Home of the Brave
Home of the Brave
| 27 April 1986 (USA)
Home of the Brave Trailers

A concert film directed by and featuring the music of Laurie Anderson, filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey, during the summer of 1985.

Reviews
ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
runamokprods Laurie Anderson's self directed film of her 'Home of the Brave concert is only fair on a film- making level. Given the visual sophistication of her stage work, the film itself is shot in a pretty pedestrian manner, and the attempt to re-create a concert atmosphere feels 'staged', with audience responses rather awkwardly handled, and feeling a bit forced (and it didn't seem to be a sly Anderson statement on concert films).Also, for me, this was one of the less interesting periods of her music and stage work, missing the amazing scope of pieces like 'United States Part 1-4'.None-the-less, it's great to have some filmed record of Anderson on stage. She is arguably among the most influential performers of the last 30 years, despite not being a household name. And despite it's flaws, this still captures some of what makes Anderson's combination of music, comedy, social commentary, irony, visual arts, and real emotion so unique. And that makes it worth seeing, whatever it's flaws.
imagicdigital Laurie Anderson probably shows up in the dictionary under the definition of avant-guard. Only available on VHS & Laserdisc, never on DVD, it's no surprise so few people have seen it. For anyone brave enough to buy the VHS tape on eBay, what awaits is a concert film that captivates with amazing music and visuals, especially when considering the year it was released. Released a couple of years after the Talking Heads "Stop Making Sense", I feel Home of the Brave is the superior concert film. Home of the Brave is very trippy, clever, artful... in fact I'm tempted to pick up a VHS copy before this film disappears forever.
dblaa2000 Performance art and music at it's best. This is an amazing concert with some extras as well that I saw years ago and long to see again.Her band and supporting cast are all top notch. Adrian Belew, an absolute brilliant musician and member of the outstanding King Crimson, who IMO are the best jam-session type band ever, performs with Ms. Anderson in this film. There is some very cool spoken word and onstage skits and costumes are incredible. This may well be my fave recording of a musical performance ever.Actually, it is so well done and so unique I am really shocked it isn't more popular and it deserves at LEAST an 8 or more in the ratings. I give it 9/10 and I pretty much NEVER give out 10's!!!
craigjclark It's hard to imagine anyone else writing, directing and visualizing a film quite like this. Essentially a record of Laurie Anderson's "Mister Heartbreak" tour, this concert film is mostly comprised of songs and music with a smattering of spoken word pieces thrown in for good measure. Her more recent concerts have been a bit more subdued, so this is a good chance to see her with all the bells and whistles (so to speak).As for the performances, Anderson is radiant and off-the-wall as usual, and her back-up band is top-notch, including such talented players as Adrian Belew, David Van Tieghem and Joy Askew (with whom Anderson shares an amusing phone call in the middle of the show). And William S. Burroughs even waltzes through from time to time.Recommended for Laurie Anderson fans, and -- along with her "Collected Videos" -- could make her some new ones.