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IMDbPro

The Torch

  • 20192019
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
50
YOUR RATING
The Torch (2019)
At 83, Chicago legend Buddy Guy remains the standard bearer for the blues, an icon determined to see the art form live on long after he's gone.
Play trailer2:06
1 Video
9 Photos
DocumentaryMusic
At 83, Chicago legend Buddy Guy remains the standard bearer for the blues, an icon determined to see the art form live on long after he's gone. Enter guitar phenom Quinn Sullivan, who has be... Read allAt 83, Chicago legend Buddy Guy remains the standard bearer for the blues, an icon determined to see the art form live on long after he's gone. Enter guitar phenom Quinn Sullivan, who has been mentored by Guy since he was a kid. This stirring documentary, amplified by electrifyin... Read allAt 83, Chicago legend Buddy Guy remains the standard bearer for the blues, an icon determined to see the art form live on long after he's gone. Enter guitar phenom Quinn Sullivan, who has been mentored by Guy since he was a kid. This stirring documentary, amplified by electrifying musical performances, charts the guidance Guy himself received from the likes of Muddy W... Read all
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
50
YOUR RATING
    • Jim Farrell
  • Stars
    • Joe Bonamassa
    • Craig Feduccia
    • Buddy Guy
    • Jim Farrell
  • Stars
    • Joe Bonamassa
    • Craig Feduccia
    • Buddy Guy
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 2User reviews
    • 8Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:06
    Watch Official Trailer

    Photos9

    The Torch (2019)
    Buddy Guy in The Torch (2019)
    Buddy Guy and Quinn Sullivan in The Torch (2019)
    Buddy Guy and Quinn Sullivan in The Torch (2019)
    Buddy Guy in The Torch (2019)
    Quinn Sullivan in The Torch (2019)
    Junior Wells in The Torch (2019)
    The Torch (2019)

    Top cast

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    Joe Bonamassa
    Joe Bonamassa
    • Self
    Craig Feduccia
    • Self
    Buddy Guy
    Buddy Guy
    • Self
    Ric Hall
    • Self
    Tom Hambridge
    Tom Hambridge
    • Self
    Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram
    • Self
    Jonny Lang
    • Self
    Marty Sammon
    • Self
    Carlos Santana
    Carlos Santana
    • Self
    Carol Sullivan
    • Self
    • (voice)
    Quinn Sullivan
    Quinn Sullivan
    • Self
    Terry Sullivan
    • Self
    • (voice)
    Susan Tedeschi
    Susan Tedeschi
    • Self
    Derek Trucks
    Derek Trucks
    • Self
    Carmen Vandenberg
    • Self
      • Jim Farrell
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    6/10
    "The Blues Chase The Blues Away"/"The Torch" written by Gregory Mann
    At age 85, Buddy Guy is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a major influence on rock titans like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, a pioneer of Chicago's fabled West Side sound, and a living link to the city's halcyon days of electric blues. Buddy Guy has received 8 Grammy Awards, a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. Though Buddy Guy will forever be associated with Chicago, his story actually begins in Louisiana. One of five children, he was born in 1936 to a sharecropper's family and raised on a plantation near the small town of Lettsworth, located some 140 miles northwest of New Orleans. Buddy was just seven years old when he fashioned his first makeshift guitar, a two-string contraption attached to a piece of wood and secured with his mother's hairpins.

    In 1957, he took his guitar to Chicago, where he would permanently alter the direction of the instrument, first on numerous sessions for Chess Records playing alongside Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, and the rest of the label's legendary roster, and then on recordings of his own. His incendiary style left it's mark on guitarists from Jimmy Page to John Mayer. Seven years later, July 2012 proved to be one of Buddy Guy's most remarkable years ever. He was awarded the 2012 Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contribution to American culture; earlier in the year, at a performance at the White House, he even persuaded President Obama to join him on a chorus of 'Sweet Home Chicago'. Also in 2012, he published his long-awaited memoir, 'When I Left Home'. Buddy Guy is a genuine American treasure and one of the final surviving connections to an historic era in the country's musical evolution.

    A rare artist who's always sounded older than his years, Quinn Sullivan has been touring the world since he was 11-years-old, playing storied venues such as Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl and three Montreux Jazz Festivals. Sullivan has shared the stage with his hero and mentor Buddy Guy, as well as Carlos Santana on several occasions. Quinn's performance experience includes appearances on leading national television programs such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

    We always look forward to getting whatever time we can with him, because you walk away and you feel like there's been this amazing knowledge dropped on you. There was an understanding among Buddy Guy and his peers, last man standing needs to make sure the music lives on. When B. B. King died in 2015, that promise became reality. He was already grooming his teenage protégé, Quinn Sullivan, but the urgency became palpable. It's like the Ford car, Henry Ford invented the Ford car, and regardless how much technology they got on them now, you still have that little sign that says 'Ford' on the front. It's indeed a 'Long Hard Road', which is the title of the original song created for the film. The goal of "The Torch" is to pull back the curtain on this process and watch it unfold over time. It's a film where the viewer is rewarded with an enriching experience rather than a lecture.

    Written by Gregory Mann.
    helpful•0
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    • gregorymannpress-74762
    • Mar 16, 2022

    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 27, 2019 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Production companies
      • Cinestaan Film Company
      • Mojo Hand Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 47 minutes
      • Color

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