Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America

It's not easy for many to remember, but Simon and Garfunkel were a bridge between the youth culture and the adult establishment. Simon's inoffensive but catchy tunes were a gateway for adults to at least give some thought to what the Stones and Dylan were on about. The lads made an important contribution to the culture, and the culture is everything. Yes, as noted, Simon and Garfunkel snipe at each other in the film. That's a useful heads-up to what's coming for these two, and spares us any illusions that they will continue to be important indefinitely. Enjoy their work now, in 1969, while you can. They soon broke up, of course, Simon becoming the American McCartney with songs you couldn't get out of your head but had little meaning ('Kodachrome'). Garfunkel turned to film acting; necrophilia is one of the things to which he stooped in that realm. But while it was good it was great, and Grodin's juxtapositions with images of 1960s tumult are not only appropriate but would prevent us knowing what music was reacting to in those times, the war, the anger, the riots and especially the questioning of every institution that shaped the music. -David Olive, Toronto