Stop Making Sense Movie Review

“Stop Making Sense” is a concert performance of the musical group “Talking Heads”. The band was so keen on making this movie that they raised the production cost ($1.2 million) on their own. Upon the original release (1984 — nearly 40 years ago) this movie was considered ground-breaking. It still is today…

The “Talking Heads” group consisted of four main performers. The main driving force was with David Byrne, the lead vocalist and lead whirling dervish. His frantic energy on the stage could power an entire city for several weeks. Playing bass was Tina Weymouth, who was steady rocker with R&B funk grooves put in for good measure.

Chris Frantz played the drums and gave the music a backbone. Jerry Harrison played guitar and keyboards – and he was always interested in using any new technology. For the concert they were joined by several other ‘touring members’. These folks added to the overall rich sound of the main band.

The Director was Jonathan Demme. He was new to making a concert movie, and he brainstormed with David Byrne and the band. They came up with a pretty straight-forward method to film the movie. Talking Heads held four live shows at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles between December 13 and 16, 1983. Each one was filmed, and the whole thing was edited together seamlessly. The movie basically filmed the band’s full performance at the time. There were a few extra performers in the touring band. These extra members gave the “Talking Heads” group a much funkier sound.

The ‘touring members’ included Steve Scales (percussion, backing vocals), and two background singers (Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt). There was Alex Weir doing guitar and backing vocals. Then finally, they had Bernie Worrell on keyboards. But these people did not show up on stage at first.

The movie opens up with only a bare stage with no band members or any equipment. David Byrne walks out with an acoustic guitar and a boom box. So that’s going to be the full show? Byrne turns on the boom box and gets a funky beat going. Then he performs a solo acoustic version of “Psycho Killer”. Only him, and his guitar and vocals — keeping in beat to the boom box.

Right at the end there are loud staccato drum beats ringing out. It sounds like a machine gun, and Byrne stumbles all over the stage, as if he had been shot. “They got me Ma!”… Byrne is quickly joined by Tina Weymouth on bass. Some equipment comes out and gets set up on stage. They perform the song called “Heaven”. Next up, for the next song, is Jerry Harrison. Even more musical equipment is brought out and arranged. And on the next number, more equipment gets rolled out and positioned on stage.

Pretty soon, the bare stage has been replaced by the equipment and members of the Talking Heads and the touring members. They get massively into every song, making every beat count and every note ring out. They get into a song like “Burning Down the House”, and the rock/funk is oozing out from everywhere. The next number is “Life During Wartime”, and David Byrne becomes a frenzied, frantic freak of nature. He is in constant motion, and at times — it appears that his bones are made out of Jello. He ends the song by a full-speed dash around the entire stage several times. Dude – you’re wearing me out!

Many more songs get performed by the full touring version of Talking Heads. This leads up to “Once in a Lifetime”, wherein David Byrne becomes suit-wearing nerd with glasses. The music is amped up and still in funky rock groove. They are able to switch things up for a short bit. Byrne is able to take a break while the rest of the group does a number created by a ‘side project group’ called Tom Tom Club. This is a thing put together by bass player Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz.

David Byrne is then back for a song entitled “Girlfriend Is Better”. He starts in shadows and slowly makes his way out to center stage. This is where his outfit is really seen for what it is — “The Big Suit”. Byrne had a cream-colored suit designed for him that was about five sizes too big. It makes him big and imposing, but his head is rather small. In any case, it is a crazy look — and it keeps with the unpredictable nature of the music and the show. It is outrageous and funny, and it fits perfectly. Even if it is too damn big!

The concert goes on for a couple more songs and the fun continues on also. Very little is seen of the people attending the concert, until close to the end. But almost all of these folks have found the groove that the “Talking Heads” are laying down. The final gracious act that David Byrne performs is pointing and naming each of the musicians on stage. He personally thanks the road crew and brings them out for a well-deserved bow.

“Talking Heads” as a band continued on for some time after this movie release. The Director of this movie (Jonathan Demme) would go on to make movies such as “Silence of the Lambs” (where he won an Oscar for Best Director) and “Philadelphia”. This movie still stands out as one of the highest quality filmed concerts on record.

Jerry Harrison worked with studio A24 to get the original concert footage digitized and cleaned up. The original audio was already a digital recording, so that part made it simple. The digitized version of the movie was worked on to convert it IMAX format. That means the visual quality and the audio sound will be top notch when it is viewed by the public. Almost 40 years after the original concert…

“Stop Making Sense” has one song where the lyrics are “This ain’t no party!”…  Sorry to disagree with you David Byrne, but this movie is one long Party!