VAN MORRISON IN IRELAND (1980) **1/2 Filmed in Dublin and Belfast the previous year, I wonder if it wouldn't have just been better to present one entire show intact. The opening "Moondance" isn't bad, but with its emphasis on awkwardly affected jazz sensibilities you can be forgiven for fearing the worst. Few musicians as celebrated, much less talented, as Van Morrison share his low end. But that's about it for the affectedness-maybe he's trying too hard for his homeboys, who knows? He certainly seems suspiciously sober, and in the great footage of the band bus (what a gloriously eclectic group-look at Toni Marcus playing her violin like a guitar, take that Jimmy Page!) drinking looks like about the only thing not going on (well, that and sexual intercourse-but this ain't an Aerosmith documentary). For a white man, Van sure has a dazzling array of rhythms, but a problem is that he doesn't really express any of them physically. Instead he looks something like a chaotic galaxy giving birth to a baby star. He leads the audience, almost obliviously, rather than losing himself in it, and during the truly sublime moments ("Tupelo Honey," "St. Dominic's Preview") the effect is so staggering as to project the awkwardness as a form of grace. Problem with running this many people in a band is that there aren't enough solos to go around-I could have done with more Herbie Armstrong. The problem with editing two shows into an hour of video is that the prevailing rhythm is only hinted at, leaving the viewer to wonder at the myriad secondary rhythms, and wonder how it really was. Oh, yeah! And how could there be no piano-based "Carrickfergus"!?!
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