Two losers at the very bottom rung of the American Dream have only their tenuous friendship to sustain them. Schlesinger as an Englishman and an outsider is not too impressed with America or Americans and delivers an honest and scathing denouement, but neither are we impressed with the hallucinatory flash with which he tells his tale. What remains, what sticks, is the acting of the two leads who fully invest in the characters frailties whose weaknesses amazingly leads to empathy rather than disgust.
Hoffman and Voight are fantastic in delivering this story of life on the streets in a New York that doesn't quite have the same bite. These are individuals doomed to failure but we can't help but watch.
More than the grime and the weirdos, more than "Everybody's Talkin'" and "I'm walkin' here!," what echoes through the decades is its poignant depiction of an unlikely, contentious, and yet weirdly tender friendship forged on the margins of society. It's one of the 70s (made 1969) great classic films. See it.
After Howard Cosell's great introduction. the Wood Herman Band started playing, and Frank kicked off this monumental concert with Lady is a Tramp. Great selection Frank. The Lady is a Tramp is a great up-tempo song and Frank sand it superbly on this night, as he always did in the concerts I myself saw Sinatra perform this and all his great songs. The first time I saw Sinatra was at Carnegie Hall in New York. "Wow, was that mind blowing?" The man was the greatest singer of the 20th Century, and I was so fortunate to see him in concert 7 times, first at Carnegie, them Brendan Byrne Arena in NJ, at Madison Square Garden as this show, and two times at Radio City Music Hall, my favorite.
"FRANK"
Frank Sinatra came out of retirement to play this concert, and boy his millions of fans (me included) could not have been happier. The Main Event was a huge success. Frank sounded great, the concert was broadcast live on the ABC Television Network, and I would be watching with my sister Barbara, and brother Jimmy that night. I still remember talking to my teacher Mr. Phil Toronto, lucky dog was going to the concert, and he was talking about it as we ate lunch in the school cafeteria (Becton Regional HS) that day. Yeah I was excited. Wish I was going, but I was so fortunate to go a few years. Yeah, we had a great time watching this great concert Live on TV, and felt almost like we were there. Thank You Mr. Sinatra. Thanks for this wonderful concert and all you did there after, and especially those that I myself went to see. The memories of going to see you live and in concert still burn strong to this very day, such warm happy memories going to see you flawless shows filled with love and affection. Thinking about them always makes me feel good, happy, and content, and so I shall thank you once again Mr. Sinatra, we love you, and see we still keep "you," your music, and your memory alive. We Love you Frank.
Daniel Bellino Zwicke
Sinatra: The Main Event was an ABC musical television special starring Frank Sinatrabroadcast on October 13, 1974. The special documents a concert given by Sinatra at Madison Square Garden in New York City, in which Sinatra is accompanied by the Woody Herman band, and introduced by Howard Cosell.
The concert that was broadcast, was the last of a series of six that Sinatra gave at Madison Square Garden in October 1974, the audio from the concerts had also been taped and the highlights would be released as The Main Event – Live. The saxophonist Jerry Doidgson who performed on the concerts felt that the televised performance wasn't as strong as the others as Sinatra's natural pacing of the concert was disrupted by the mechanisms of television production.