'Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band' review: Gentle nostalgia trip for fans

The Band has been the subject of one of the greatest documentaries in the history of cinema, Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz" (1978), so the makers of "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band" have a high bar to clear in the realm of nonfiction movies about the roots rock legends.

Scorsese's movie captured The Band's 1976 final show with such precision and visual intelligence that it felt as if you learned everything there could be to know about the group from watching it.

In "Once Were Brothers," documentarian Daniel Roher's supplements the story by offering lead guitarist and songwriter Robertson's reflections on the group's transformative run, from the earliest days backing Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan, through their creation of what seemed to be a brand-new sound and musical style in Saugerties' Big Pink and beyond.

If you care about this history whatsoever, your heart will swell when Robertson describes his thought process in writing "The Weight," and the ways his youthful experiences inspired its haunting and multifaceted soundscape. The movie creates a vivid picture of a group of five men coming together and forming a fusion of styles and genres to explore uncharted musical terrain.

The filmmaking itself is pedestrian, though, utilizing the familiar approach of talking heads giving assessments of The Band and their legacy that do not add much in the way of unique insight for any of the natural audience members for this movie. Further, the linear structure of the storytelling cannot help but compare unfavorably to the impressionistic magic of Scorsese's extraordinary picture.

This is a movie for the fans, in other words, that offers a gentle nostalgia trip. It is also entirely Robertson's perspective on this story and these men — Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel are heard via past interviews and seen on stage, which is to be expected given that only Hudson is still alive but still makes the picture feel incomplete.

There's nothing inherently problematic about a movie built around Robertson reflecting on his sense of the truth of this story, but the better way to come close to an understanding of who The Band was is to re-watch "The Last Waltz" instead.