The documentary directed Andrew Dominik, captures on film the 2023 performance by Bono at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, during his one-man stage show Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief… This stage performance, in turn, was made to promote his 2022 memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.
Dominik’s recent biographical psychological drama Blonde, starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, had been divisive. The Australian filmmaker, had previously shot two documentaries about Nick Cave (One More Time with Feeling in 2016 and This Much I Know to Be True in 2022). Now he returns to the documentary-music genre with the first film to be released in the Apple Immersive format. The result is electrifying, since Bono: Stories of Surrender is beyond the traditional concert-film.
If the Irish James Joyce, in his novel Ulysses, used the stream-of-consciousness to portray how the thoughts of three Dubliners intertwined with his daily chores, Dominik chooses to capture Paul David Hewson’s flow of the mind. Thus, the artist retraces his life and the way it influenced his creative process.
Bono describes his early experimentations with music and his band mates (the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr), how he met his wife Alison “Ali” Stewart when he was a teenager, and how his parents Iris and Bob forged him into the man he became. Bono’s youthful days at Finnegan’s pub are evoked, as much as his successful collaboration with the operatic Luciano Pavarotti, and what it meant for him to become a father whilst remaining a son.
Visually, the film has a Brechtian flair, as it encourages critical reflection on social and political issues. As Bono addresses directly his audience, he breaks the fourth wall and also uses representational props — mainly chairs — to enact his remembrances of past parental conversations. This stage performance is captured on film, and the documentary paints on top of it inspirational messages delivered by Bono, through his monologues and songs.
The choice of giving a black and white look to the documentary enhances the nostalgia of Bono’s artistic trip down memory lane, as he conducts us to his homeland’s traits and atmospheres. Besides his family, friends, spouse and Ireland, a great protagonist of his storytelling is obviously his rapport with music. This form of expression became therapeutic when his mother passed away during his adolescence. It also became a way to fulfill the repressed aspirations of his dad, who did not cultivate his tenor voice to settle for a job at the post office.
The fact that Bono: Stories of Surrender is set in the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, further underlines the father-son bond, that the Irish singer-songwriter wants to homage. In fact, the final song of the show is Torna a Surriento. This song is dear to Bono, since he usually would meet with his father on Sundays to drink at the Sorrento Lounge. Their conversations become a second skin to the worldwide famous rockstar, like his father’s habitual question “Anything Strange or Startling?”
In terms of storytelling the documentary seems to be pervaded by some Beckettian overtones. If the Irish Modernist novelist would make minimalism and existentialism the hallmark of his writing, the way Bono is captured by Dominik seems to equally bring spectators face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation. However, if the Theatre of the Absurd lead to understanding life as devoid of purpose, Bono’s words, on the contrary, encourage us to take action.
The chronicle of a life, and the melodic lyrics that stem out of it, give wave to how art can become a tool to shape our society. As Bono says: motives don’t matter; outcomes, lives and human potential are what matter. For someone who was “born with his fists up” and “struggles to surrender,” the Irish musician finds the courage to let go and strip his heart bare. Thus, one can truly say that Bono: Stories of Surrender represents a cinematic oeuvre that has been made “In The Name of Love.”
Final Grade: A
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Photos: AppleTv+