Documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville grew up tuning into Late Night with David Leterman and rocking out to U2. In fact, as a wide-eyed teenager in the '80s, Neville saw the Irish band perform in Los Angeles during its landmark tour for the album War.
So, when Neville was asked if he'd like to make a documentary about Letterman hanging with Bono and The Edge in Dublin as the pair revisited classic U2 songs, he didn't have to think long. "It was both intimidating and unavoidable," he says. "It was something I had to do."
The resulting feature-length Disney+ special, Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, with Dave Letterman, is part travelogue and part concert film. The documentary explores the band's evolution during a transformative era in Irish history, as well as the enduring bond between Bono and The Edge.
For his part, Letterman chats up Dublin shopkeepers, interviews the musicians and emcees an intimate concert featuring stripped-down versions of U2 classics. (Band members Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton were absent; as Bono explains, "Larry was injured and Adam was off making an art film.") The documentary dropped on March 17, the same day as Songs of Surrender, a new album with forty re-recorded U2 songs.
For Neville, an Emmy nominee for Ugly Delicious and an Oscar winner for 20 Feet from Stardom, the project brought unique challenges. For starters, he shot most of the footage in December. "It was lightning fast," he says. Still, he found the scope liberating. "This didn't have to be authoritative," he says. "It was just these snapshots through Dave's eyes of this band."
In one scene, Bono and The Edge are discussing songwriting when they break into a new ditty inspired by Letterman's visit to a Dublin swimming spot. Letterman is clearly floored. "Many nice things have happened for me in my life," he tells them. "This would be right at the top of that list."
In another scene, Letterman is alone with The Edge as he plays the indelible opening notes of the hit "Where the Streets Have No Name." After the music stops, Letterman implores, "Please do it again." This time, as The Edge picks out the notes, Neville cuts to archival footage of the band performing the song onstage before thousands of screaming fans.
Neville was also in that room with Letterman and The Edge. He was busy capturing the magic but says he couldn't help being transported to another time and place: "It was amazing."
This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #7, 2023, under the title, "Beautiful Day."
