Bono candidly shares his life in riveting ‘Surrender’
From the time I first saw Bono, in the 1981 video for “Gloria,” standing atop a barge in Dublin’s Grand Canal Basin, I was transfixed. The fact that I still vividly recall that moment 44 years later is testament to the man’s magnetism, mullet and all. And to my surprise, that star power has not diminished as evidenced by his capacity to captivate in his dramatic – sometimes, overly dramatic – telling of his life’s arc in Apple TV+’s “Bono: Stories of Surrender.”
Shot in 2023 at New York City’s legendary Beacon Theater, the one-man show – complemented at times by musicians Kate Ellis, Gemma Doherty and Jacknife Lee – offers a compelling mix of soliloquy and generous samples of U2 hits all captured in evocative black and white by Oscar-winner Erik Messerschmidt (“Mank”). Directed by Andrew Dominik and edited with precision by Lasse Jarvi, Bono commands the boards as he reveals intimate details of his career, marriage and, most prominently, his chilled relationship with a father whose approval he desperately sought and only rarely experienced.
His candid performance coincided with the release of his 2022 memoir, “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.” But instead of the traditional book signings and talk show appearances, the ever-innovative artist opted for a world tour in which he would act out snippets of the text, and pick up a little extra cash ($6 million-plus) in the process.
To my surprise, it works exquisitely, with Bono displaying acting chops most folks never knew he had. Now we know where his daughter, “Bad Sisters” star Eve Hewson, inherited her talent. Like his offspring, he’s a natural in front of the camera, seamlessly transitioning from recitation to song and back. That ease is no doubt a product of his decades of appearing before multitudes of adoring U2 fans. But there’s much more to “Stories of Surrender” than Bono being Bono.
There’s also an engaging inventiveness, best exemplified by his deft use of props. For instance, a trio of empty adjacent chairs representing his bandmates, Larry Mullen Jr., Adam Clayton and David “The Edge” Evans. Clint Eastwood attempted something similar at the 2012 GOP convention with the vacant seat serving as an effigy of President Obama. While that failed miserably, Bono pulls it off by convincingly invoking the presence of his three BFFs.
Ditto, maybe more so, when the empty chair is occupied by Bono’s “da,” Bob Hewson, a blue-collar pragmatist who lost much of his will to live after his wife, Iris, passed away in 1974. Bono was only 14, and like John Lennon before him, losing his mother at such a tender age left a marked emptiness that haunts him to this day and is often reflected in his music. It was even worse for Da, who never uttered the name Iris again, taking his unresolved grief to the grave in 2001.
Some of the show’s best moments derive from Bono’s weekly meetings with Da at the local pub, Finnegan’s, where the old man would habitually kick off the extremely sparse conversation with the query: “So, anything strange or startling?” Bono plays both parts merely by turning his head to the left when he’s Bob and to the right when he’s Bono, aka Paul Hewson. It works marvelously, and unexpectedly movingly at times. But mostly, it’s good for laughs.
Like the time, Bono responded to his da’s inquiry with the “startling” news that he’d been contacted by none other than Luciano Pavarotti, desiring U2’s presence at an upcoming charity concert. The old man naturally assumed his son was pulling his leg – until the day Pavarotti showed up at Da’s house with a camera crew in tow. Even better was the time Bob, a lifelong anti-Royal, balked at the chance to meet the Princess of Wales. Well, that is until she elegantly offered her hand, and he instantly melted at Di’s feet.
Those are just some of the anecdotes Bono dispenses, but the most impactful musings are the humble ones in which he takes stock of his extremely good fortune, like how, in 1976, he hooked up with Larry, Adam and The Edge at Dublin’s Mount Temple Comprehensive School, the same week he met future wife Alison Stewart. Or, how he was inspired to write “Where the Streets Have No Name” after visiting impoverished children in Africa, and “With or Without You” in the wake of an emotionally turbulent time in his marriage.
He’s also charmingly self-deprecating. “These are the tall tales of a short rock star,” he professes upfront. And you hang on every word. But this IS Bono, and at times, he can get a tad melodramatic, if not outright hammy. For the most part, though, he remains true to his modest origins. His is the privileged life we all wish we had. Yet, we never begrudge his wealth and success. To the contrary, you admire and respect his ability to retain perspective and relatability, making it effortless to raise the white flag to “Surrender.”
Movie review
Bono: Stories of Surrender
Rated: Not rated
Cast: Bono, Kate Ellis, Gemma Doherty and Jacknife Lee
Director: Andrew Dominik
Writers: Bill Flanagan
Runtime: 86 minutes
Where: On Apple TV+ beginning May 30
Grade: B
