DEVO:
The Men Who Make The Music/Butch DEVO & The Sundance Gig
(1978, 1996/MVD Visual DVD)/Elvis:
That's The Way It Is
(2000 Special Edition w/DVD) +
Viva Las Vegas
(1963/MGM/Warner DigiBook Blu-ray Editions)/Six
By Sondheim
(2014/HBO/Warner Archive DVD)/Stravinsky
In Hollywood (2014/C
Major DVD)/ZZ Top: Live At
Montreux 2013 (Eagle
Blu-ray)
Picture:
C/B/B+/C+/C/B- Sound: C+/B/B/C+/C+/B Extras: C/B/C+/D/C/C+
Main Programs: B/B/B-/B/B-/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
Six By
Sondheim
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are some new and very interesting music releases for you to
consider...
MVD
Visual continues issuing work by DEVO, continuing with a double
feature in DEVO:
The Men Who Make The Music
(1978) which combines their early music videos with live concert
footage and Butch
DEVO & The Sundance Gig
(1988) on this new single DVD. The shows are fun and more of the
history of one of America's greatest bands and one still far ahead of
its time. The interaction with each other and when live, their
audiences, shows a group serious about their music, fun and having
something to say. Two members are sadly no longer with us, but their
work and the music remains and fans should be happy with this double
feature release.
A
1996 Sundance Film Festival show is included as an extra, making for
a third program in all, but we get a few clips of other MVD/DEVO
releases as well that we have reviewed elsewhere on this site.
Denis
Saunders' Elvis:
That's The Way It Is (2000 Special Edition)
is the second version of the first of two concert films MGM released
(the other being Elvis
On Tour
(1972; see link in a few paragraphs for more) to capture The King in
his late prime. While that one was a multi-screen presentation like
Woodstock
(1970) originating in Techniscope, this film (shot by the legendary
Lucien Ballard) was shot in 35mm Panavision and remains some of the
greatest, most important, sharpest, clearest, richest footage of
Elvis ever filmed.
Updated
with multi-channel sound from the original soundmaster (more below),
it is finally arriving on Blu-ray and it is a winner. When you see
the real man in action and at his best, you start to quickly forget
the lies, rumors, pop trivialization and silly side of his legend and
see why so many people loved him and still do. To this day, he
remains one of the most successful music acts of all time (even
turning out tons of profits decades after his passing) and if
anything this new Blu-ray should only help that situation.
Included
also are some moments that were censored so the original
family-friendlier version could make it to big screens worldwide.
Though the DigiBook lists the songs in both versions of the film,
closed captions tell us most of the titles when turned on, so you do
not have to be a scholar or guess as we hear the classic
hits (Hound
Dog,
That's
All Right,
Suspicious
Minds,
Don't
Be Cruel)
and some interesting covers (You've
Lost That Loving Feeling,
You
Don't Have To Say You Love Me,
a rehearsal of Bridge
Over Troubled Waters)
along with audience interactions that are often a riot. He also
kisses tons of women, something for may reasons you would not see
today.
Well
done in both versions,though I favor the new one a bit, see both in
this solid new set.
Extras
include a DVD of the original 1970 version in lossy Dolby Digital
Mono (it was 4-track magnetic stereo in its best presentations, but
not t4.0 here for some reason) of the film with the older cut and
less music, both discs have outtakes from the film, but the Blu-ray
edition adds the Original Theatrical Trailer, older featurette on the
restoration of the film called Patch
It Up
(after an Elvis hit) and has a 40-page DigiBook Blu-ray case whose
booklet includes high quality paper that has new text and rare photos
& stills.
George
Sidney's
Viva Las Vegas
(1963) is the same disc and transfer we covered twice before, once in
the obsolete HD-DVD format, then on Blu-ray at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10170/The+Elvis+Blu-ray+Collection+(Elvis+On+Tour+(1
It
the same great picture and sound transfer with the same menus and
same extras, but now, Warner has also added a 40-page DigiBook
Blu-ray case whose booklet includes high quality paper that has new
text and rare photos & stills. The upgrade is worth it if you do
not have the Blu-ray.
James
Lapine's Six
By Sondheim
(2014) is a clever way to do a biographical documentary on the
immensely successful Stephen Sondheim by looking at six of his
classic compositions to chart his career, public and private life. A
friend of the man himself, Lapine has a wealth of questions, great
interview moments, classic footage and original music and more in a
very tight 86 minutes that could and should have been longer. The
performances by the biggest names in entertainment history peak for
themselves.
Something's
Coming
(from West
Side Story),
Opening
Doors
(from Merrily
We Roll Along),
Send
In The Clowns
(from A
Little Night Music),
I'm
Still Here
(from Follies),
Being
Alive
(from Company)
and Sunday
(from Sunday
In The Park With George)
are the six songs, but they are used as markers to get into all of
his works. It becomes a character study of the man, the arts, New
York City, Musicals and Broadway. Originally shown on HBO, this is
actually being issued as an online-only Warner Archive DVD, so you
will not find it in stores. It is a fine work and also a great intro
to understanding Sondheim's work, though we've also covered at last 3
Blu-rays of his work elsewhere on this site. This is worthy of all
of them.
There
are sadly no extras.
Marco
Capalbo's Stravinsky
In Hollywood
(2014) is another fine new documentary about a great music figure,
telling us all about Igor Stravinsky, but specifically how being
brought to Hollywood changed his life and likely saved it, plus gave
him new creative avenues. Already well known internationally as one
of the most important composers of classical music, Walt Disney
turned out to be a fan and was determined to land the legend for his
abstract, innovative new animated feature meant to continue his
winning ways in the format (and stay as ahead of the Fleischer
Brothers as possible). That project would be Fantasia
(1940, reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) and though his
work had been altered, the film was a hit and furthered Stravinsky's
reputation just the same.
He
kept trying to connect to other feature film projects and we see
clips of films his music was intended for, but these collaborations
kept falling through, but this still led to some very important work
and this 53-minutes work shows the rest. Here to, I wish this were
longer, but it has more than enough things that many are not aware of
and both film and music fans will really appreciate it.
A
multi-lingual booklet on the film is the only extra.
ZZ
Top: Live At Montreux 2013
is the fourth concert and third disc of shows we have covered of the
band over the years and this one lands somewhere between the
1980/2005 Double
Down
DVD set and the even better presentation on the Live
In Texas
Blu-ray. This is the most recent of the shows running over an hour
and 17 tracks including hits like Tush,
Legs
and Sharp
Dressed Man.
To their credit, they have never sold their audience out and still
have what it takes, so fans will be happy and non-fans impressed they
are as good as they were in their 1980s commercial heyday, even if
they skip the movie theme songs.
Extras
include an illustrated booklet on the show with informative text,
while the disc adds two interview featurettes.
Half
of the releases here are Blu-ray, with the Elvis films both shot in
real 35mm anamorphic Panavision (both here in 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital
High Definition image transfers), processed in MetroColor, but Viva
is the real stunner once again with its color, detail, depth and
great print, while Way
has some rough spots, has some limits in its presentation and could
use a few upgrades here and there 14 years after its restoration.
The
anamorphically enhanced DVD of the original 1970 cut of the film in
its theatrical release is very soft and hard to watch, including with
its lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono. It should have its own Blu-ray,
but likely needs even more work.
The
1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Top can have
more clarity that the Elvis concert footage 43 years before, yet it
has detail issues from its HD-shoot and is not necessarily as
naturalist in total. Still, color is not bad.
The
1.33 X 1 image on both DEVO
programs are on the weak side with aliasing errors and other detail
issues, but color is not awful and many of the videos were shot on
film. The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Sondheim
and Stravinsky
fare better despite their variety of film and video sources, as
expected from documentaries covering such long, prominent careers.
All
three Blu-rays offer lossless sound, with the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 on
Vegas
a repeat of the smart upgrade from the previous HD editions, while
Top
and Way
offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes. Top
is always using all the speakers being an all live show throughout,
but I thought it could have been a bit better, while Way
(the back of the DigiBook fails to say it has DTS MA!!!) is mixed off
of the original 16-track magnetic soundmaster which sounds great in
the concerts as well as the rehearsals. You can see why a 24K Gold
CD and vinyl reissues occurred when this was issued in theaters back
in 2000, where film prints had Dolby Digital, DTS and Sony Dynamic
Digital Sound (SDDS). The only thing is non music moments often go
to mono or simple stereo.
The
three DVDs have three different soundtracks, with DEVO
being sometimes rough, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Sondheim
offering lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 (ranging from mono sound to music
with range where applicable) and Stravinsky
offering PCM 2.0 Stereo. They are on par with each other, but none
are smoothly consistent due to the age of older audio elements.
To
order Six
By Sondheim,
go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
