Peter Allen – The Boy From Oz
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: B-
The musical A Boy From Oz has been one of the big
hits on Broadway lately, in which the too-short life of
singer/songwriter/personality/legendary stage performer Peter Allen’s life and
work are celebrated. As musicals become
popular again on the stage and screen, so will interest in their artists. A&E has issued the documentary Peter
Allen – The Boy From Oz (1995) on DVD on its ten anniversary. It runs about an hour, but offers plenty and
reminds us that Allen was more ahead of his time than he had received credit
for.
Writer/director Stephen MacLean has plenty of great,
interesting and historic material to choose from and squeezes the most out of
it while he edits as much into it as he can.
That makes for a great viewing.
The program already has a good reputation, so its arrival on DVD will
make fans happy, but if you know little about Allen, this is more than worth
your time. He was behind hits like Don’t
Cry Out Loud, I Honestly Love You and Arthur’s Theme, but was
also a performer’s performer. One of
Australia’s greatest sons still has not had his due, so this is a great restart
of that.
The 1.33 X 1 image is composed of all kinds of footage,
from stills and kinescopes to various forms of analog NTSC video and even tape
transferred to film, which is what you can expect from any documentary. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has slight ups
and downs, but is fine for the program otherwise. Extras include a discography and extra interview piece with
producer Ben Gannon, taped recently and presented here in anamorphically
enhanced 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 video. It runs
about a half-hour and updates everything ten years later as best it can.
- Nicholas Sheffo
