Coca-Cola – History of an American
Icon
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: A-
Who would have thought
that a documentary about a beverage would be as interesting as this? Well, perhaps the same people that imagined a
product like Coca-Cola and all the endless possibilities. Coca-Cola has become an icon and perhaps one
of the most prominent in all of advertising.
The drink has become so famous that when people typically go out to eat
and want a soft drink they typically state that they want a Coke, whether or
not they have it or not. People assume
that if they do not have Coke, that they will be served a Pepsi instead. Coke has become synonymous with Coca-Cola to
the point that it no longer is associated with cocaine as much as it is with
the drink.
History of an American Icon establishes a few things during its duration. The first is an overall thorough history of
the company dating back to the late 1800’s.
The second is just how important and influential this drink has become
to every generation since its birth.
This documentary offers a little more than your standard fare though and
interweaves this quite well. In fact, it’s
almost too subtle, but what it also asks is why we (humans) allow things to
influence our behavior so much? We let a
soft-drink have so much influence on us and who we are. Icons have a significance on who we are as a
people. We let symbols define us. Perhaps the question is now why we do this,
but whether or not we can ever stop? As
highly influential beings my answer would be no.
What this documentary also
proves is that even through various changes and hard times like war,
depression, recession, etc that what we want to survive will. Things that we value and have places
importance on like Coca-Cola will survive as long as we wish it to. MPI has issued this documentary in its full
length and also added a few extras that the world has not seen including
footage behind the scenes and commercials through the years.
The full-frame
presentation displays all sorts of footage from black & white older stock
footage to newer color footage. Overall,
the quality is decent considering it covers nearly 100 years of various raw materials
and pulls it together for a comprehensive exercise. The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix is adequate
giving just the right amount of value and volume to the presentation without
being too flashy or flat.
Along with the 1964 World’s Fair disc these are two
important and practically unheard of documentaries that really uncover more
than what one might expect. They both go
beyond the obvious to make further statements about the subject matter and do
so with a strong force with amazing results.
- Nate Goss
