Take Me Home (Telefilm)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: C+

 

 

In his time, John Denver sold a stunning amount of albums and singles, helping RCA be more than the home of Elvis Presley and Harry Nilsson.  Just about every one of his albums to reach the Top Thirty was at least a million-seller between 1971 and 1979, while his singles (remember them) were huge until 1975, then he still had hits.  He even dreamed of flying around in a satellite and writing songs about the experience, going as far as trying to arrange this with the post-Soviet Russians.  Unfortunately, his untimely death in 1997 in a plane wreck ended it all and the TV movie Take Me Home (1999) tries to tell his story.

 

Chad Lowe is John Denver, and though he makes himself look like the singer, he very unintentionally lands up looking like Dana Carvey doing a Denver impersonation.  This makes the typecast in military roles Gerald McRaney as Denver’s dad feel more bizarre and makes this film funnier still.  It is one of those TV movies where the casting is a hoot all around, and again, unintended.  With that said, we have seen worse, but it feels too by the numbers, yet what cutting edge thing could be said or shown about Denver’s career or person?  He was what he was, and that’s not bad.

 

Being a singer/songwriter with a laidback Country style, he seems very dated in a world with Toby Keith, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, and Hip Hop, but many fans will still appreciate this film.  I just felt it did not go far enough in any way, shape or form.  We do not get a deeper look at least at how the man put his music together.  That would have been the angle most likely effective to make this film work better, but teleplay writer Stephen Harrigan keeps it simple and that’s what we get.  Jerry London does a plain job of directing, but I will give Lowe points for some ambition and consistency.

 

The full frame image is color and somewhat above average.  It looks like the final product was rendered and 3edited on video, so even if the main program was shot on Fuji film stocks, this is a generation down.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is sadly Mono, which is especially odd since Denver’s hits were all in the stereo era.  It shows its age.  The only extras are text on the two lead actors, disc/filmography, and quotes from Denver himself.

 

So now we have a few John Denver DVDs.  Who would have thought?  Before you know it, DVD-Audios are going to be out of his albums and it might even cause a revival of interest, though his albums still sell as back catalog more strongly than you would imagine.  Even if you are not a fan, the lost of people like him too soon seems to be one of the many reasons the music business is in trouble.  He was at least a class act.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo