Long Way Down – The Complete Series (EMI DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C+     Episodes: C+

 

 

I had heard of the Ewan McGregor’s road trip project, where he gets together with a good friend (a man named Charley Boorman) to go motorcycling from England to Africa.  The project resulted in Long Way Down – The Complete Series, here as a 3-DVD, 10 episode show that has mixed results.  McGregor always seemed like a good guy and that seems to be the case here, even if his judgment of feature film choices has been shaky lately.

 

It is also available as a book and they even came up with a soundtrack, but seeing is believing and for the most part, this is better than your usual people-degrading reality TV show.  However, unless you are a fan of McGregor and can get into this very early on, the re cording of the trip is uneven and though it may be a good representation of said trip, I was not 100% certain this was on target.  Otherwise, you might want to read the book first or try reading Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot in digital video, but whether some or all of it is HD is hard to tell, but there are enough aliasing errors and rough footage that seems to push equipment that might not be as durable for the project as it should be.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is simple stereo at best, but not bad for location recording.  Extras include stills, maps and a making of program.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo