Big Brother & The Holding Company with Janis
Joplin –
Nine Hundred Nights (DVD-Video documentary with DTS)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: B- Main Program: B-
As I was
going through the new Big Brother &
The Holding Company with Janis Joplin – Nine Hundred Nights DVD, it was
announced that the Hip Hop/Rock star Pink would play Joplin in a new feature film. Of course, we have been down this road before
with Bette Midler’s performance in the 1979 Mark Rydell feature The Rose, but this was loosely based on
her life, not directly. With that said,
seeing an ambitious program like this DVD to see more about the real thing.
Though
the main documentary lasts under an hour, it is not bad. Narrated by Rip Torn, the problem with the
Michael Burlington (also director)/Toby Byron writing of that narrative is that
much of it is obvious “we’ve heard it all already” items (i.e., then came The
Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s….), and that
equals wasted opportunity to tell us more about the band and Janis. It is also a waste of Rip Torn, which in
itself is unacceptable, but that’s another essay.
With what
is here, there is a good variety of stock footage and valuable interviews with band members still with us, as well
as the usual chronological order these programs are made in. However, I did not learn as much from this as
I should have, could have, or which I had, because much more could have been
loaded into the timeframe. In this, it
fails to be the comprehensive history it could have been. As a result, comparison to the Pink film
should be most interesting.
The full
frame image mixes film and recently taped analog, professional NTSC format
video for an above-average presentation.
Of course, the Monterey Pop
footage was recently restored for the Criterion Collection DVD set (reviewed
elsewhere on this site), and looks far better than those clips here, as this
was produced in 2001. Too bad they could
not access the newer footage and update those sections. The sound is available in two Dolby Digital
options: 2.0 Stereo with some Pro Logic surrounds and 5.1 AC-3, but both are
not as impressive as the DTS 5.1 mix. Though
it is not the usually stunning DTS we are used to on music DVDs, it brings home
the story more than the other Dolby variants and that helps make up for the
main programs troubles.
Extras
include two black and white videotape music numbers the band did with a local
San Francisco TV station (Down On Me, The
Coo Coo) and problematic color footage of both Ball & Chain and Piece
Of My Heart are all available in all three soundtrack options. The audio-only section only offers Dolby 2.0
Stereo for the rare recording of Hall Of
The Mountain King, as well as for the seven interview outtakes. The Discography shows all the album covers of
Big Brother and Janis’ solo work, plus three videos with the band. Looks like Rhino has the VHS rights to Monterey Pop, though Criterion has the
DVDs, as noted. The biographical
timeline is brief and simple, while the photo gallery is really a bunch of
concert posters that are highly collectible if you have the originals. In all this fans will want this DVD, while
others may at least want to take a look.
Janis Joplin is likely to see another resurgence, so why not be one-up
on it?
- Nicholas Sheffo
