Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story (2011) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	More…-Extended Interviews Featurette-A Closer Look at Palestrina CD-10 Previously unreleased Sandman tracks Teaser Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	85:39
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Rob Gordon Bralver David Ferino
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The Boston rock band Morphine, as many of those interviewed in this documentary attest, was a very unusual creation, a trio consisting of Mark Sandman (two string slide bass and vocals), Dana Colley (baritone sax) and Billy Conway (drums). Sandman, its founder and frontman, was a very private person with a mystique that was only enhanced by his death in 1999 on stage in Palestrina, Italy, of a heart attack. Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story, is the story of the life, music and death of Mark Sandman told using archival footage, stills, performance and concert footage, family home videos and interviews with family and friends. The title of the documentary, Cure For Pain is the title of a song and Morphine’s 1993 album.

     Directors Robert Bralver and David Ferino had the blessing of the Sandman family, and the documentary includes early home videos of Sandman as a child with his two younger brothers and younger sister, archival interview footage with his parents, uncle and aunt and sister Martha Holmes, interviews with the surviving members of the band Dana Colley and Billy Conway, original Morphine drummer Jerome Deupree, Sandman’s girlfriend Sabine Hrechdakian, various media, friends and other musicians such as Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) who were influenced by Sandman’s music.

     I was not familiar with the life of Mark Sandman or the music of Morphine before receiving this DVD to review. I am not sure I learnt much about Sandman’s early life, except some suggestions that he was “difficult”, about his leaving of the family, or what influenced his music although the deaths of his two younger brothers clearly had an impact. Fans may have more of an idea, but it is clear from those who knew him that Mark Sandman was a very private person. Clearly he was not perfect but even those with some right to negativity, such as Morphine’s original drummer Jerome Deupree or Treat Her Right guitarist David Champagne, still have praise. And it is clear that Dana Colley was a soul mate, and remains so 10 years after Sandman’s on stage death.

     While insights into his personality may be scarce in Cure For Pain, the music of Sandman is an ever present, playing under video clips and stills as well as performances from the bluesy early band Treat Her Right to Morphine in full flight in concert. There is also in the documentary some information about their touring around the world, including Australia, Japan and Europe, the band’s signing with Dreamworks Records and his death in Italy.

     I enjoyed this documentary a lot. The music of Morphine is powerful and unusual, Sandman’s early death at 46 tragic. Fans will certainly enjoy Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story although anyone interested in rock music should take a look.

Video

     Cure For Pain is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.77:1, the original ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced. It is in the NTSC format.

     This documentary uses a lot of archival and home video footage of varying quality, including performance footage shot in low light. Thus, as expected, there are numerous artefacts, scratches, aliasing, marks, varying contrast, brightness and shades of colours, but none compromise one’s enjoyment of the film. More recent interview footage is sharp and with good colours.

     There are no subtitles, although occasionally white subtitles come on if the interview answers are unclear. As well, interviews conducted in Europe with Sandman have burnt in French subtitles translating his answers.

     The scores reflect the nature of the material available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Digital 2.0 track at 224 Kbps, surround encoded.

     The interviews, including archival interviews going back prior to Sandman’s death, are easy to hear and understand. The rest of the audio consists of the music of Treat Her Right and Morphine either as background to stills or video, or performance and concert footage, to which the audio gives a good depth and clarity. There is some hiss with archival interview footage, but otherwise the audio is very good

     As the only dialogue is interviews there were no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extended Interviews

     Additional material from some of the interviews used in the documentary:

• Ben Harper (1:50)
• Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) (1:47)
• Mike Watt (The Minutemen, The Stooges) (3:02)
• John Medeski (2:49)
• Rev. Richard Buchner (3:38)

A Closer Look at Palestrina and Nel Nome Del Rock (2:09)

     Travelogue type footage of Palestrina during the music festival ten years after Sandman’s death.

Teaser Trailer (1:05)

Audio CD – Sandman (32:28)

     Separate CD of ten unreleased tracks.

     Our Region all release of Cure For Pain is identical to the US two disc set, including being in NTSC and having the FBI anti-piracy warning. There is no UK version of the film listed.

     I enjoyed this well-made documentary and loved the music of Morphine. Fans will certainly enjoy Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story but anyone interested in rock music should take look at the unique talents of Mark Sandman.

     The video and audio are acceptable; extras are not extensive but the package includes a welcome CD of Sandman music.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall