The Blues-Red, White and Blues (2003) |
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The Blues-Red, White and Blues (2003) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Documentary |
Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Mike Figgis Additional Footage-Bonus Performances Music Highlights-Songs From The Film Interviews-Crew-Mike Figgis (Director) Biographies-Crew-Mike Figgis Filmographies-Crew-Mike Figgis Theatrical Trailer-The Blues Trailer Trailer-Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, Princess Mononoke Trailer-Shane Maloney-The Brush-Off & Stiff, Live Forever, Amandla! Trailer-You See Me Laughin' |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2003 | ||
| Running Time | 92:59 (Case: 84) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (71:33) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Mike Figgis |
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Studio
Distributor |
Vulcan Productions Madman Entertainment |
Starring |
Lulu Tom Jones Van Morrison Jeff Beck Georgie Fame Lonnie Donegan B.B. King Eric Clapton Steve Winwood Humphrey Lyttelton |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music |
Lucille Bogan Stephen James Taylor |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 5.0 (448Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | Yes | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
This entry in The Blues series is directed by Mike Figgis and given his background as (a) a British teenage blues fan in the 1960s and (b) a former professional musician, his episode would obviously be about the blues scene in Britain and its impact on both British music and the American scene.
The film presents fewer pieces of archival footage than in previous episodes. Instead, there is footage from a session the director arranged with several famous musicians with a blues background or affinity - Tom Jones, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Pete King, Jon Cleary and Lulu. The bulk of the film is taken up with interviews with other luminaries of the 1950s and 60s. Among these are Humphrey Lyttelton, Lonnie Donegan (his last interview), Georgie Fame, Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood, Steve Winwood, Eric Burdon and others. The narrative takes us from the immediate post-war years through to the end of the 1960s, where bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac took their blues influence back to the States and made audiences there aware of many black artists, represented here by B.B. King.
This is a very well made film with lots of interesting anecdotes (like that of Tom Jones about record producer Joe Monk) and plenty of ego-free material. Each interviewee is introduced with a caption showing their name and year and place of birth. The archival footage is mainly American, with brief footage of Leadbelly and Sister Rosetta Tharpe and longer footage of Muddy Waters, including a brief duet with Mick Jagger. We also get an extended video clip of Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs. The only extended British performance is one by the late Alexis Korner, where his backing band includes a couple of Rolling Stones.
As a documentary on a particular strand of British popular music, this episode of The Blues can stand on its own merits. It is quite enjoyable and may well be the best of this series.
The film is presented in the original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.
This appears to be an NTSC to PAL conversion, but there are few problems with it. It is not ideally sharp, but there is a good level of detail visible. The transfer is bright and clear, while contrast is fine. Colour is also very good, with some pure whites and realistic flesh tones, though blacks show some evidence of low level noise.
The only artefacts of any note are Gibb effect and aliasing, with much more of the former than the latter. Film and video artefacts can only be seen on the archival footage. The interview with Van Morrison is very grainy due to the use of a smaller digital camera.
There are no subtitles, which again is a minor problem due to the mumbling or accents of some of the interviewees.
The disc is RSDL formatted with the layer change placed at 71:33, slightly disruptive as the music stops briefly, but it is at the end of a music clip.
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There is a choice of two audio tracks, a default Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and an alternative Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. I listened to the latter.
Audio is very good, being clean and clear. Dialogue is generally easy to understand, though some of the interviewees do not speak clearly. The music comes across quite well with plenty of detail.
The surround mix is well-judged except for the opening song, where the same audio seems to be coming from all directions. Other than this problem, there is a nice ambience provided to the other newly recorded music. Perhaps the low frequency effects are a little too pronounced at times, but generally okay.
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| Overall | |
The usual theme for the series.
The audio commentary features the director and John Porter, who is not mentioned either on the cover or on the disc menu. In fact, you need to listen carefully at the start of the commentary to hear his name. This is not particularly informative. They sometimes discuss some of the background to the performers or the music, but they also talk about what can be seen on the screen. There also seems to be some guitar-spotting ("Oh that's a Fender. No- it's a Gibson"). Figgis's comment about Fleetwood Mac is quite funny.
The following tracks from the sessions organised by Figgis are included in their entirety. The only audio available is Dolby Digital 2.0. Some of the tracks have occasional clicks, which is annoying.
This is basically musical excerpts from the film using seamless branching to show just the musical segments.
A pretty good interview in which the director talks about his musical background and his intentions in making the film. It goes out of audio sync near the end.
A detailed six-page biography.
A comprehensive filmography.
The series trailer.
Propaganda for other Madman releases.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The UK Region 2 release is identical to the Region 4 in terms of extras, apart from the trailers. There are two audio tracks, being linear PCM stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1.
The US Region 1 release again has identical extras apart from the trailers, and has both linear PCM stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks.
Given that there are no significant flaws with the Region 4, this would be a draw, unless you prefer a linear PCM soundtrack.
An interesting programme about the blues and Britain.
The video quality is good.
The audio quality is good.
A reasonable set of extras, though the audio commentary is slightly disappointing.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-S733A, using Component output |
| Display | Sony 86CM Trinitron Wega KVHR36M31. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player, Dolby Digital, dts and DVD-Audio. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Sony TA-DA9000ES |
| Speakers | Main: Tannoy Revolution R3; Centre: Tannoy Sensys DCC; Rear: Richter Harlequin; Subwoofer: JBL SUB175 |