Marc Bolan-Ride On (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Booklet CD-11 Tracks
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	54:54
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Mike Parkinson
Studio Distributor	Rajon Vision	Starring	Steve Harley Captain Sensible Jeff Dexter Bob Harris Eric Hall Trevor Frances Keith Altham
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	Marc Bolan

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Glam Rock was a phenomenon of the early 1970s, characterised by androgynous costumes and make-up and over-the-top stage shows. The first major star of the Glam Rock era was Marc Bolan. With his band Tyrannosaurus Rex (later known as T. Rex) he paved the way for dozens of imitators and similar performers, like David Bowie, Gary Glitter, Slade and The Sweet. After a string of hits in the early 1970s the rock star lifestyle caught up with Bolan. His weight ballooned while the quality of his music diminished. After cleaning himself up in the mid-1970s there were signs that his talent was reasserting itself, but shortly before his 30th birthday in 1977 he was killed in a car accident.

    This documentary looks at Bolan's life and career and features interviews with those who knew him, including friends, journalists and other musicians like Steve Harley and Captain Sensible. There is considerable mention of Bolan's girlfriend Gloria Jones, who was driving the car when the fatal accident occurred, but she only makes an appearance at the end of the programme. The brief interview footage looks to be blown-up video from a completely different source.

    Although this look at Bolan holds some interest, it just doesn't seem comprehensive enough. The excerpts from his music seem to come from live performances, not the original recordings. A lot of his career is skimmed over, with no mention of his wife and the only indication that he had a son named Rolan being a thank you at the end of the documentary. The grainy re-enactment of Bolan's last hours by actors is a serious mistake, making this documentary seem cheap and trivialised.

    The packaging is misleading. The back cover states that the programme is in 4:3 (it isn't) and the audio is Dolby 5.1 (it isn't). It also does not mention that the material on the bonus CD is also available in Dolby Digital format on the DVD.

Video

    The programme is transferred in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Apart from some grainy re-enactment sequences and archival footage the video is in pretty good shape. The transfer is clear and sharp and there is a good level of detail. Colour is good and contrast levels are excellent. The archival footage is blown up to fit the widescreen so not only is it cropped top and bottom but also less detailed because of the zooming.

    The only film to video artefacts are some very faint aliasing and a little bit of Gibb Effect, but you would have to be looking closely to see either. Apart from scratches and debris on the archival footage, there are no film artefacts, this being a video production.

    No subtitles are provided, and the disc is single-layered.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This is a very disappointing audio transfer.

    The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, without surround encoding.

    The dialogue is very clear, and despite the foreign (UK) accents I had no trouble understanding any of the dialogue. The audio, though, suffers from distortion. There is a rough edge to the sound as well as some sibilance. This manifests itself not just in the old music recordings but also in the new interview footage.

    The audio is transferred at a high level, so that I did not have to turn up the volume on my amplifier as high as I normally would for a DVD source. There is a brief loss of audio sync at 36:50.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Booklet

    A 32-page booklet with some informative biographical material and a number of photographs.

Bonus Tracks (61:32)

    Some eleven bonus tracks are included both on the DVD in Dolby Digital 2.0 and on a separate CD included in the package. These are alternative versions, demo tracks, live recordings and outtakes. I found the content less than enthralling for several reasons. The performances are not always very good, as Bolan seems to be trying the works out instead of putting his all into it. The better-known songs do not sound as good as they do in the final versions. The sound quality is often terrible, with hiss and distortion present. This sort of material will be of interest to the devoted fan who wants to hear all that Bolan created, but for the casual viewer, and the documentary is really aimed at the casual viewer, this material might be a turn-off. If you really want to hear Bolan and T. Rex at their best, then there are plenty of original albums and "best of" compilations out there. Don't take this material as an indication of the quality of the man's work.

    This same material is available in the UK without being defaced by a large yellow classification logo. Incidentally, I thought that these new classification markings were supposed to make it easier for consumers to judge the potential offensiveness of the material contained on the DVDs. So what then does "mild themes" mean? Is it some judgement on the music - that is, it doesn't have memorable themes? How can the average consumer judge what that means? I can't imagine that this sort of mealy-mouthed description means anything to anyone except a few clowns at the OFLC or at the Hillsong Church.

    This documentary may be informative for people who know little about Marc Bolan, but it is a little one-sided.

    The video quality is pretty good.

    The audio is marred by roughness and distortion.

    The extras are welcome but the audio material is here for academic rather than entertainment purposes.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall