Rage Against the Machine-Rage Against the Machine (PAL) (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Notes-Reading List Notes-Contacts Audio-Only Track-The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	78:34
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Zack De La Rocha Tim Bob Brad Wilk Tom Morello
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$29.95	Music	Rage Against The Machine

    This disc contains a mixture of live concert footage and a number of video clips from the band Rage Against The Machine.

    Rage is a band from Los Angeles, California who have been producing music since 1992. The band is known for their politically conscious songs where they express their leftist views. Rage is also known for their support of various political and social organizations who try to raise awareness of political oppression, censorship and numerous civil rights issues.

    This disc is comprised of approximately one hour of live footage from four different concerts, followed by six uncensored video clips. The inclusion of the video clips is a nice addition and hopefully other music discs will include artist's clips when the live material is limited. This disc is a remastered PAL transfer of the previously released NTSC edition.

    The first ten tracks included on the disc are from various live performances and the remaining six are the uncensored video clips.

Video

    The video transfer has numerous artefacts introduced intentionally, presumably to give the clips a rough guerrilla indy production feel to them.

    The full frame transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    The transfer is quite soft throughout and often looks similar to an old VHS image. The video clips towards the end of the disc exhibit slightly higher levels of sharpness but at no stage does the transfer display stunning levels of detail. During the live concert footage, some low-level noise is obvious during many scenes but again I believe this to be intentional. Shadow detail is quite poor for the transfer due to the poor lighting, the video source materials and the filters that have been applied to the footage.

    The colours displayed in the transfer are rather muted and are consistent with the rough-looking transfer. The stage lighting utilizes a number of strong solid colour schemes and includes extensive use of red, white and blue as well as greens and yellow.

    Numerous MPEG artefacts, mainly macroblocking, are visible during the transfer with many of these intentionally placed. In addition to the intentional artefacts, there are a number of occasions when artefacts are presumably unintentional. Gibbs effect artefacts may be seen at a couple of points in the transfer most notably around titles at 61:12 and 64:15. These artefacts are quite minor and are not distracting to the viewer.

    Aliasing occurs at a few points in the transfer with examples visible at 12:50, 24:02, 37:12 and 70:25. All of these artefacts are very minor and are not distracting to the viewer.

    Constant film artefacts are present during the transfer but these appear to be all intentionally placed. If genuine film artefacts are present they are not able to be detected in the transfer.

    During the introductory graphics at 0:05, some dot crawl can be seen around the logo but further occurrences of this are not apparent.

    Two analogue tape errors can be seen at 62:29 and 65:39 but as these only last for a single frame they are not disruptive to the viewer.

    Some minor NTSC to PAL conversion artefacts may be seen at 5:57 and 9:25 but these are not distracting. The NTSC to PAL conversion also makes the scrolling subtitles seen at 61:12 and 64:15 shudder which is slightly distracting.

    The single English subtitle track includes lyrics for the songs as well as the introductions by the band. This is quite helpful as the subtitles also include the lyrics sung by the crowd which are often difficult to hear. Lyric subtitles are not included for the live performance of Zapata's Blood and both the live and music video versions of Killing In The Name - no reason is given for their omission.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The lyrics are easily understood during the live performances. On a few occasions, some song lines are performed by the audience and these can be quite difficult to hear. Luckily, these lines are included in the subtitle track.

    The audio sync during the live performances exhibit no obvious sync problems at any stage. During the music videos, there are some slight sync audio issues that are always present and expected with music videos. At no stage during the transfer were any dropouts detected in either audio track.

    The 5.1 mix makes extensive use of the surround channels, using them for crowd noises as well as some instruments. This mix is quite effective and would be my preferred track for the live performances. The 5.1 mix for the music videos is mainly focused on the forward channels with an occasional obvious use of the surrounds. I did not find these mixes to be particularly effective and preferred the high quality PCM track during the videos.

    The subwoofer channel is used constantly during the performances but at no stage does it draw attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The non-animated menu is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Audio Track: The Ghost Of Tom Joad (5:42)

    This audio-only track is provided with both PCM and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes. Both mixes are of high quality and the 5.1 mix includes an interesting effect with the guitar at the beginning of the song moving around the soundfield in a full clockwise then counter-clockwise rotation.

Recommended Readings

    This extra is comprised of nine pages of information listing the book titles and authors that were featured in the foldout photo included with the album Evil Empire. These readings cover a wide range of topics but all include the common themes of civil rights and censorship.

Contacts

    This item presents contact details and a short description of eight different organizations that the band want to draw attention to. These include FAIR (the Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting media watch group) and The Los Angeles Free Clinic.

    Both versions of this film are identical and I therefore would have no preference for either version. If you currently own the NTSC version of this disc I can see no compelling reason to purchase this PAL edition, but if you are looking for a copy of this disc then do not hesitate to buy this PAL release.

    Rage Against The Machine is an enjoyable disc that should appeal to all fans of the band.

    The video transfer for this disc displays a high number of artefacts but these have been intentionally included.

    The combination of both the surround and stereo mixes should satisfy all fans of the band.

    The minimal extras could have been easily supplemented with the inclusion of a band biography or discography.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall