Stop Making Sense
And you may say to yourself… this is not my beautiful Blu-ray!
Tags: Stop Making Sense Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 20th, 2009
Stop Making Sense is perhaps the first great live concert performance captured on film. Rather than a highlight reel of a few songs by an artist (Woodstock, Monterey Pop) or featuring live footage interspersed with interviews and other material (Gimme Shelter, The Last Waltz) this was purely a concert, from beginning to end. Certainly a few other notable examples had cropped up before (Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars went nowhere and The Beatles at Shea Stadium is still unreleased) but noting on the same scale as presented here. From beginning to end the focus is always on the action on stage, and we get an (almost) complete set by the band.
Part of what makes Stop Making Sense so good is not just the fact that it actually presents the concert as a concert thee way the audience would experience it (albeit with a better seat) but the songs are good and the performance itself is so captivating. Much of the credit for the audience’s draw to the screen visually is David Byrne, the lead singer for Talking Heads. Always a little bit “put there” this performance sees the band at perhaps the peak of their popularity and Mr. Byrne with his avant-garde sensibilities taking advantage of the situation.
Even those who are not fans of Talking Heads may find themselves captivated by Stop Making Sense. Each song build upon the previous, with the viewer wondering what will happen on stage next. No, this isn’t performance art or a series of shocking images, but instead solid songs performed well, but a band with a serious stage presence and a command of imagery.
On Blu-ray we get the film in its 15th anniversary version. This means some slight alterations from when the film was first released are present. Only the more die-hard and ardent of Talking Heads fans will notice these. These changes, however, are slight. For the Blu-ray version furthr changes were made, and the “extra” songs that were folded back into the film are once again taken out. Sure, they are present as bonus features but they should have stayed folded back into the main feature. Additionally, even with these two songs the set list isn’t the complete show as it was performed. Still at an hour an a half, this is a complete concert.
Preserved from the previous DVD release is the audio commentary which is sadly recorded by all the participants separately and then pieced together. It is still very informative and worth listening to for fans of the band. At least David Byrne admits his songs don’t make any sense and he was turning into a dictator.
Also present on the Blu-ray are a number of other special features, some new, some not. First up is a 1984 interview David Byrne did with himself that answers some of the questions the audience may have, such as the big suit. Then we get a press conference Q&A from the film’s 15th anniversary appearance at the San Francisco International Film Festival where the band reunited fir the first time in years (though didn’t perform). It runs almost an hour and is complete – including a cell phone interruption and interesting tour stories. We also get some text about the big suite and some storyboard to film comparisons. I’m actually surprised the storyboards were not a picture in picture option.
Stop Making Sense is a landmark concert film, and this Blu-ray looks and sounds very good. It shows its age with loads of grain, specs, and other “faults” from the source. I don’t know if the film was completely remastered or restored or what the process was, but what we get is a very good looking copy of a 35mm FILM. The audio is great with three mixes to choose from. Really, any serious music fan should have this in their collection. It’s just too bad that the full concert couldn’t be presented here inits reedited form the way it was previously.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Captivating live performance + Assembled in a way that each song builds on the previous + Solid extras |
9.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Not the full concert | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Fans of the band need this, but they already know that. Those that are only marginally aware of the band may be turned into fans after watching this. | |
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Tags: Stop Making Sense
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 20th, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
