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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Music > Rock > Pop > Politics > Music Industry > Albums > Counterculture > Classic Albums: Black Sabbath – Paranoid + When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors (2010/Eagle Blu-rays)

Classic Albums: Black Sabbath – Paranoid + When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors (2010/Eagle Blu-rays)

 

Picture: C+/B-     Sound: C+     Extras: B-/C     Documentaries: B-/C+

 

 

After releasing dozens of titles in the Classic Albums series (many of which we have covered on this site), Eagle is issuing Black Sabbath – Paranoid as the first Blu-ray installment and though it is not the album I would have started with, the album is a Rock genre classic.  However, it is also a bit played out, overrated and the later solo career of Ozzy Osbourne did more to end Rock than expand it, no matter what his fans may say.

 

Nevertheless, he other members of the band reflect on the success and influence of the 1971 album that put them on the map for good (marketed to well at the time by Warner Bros. who knew what they were doing) and included cuts like Planet Caravan, War Pigs the title song and of course, Iron Man.  As usual, the program goes just about track-by-track with new interviews, demonstrations and sometimes older footage.  Fans will like it and you get to learn more about the album as always, helped by interviews with newer name fans like Henry Rollins, but the band lasted as it was here for the decade and never had an album to match it commercially or critically.

 

Since it was also produced in HD, Eagle had an option to also issue Classic Albums: The Doors (1967) on Blu-ray, but are instead issuing the very different When You’re Strange – A Film About The Doors that is yet another documentary on the band and not the best one either.  Even with narration by Johnny Depp, it is everything you have seen and heard about the band before, especially if you have seen the Oliver Stone film.  So much has been said and since there is nothing new to say, all this can do is repeat the past programs that originated in 1.33 film and or analog video.  The only plus is that Rhino Records (the Warner sub-division that handles the Elektra back catalog) has pulled often-seen footage and retransferred it in High Definition, which was long overdue here and is long overdue for 99% of all such archive footage at all the major record labels all the way up to their filmed Music Videos.

 

Director Tom DiCillo has only previously directed TV and some not-so-noteworthy feature films, so I did not expect much.  He sadly takes too many liberties with the material and the montages that try to make (among other things) The Doors seem like The Beatles is a major misstep.  The result is a mixed program that lacks substance, richness and any serious subtext.  It even distances the viewer when it should not.

 

The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Paranoid is a mix of new HD-shot footage with some motion blur and detail limits with older film and video footage.  The worst choice I am not happy about is having the classic 1.33 X 1 analog video being letterboxed when it should be bookended, making problematic, dated footage look much worse than it would otherwise.  The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Strange also has some motion blur, but the newly-upgraded classic film is a plus and will surprise fans by its clarity.

 

Both have PCM 2.0 Stereo mixes, but Strange also has DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 which is much preferred.  The Doors albums were all issued in 5.1 MLP versions in the now-defunct DVD-Audio format, so really good copies of all their songs were already on hand and they seem to have used those mixes here.

 

Extras on both happen to include additional interviews.  Paranoid has 42 more minutes of interview footage not in the main feature, some of which should have stayed there, while Strange has an interview with Morrison’s father, who has never discussed his son on camera before.  Our Blu-ray case also came with a poster and booklet.

 

 

For more on The Doors, try these links:

 

The Doors – 1991 Oliver Stone film Blu-ray

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7326/The+Doors+(1991/Blu-ray/Lionsgate)

 

Classic Albums: The Doors (1967) DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6848/Classic+Albums+%E2%80%93+The+D

 

Live In Europe – 1968 DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1300/Doors+-+Live+In+Europe+1968

 

Soundstage Performances/No One Here Gets Out Alive DVDs

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2038/The+Doors:+Soundstage+Performance

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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