Ladies & Gentlemen, The Rolling
Stones (1973/Eagle Blu-ray) + Let’s Spend The Night Together (1983/aka
Time Is On Our Side/Lionsgate DVD) +
The Rolling Stones – Rare & Unseen
(MVD Visual DVD) + Stones In Exile
(Eagle DVD)
Picture: C+ (Ladies:
B-) Sound: C+ (Ladies: B) Extras: C+/C-/D/C+ Concerts/Documentaries: B
As Universal reissued The Rolling Stones’ classic album Exile On Main Street in various special
and limited editions, several companies decided to issue various programs on
home video that all turned out to be terrific and well worth the time of fans
and non-fans alike to enjoy. Coming from
three sources outside of Universal Music, it shows that there is plenty of
great Stones material to go around.
Ladies &
Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones is a 1973) concert film shot during their 1972 North
America tour and shows the band in exceptional form singing hits like Brown Sugar, Gimme Shelter, Tumbling Dice,
Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man and nine other songs
as they were on the best run of albums they ever cut. This runs 90 well-edited minutes and as the
only Blu-ray in this bunch is the best-looking for the four releases, though
not always what I expected.
Nevertheless, it is very entertaining and Producer/Director Rollin
Binzer has created a very underrated look at the band that has been out of
circulation far too long.
Let’s Spend The
Night Together
(1983/aka Time Is On Our
Side/Lionsgate DVD) is one of the only concert films ever totally shot in 65mm
negative/70mm format, but the great Director Hal Ashby manages to capture the
band at their later, grand peak as they were still in their original run as a major band whose every new album
was not just another release, but an event.
This is often a stunning presentation, top rate and one of the most
underrated concert films.
The Rolling Stones –
Rare & Unseen
is from the series of the same name, co-produced by Weinerworld and ITV,
lasting over an hour, it is a compilation of really terrific footage that is
especially rich in early filmed footage from their earliest years. Much of it looks at the Mick Taylor years,
but covers all 45+ at some point and will surprise those who might
underestimate it from seeming like just another catch-in release, which it
definitely is not. Fans will want this
one as much as any here.
Stones In Exile (2010) is the newest work here
from Director Stephen Kijak showing the making of Exile On Main Street and including new interviews and footage of
Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts returning to the house in France where
the classic was made to begin with.
There are plenty of great archive clips (including an alternate camera
angle of Mick hitting a microphone down at a press conference in 1971 as
compared to Rare & Unseen) and
lasting about an hour, is a great look at one of the most important double
albums ever made.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 image on Ladies has some good color and good shots, but for a film shot on
35mm film, I expected it to look even better than this. The shots are often softer than I would have
liked throughout, looking like 16mm at times, but there are some shots that
look better here than they would on a DVD just the same, while the anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Night is
not the 2.20 X 1 frame it would be if we were seeing a 70mm print. Color can be great, but there are just too
many shots with detail limits and softness to really show off how good this
would really look. Hopefully a Blu-ray
is on the way so we can see the great camera work by Directors of Photography
Caleb Deschanel (The Right Stuff, The Patriot) and Gerald Feil. The 1.33 X 1 on Rare has some rough shots as you would expect from a compilation
documentary such as this, but some of the footage is in incredible good, clean,
sharp shape, including old black and white footage from their early days that
especially impresses. The 1.78 X 1 image
on Exile is a mix of new interviews,
stills and fine old film footage that works very well. The new footage is nicely shot by Director of
Photography Grant Gee, an exceptional Music Video director whose work includes
classics with Radiohead.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix on Ladies is better than the Dolby Digital
5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo mixes on the Blu-ray and the sound source is in fine
sonic shape. Sadly, we get no
multi-channel audio on Night, despite that it was a 6-track magnetic stereo
70mm release, so the DVD only delivers Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, which sounds
good, but is not what it should be at all.
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is the only track on the remaining DVDs, which
are both documentaries, which include some monophonic sound from archive
footage. Besides that, they sound just
fine for such productions.
Extras on Ladies
include a 2010 Jagger interview, vintage Old
Grey Whistle Test interview, Tour Rehearsal and three bonus songs in Shake Your Hips, Tumbling Dice and Blueberry
Jam. Night has a trailer and stills.
Exile adds Extended
Interviews, a piece on Exile Fans and Return
To Stargroves & Olympic Studios.
Rare has no extras.
Though we have even more on the band on this site and more
will soon be added without any doubt, you can try the following links for more Stones
releases:
Gimme Shelter (1970/Criterion Blu-ray)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9283/Gimme+Shelter+(1970/Criterion+Colle
Rolling Stones – The
Complete 1960s Review DVD set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9303/The+Rolling+Stones+In+The+1960s
Select Super Audio
CDs (1963 – 1971)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/403/Rolling+Stones+ABKCO+SACDs+(1963
- Nicholas Sheffo
