Bye Bye Birdie (1963/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Stones In The Park (1969/Network U.K. Region B
Blu-ray)/Staind: Live From Mohegan Sun
2011 (Eagle Blu-ray)
Picture: B/B/B- Sound: B-/B-/B Extras: B/B-/C+ Main Programs: B-/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE: The Bye Bye Birdie Blu-ray is limited to 3,000 copies and is available exclusively at
the Screen Archives website which can be reached at the link at the end of this
review, while the Stones
In The Park Blu-ray edition is only available in the U.K. from our
friends at Network U.K. and can be ordered from them exclusively at the website
address links also provided below at the end of the review. This is a Region B Blu-ray and will only play
on players capable of handling that kind of software, so this excludes most U.S.
players.
Three new
Blu-ray releases show the changing nature of Rock Music over about 50 years,
but in each case here, it seems Rock is either on top or near the next change.
We start
with George Sidney’s film version of the stage musical Bye Bye Birdie (1963) getting the Twilight Time Limited Edition
Blu-ray treatment. Besides putting
Ann-Margaret further on the map, it was the first film for Dick Van Dyke, Paul
Lynde and its biggest star at the time was Janet Leigh. Margaret is one of endless fans for Conrad
Birdie, the story’s Elvis Presley surrogate, who is coming to her town. That is great news, as he will perform, she
and thousands of young ladies will get to meet him and he’ll even perform on
the most popular variety TV show in the country, The Ed Sullivan Show (Sullivan appears as himself), but the bad
news is that he has been drafted and is going off to war.
There is
some irony the film arrived just as the U.S. was about to get involved in the
Vietnam fiasco, but it should also be noted that it was based on the real life
event of Elvis being drafted and along with other Rock icons either getting in
trouble (Jerry Lee Lewis), leaving Rock for religion (Little Richard) or having
something fatal happen tot them, it was the end of the first era of Rock. This film has more than its references to and
visuals of the bobby-soxer era, but no one knew Sullivan would help launch The
Beatles a year later and this would become nostalgia faster than anyone
expected.
However,
it seems too short at 112 minutes and despite some good musical numbers (some
of which are campy) including a tough-but-awkward awkward dance number by Leigh
(oh, that black wig!) and a few classics (Van Dyke’s Put On A Happy Face is a standard), the resulting film falls short
of greatness, but is still a solid Musical and has a certain charm
(Ann-Margaret is amazing) throughout.
The film influenced a whole cycle of 1980s films obsessed with telling
tales about life before the 1960s happened (read counterculture, Civil Rights
Movement, etc.) and you can see that this film particularly influenced the film
version of Grease more than just a
bit.
Sidney knows how to direct music
material and would reteam with Margaret the following year at MGM for Viva Las Vegas (see our coverage of the
Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) with the real Elvis to more box office
success. For launching so much talent
and being as good as it still is, Bye
Bye Birdie deserves rediscovery and this is a great way to enjoy it.
Extras
include an isolated music score that has fidelity and dynamic range the
multi-channel film soundtrack cannot and does not simply because the music has
to be mixed in, an Original Theatrical Trailer and another illustrated booklet
with another well-written essay by Julie Kirgo.
By the
time the actual 1960s had happened, the likes of Bobby Rydell had been
supplanted by The British Invasion including bands like The Rolling
Stones. By the time they did their
famous Hyde Park concert at decade’s end, they
had lost their friend and fellow bandmate, Brian Jones. His death was a shock, but they did not
cancel that concert and Leslie Woodhead’s TV documentary The Stones In The Park (1969) captures the band on the edge, not
playing very well, looking out of it, seeming very mixed and in a state so sad,
you wonder as you watch if they are going to break up and not survive the loss.
Running
about an hour, it is a shocking look behind the scenes at the band in one of
their darkest periods. They did recover
and rebound, but the fact that they did is all the more amazing after seeing
how things played out here. Mick Jagger
can sing, but his vocals are often off.
The band can play, but not as the unit they usually are and had
been. Since this was shot on film, a High
Definition version was possible and Network U.K.
(in a Region B Blu-ray) is the latest company to issue a Blu-ray, though it is
still not available in the U.S.
yet!
Still, it
is wroth seeing and extras include a 1967 World
In Action episode where Jagger is arrested for drug possession, about 29
minutes of extra footage not included in the documentary (including three more
songs), a 4+ minutes clip of Jagger getting out of prison later, silent 1964
footage of the band in their early days, a brief 1971 Charlie Watts/Bill Wyman
interview (just over a minute!) and second Mercy, Mercy performance clip in 5.1
sound.
Finally
we have one of the many groups trying to outrock The Stones. Staind:
Live From Mohegan Sun 2011 is a 17-song set from the long running band (18
years and counting), but it is yet another one of those concerts that is
interesting when you watch, but quickly forgotten when it is over and none of
the songs stuck with me. No fan of the
band, they have talent, but are doing the same things that so many similar band
do and it does not go anywhere much. It
is also short at about 80 minutes, so this is for fans only. Yes, they can play and the singer is not bad,
but I would say this is only for the most curious or for someone who wants to
experience where the band is coming from.
It also makes one wonder if Rock can reinvent itself again.
Extras
include an interview segment and Mike
Mushok’s Big Rig featurette on the disc, plus a small paper pullout with
small-print tech info is inside the Blu-ray case.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Birdie can show its age in spots as well as some grain, but this
looks fine for its age and better than I have ever seen the film look
before. At times, you can see how great
the color must have been in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor print versions
of the film and very much is here with fine color range and rich colors in the
best sequences. Process photography and
optical prints has added grain. Director
of Photography Joseph F. Biroc, A.S.C., delivers a fine look to the film shot
in real anamorphic 35mm Panavision. The
film also reportedly had 70mm blow-up prints.
They came from sources looking this good.
The 1080p
1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Stones comes from 16mm film and despite grain and shots showing its
age, this is a transfer almost as good as what Criterion offers on the
16mm-shot Gimme Shelter Blu-ray
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) and makes the drama of the situation all that
more palpable.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Staind
is the newest shoot, yet it is not as good as the older productions since it is
often too dark, has more motion blur than I would have liked, plus detail and
depth and are limited.
The DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on Birdie
and Staind were both originally
designed for multi-channel sound, but for very different reasons and in
different ways. Birdie follows the older front speakers traveling dialogue design
that was originally designed for 6-track magnetic sound on 70mm blow-up prints,
but it has been remastered nicely here, though there is still range and
fidelity in the isolated music track (in DTS-MA lossless 2.0 Stereo) so you can
enjoy the film two ways. Staind is meant to be an outright Rock
experience complete with loud sound and rich LFE .1 activity, making it the
sonic champ here, though only by so much (sound can be distorted and muffled,
sometimes possibly intentionally) and should have more of an edge being 40 to 50
years newer.
That
leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo on Stones have their advantages and disadvantages. The PCM sounds richer and fuller, but there
is a slight detail advantage in the Dolby mix.
Too bad this was not DTS-MA, especially since it seems some of the music
was recorded in more than just monophonic sound, typical of the Rockumentary
trend at the time, even if this was made for TV.
As noted
above, Bye Bye Birdie can be ordered
while supplies last at:
www.screenarchives.com
Plus, you
can order the Stones In
The Park Blu-ray import exclusively from Network U.K. at:
http://www.networkdvd.net/
or
www.networkdvd.co.uk
- Nicholas Sheffo
