Doubletime
(2012/Discovery DVD)/The Highest Pass
(2012/Cinema Libre DVD)/The Story Of England
(2012/BBC DVDs)
Picture: C+/C/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D/C/D Main Programs: B-/C/B-
Here are
some recent special interest documentary releases you should know about…
Jumping
rope has always been a fun pastime and it seems to me one that was always
constructive as well, especially popular to the 1970s. A few decades later, Stephanie Johnes’ Doubletime (2012) shows us how it has
become a competitive sport and this in part thanks to a police officer named
Ray Frederick, who decided a while ago that this could be a competitive
sport. He was correct. Now, you have annual shows at the Harlem
Theater and this includes all kinds of teams, but especially inner-city youth
who deserve opportunities and chances they usually do not get.
This was
good and an interesting story to be told, but this is edited in what has become
and obvious and formulaic way, so it is a little disappointing in its approach,
but there is some energy here and you have likely never seen anyone jump rope
as they do here. That makes it
definitely worth a look. There are no
extras.
Jon
Fitzgerald’s The Highest Pass (2012)
concerns a group of people (mostly men) who decide to find religious peace by
going to the Himalayas in the northern part of India to find a guru by
motorcycle and this documentary is about that quest. Yes, the scenery is nice and this has some
interesting moments, but I was a little disappointed as we just see the people
involved, never really learning much about them, the faith and spirituality
they are interested in and when all was said and done, this did not stick with
me.
Jon
Anderson of yes sings the title song, but I wished he was interviewed on the
subject as well. Those interested in
things spiritual and religious might enjoy this more, but I will ‘pass’ on this
one otherwise. Extras include a slide
show, deleted scene, Behind The Scenes clip and Outtakes.
Finally
we have the BBC TV mini-series The Story
Of England (2012) with Scholar Michael Wood tracing the o0rigins of the
country and all the influences over a thousand years shaping the country into
what it became and still is. In six
episodes, I found this good, but it does go on a bit longer than it needed to
(this original, uncut version claims to have two hours extra) and in that time,
I wish other avenues had been explored.
If you are a history buff, especially on this subject, than you’ll want
this DVD set. Otherwise, it is worth a
look, but be awake when you watch. There
are no extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all three DVDs are a little soft, but
Pass is especially soft and with
more motion blur, likely because of the limits of the location shooting and
video cameras used. Color is decent in
all cases with no serous downstyling. The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo in all cases are just fine, but all have
location audio with some flaws and simple sonics throughout, which is what we
usually expect from such releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
