Decasia
(2002/Icarus Blu-ray)/Hard Core Logo
(1996/MVD/VSC Blu-ray)/Lady Antebellum:
Own The Night World Tour (2012/Eagle Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B-/C+/B- Extras: C-/C+/C+ Main Programs: C+
Here is a
look at the latest music releases…
When Bill
Morrison’s Decasia arrived in 2002,
it was something different. In the midst
of our film heritage being restored and too much of it lost or being lost
(still to this day, sadly), he made a film out of nondescript film print
materials that were decaying and set them to a music score by Michael Gordon
that managed to be an indie film hit. We
first looked at the film years ago in its DVD debut at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1205/Decasia:+The+State+Of+Decay
Though I
was not as big a fan, I still thought it was an interesting, well done idea and
since then, it has become famous enough among film fans and has also become
somewhat imitated. The commercial side
of this has been usually awful “found footage” projects (mostly bad would-be
Horror films) where that footage is fake.
Here, it is all too real and as ironic as it is even sad. At only 67 minutes, that is an impressive
accomplishment just the same and is more effective in this new Blu-ray edition.
Being
able to see the footage better, especially the way the film is deteriorating
further emphasizes the point of human mortality and memory fading and dying as
analog to the film fading and crumbling.
The only thing the work cannot show is the film catching fire if it is
nitrate. The connection works and
especially in our newly arrived era of often generic and too often degraded
digital video images, Decasia takes
on a new unintended meaning that has a new value the makers could not have
imagined a decade ago. If you have never
seen it, this is the way to go.
The only
extra is Morrison’s 2004 8-minutres-long short Light Is Calling.
Next we
have the Canadian Punk Rock satire Hard
Core Logo (1996) arriving on Blu-ray with its recent 2010 sequel Hard Core Logo 2 as a bonus. As a sort of flip-side to This Is Spinal Tap, the ever-swearing,
loud, obnoxious and even clueless and egotistical band reunites to help a punk
rocker friend to raise funds after he has been shot. A favorite of Quentin Tarantino, who released
it himself at one point, it is a worth companion to This Is Spinal Tap but its comedy is less obvious and though it has
more interesting moments than I expected, has its limits as just exceeding
being a one-joke film. The sequel is
more of the same and maybe not as good as the first, as expected.
Extras
for both films include a single feature length audio commentary track for each
and their respective Original Theatrical Trailers. The first film adds a Music Video and excerpt
from the book based on this film, while the sequel adds bonus Blu-ray footage
not seen anywhere else and a featurette.
Finally
we have an authentic documentary in Lady
Antebellum: Own The Night World Tour (2012) which has full length song
concert performances with longer-than-expected interviews and behind-the-scenes
pieces that tend to be smoother and warmer than you would usually see in such
music programs. The trio is one of
Country Music’s more credible and talented acts playing very well together, but
they also are on the lite side and are not exactly groundbreaking.
The main
program has 13 songs, plus five bonus tracks, including one with the obnoxious
Darius Rucker of the ever-awful Hootie & The Blowfish. This is a for-fans-only affair, but shows the
trio to best advantage. A nicely
illustrated booklet on the program with informative technical text and a brief
note is included in the Blu-ray case.
The 1080p
1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Decasia would usually rate as awful because the footage is wearing
away as you watch, but since that is the point in this case, I will rate it as
pretty good (it is usually black and white for the most part) and base my
rating on how film like the footage looks.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on both Logo films have their share of detail
issues as it is intended to look rough and authentic. That is faked of course and the first film
has its share of faded film images, but they are just fine for what they are
intended to be and like Decasia, I
cannot image these looking any better, especially as they are intentionally not
meant to offer state of the art performance by design.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Lady
includes some older analog NTSC video footage and never footage has some detail
issues, plus Video Black can be an issue in some shots. That puts it on par with the other releases
on this list.
All three
Blu-rays have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes with the Logo films sounding rougher
(intentionally) down to the music and location audio recordings of the “band”
members. Decasia has instrumental music throughout and it can be quiet in
nature, but definitely outperforms its DVD counterpart sonically. Lady
also has location audio and older monophonic or simple stereo audio, while the
concert songs sound the best, the overall soundfield tends towards the front
speakers. It still has some good music
moments.
- Nicholas Sheffo
