Danny
Says (2016/Magnolia
DVD)/Fifty Years Of
Australian Television: The Complete Collection
(2017/Channel 9/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD Set)/Hot
Type: 150 Years Of The Nation
(2016/First Run DVD)/Requiem
For The American Dream
(2016/Chomsky/Gravitas Ventures Blu-ray)/Silicon
Cowboys
(2016/MVD/FilmRise DVD)/Zero
Days (2016/Magnolia DVD)
Picture:
C+/C+/C+/B-/C+/C+ Sound: C+/C+/C+/C+/C+/C Extras:
C+/D/C/C-/D/C Main Programs: B/B/B-/B-/B/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Fifty
Years Of Australian Television
Import DVD set is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on DVD players that can
handle the PAL DVD and can be ordered from the link below, while
Requiem
For The American Dream
is now only available online from our friends at Movie Zyng and can
be ordered via the order button atop this review or on top of our
right hand sidebar.
Our
latest round of documentaries cover media, entertainment and even
politics in fine, even exceptional ways...
Brendan
Toller's Danny
Says
(2016) tells the story of Danny Fields, a man bored with life, was
semi-openly gay and wanted to do more than just get involved in
boring business. This leads to him working for a teen magazine aimed
at young ladies featuring music, which then has him landing in the
promo department of the newly-formed Elektra records in the late
1960s. From there, he bares witness to the rise of Punk, the
Counterculture, the music industry in the Rock Era and much more. He
is open about his sexuality and shares more than enough about hi
carnal encounters, but his personality and the famous names he worked
with and partied along side is another untold story of how greta the
industry was.
New
and archival interviews, new animations, vintage film & video
footage and plenty of talking by Fields makes this a rich,
compelling, informative 103 minutes all the way to his work with The
Ramones and how that both did and did not work out. In between, we
get the MC5, The Doors, Nico, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, The Velvet
Underground, Warhol's Superstars and many others. It also shows how
rich the period was and this adds to telling that story. Definitely
worth going out of your way for.
Extras
include
Danny Fields & Byron Coley Q&A At Amherst Cinema (October
14th, 2015), Danny Fields & Lou Reed Audio Recording (November
7th, 1975), Michael Alago On Danny Fields & Henry Rollins
Interview Outtake, Justin Vivian Bond & The Leopard Skin Pillbox
Hat Interview Outtake, Nico, ''Evening
of Light''
Elektra Promo Film/Music Video featuring The Stooges (Directed By
Francois De Menil), an Interview With Director Brendan Toller and the
Original Theatrical Trailer.
Fifty
Years Of Australian Television: The Complete Collection (2017) brings
together six separate releases tracing back the rise of the TV
industry Down Under in 1956 to 2006, how it was similar, yet
different from its U.S. and U.K. counterparts, the big regional names
that made the medium a hit, other big names (The Bees Gees, Olivia
Newton-John, Helen Reddy) that became international icons and local
TV stars (Graham Kennedy, Brian Henderson, Don Lane) who were so
likable, witty, smart, funny and personable, that they gave a life to
Aussie TV that made it all the better that it would have lacked
without them. Having seen them in their later careers on other
Umbrella releases, we can see why they were instantly embraced.
This
does not include shows from other channels unfortunately, but we have
six titles for the different releases including Five
Fantastic Decades,
Fabulous
'50s,
Swinging
'60s,
Sexy
'70s,
Exciting
'80s
and The
'90s To Now.
Most run over 50n minutes, but a few longer, so we get 5.5 hours
altogether. There is no narration or placards that tell us much
chronologically, so the editors have let the clips speak for
themselves and I think that works just fine. This is a great set
worth diving into, especially if you are not used to their TV world,
comparing and contrasting to what you know.
There
are sadly no extras, though maybe we'll get a new disc covering the
decade or so since. My only quibble is that in half a century,
Crowded House, Tim Finn, Neil Finn and Split Enz never showed up on
Channel 9? Hmmm.
Legendary
documentary filmmaker Barbara
Koppel's Hot
Type: 150 Years Of The Nation
(2016) tires to fit a century and a half (versus only 50 years) into
a mere 93 minutes on how one of the most independent political voices
in the history of print came to be, rise, thrive and now even
survives today. Starting as a right-of-center voice after The Civil
War, it later became an intellectual base of the counterculture and
that is where it stays, always challenging the reader to think, know
and understand the realpolitik of the U.S. and world at large.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is the current (as we post this review) and
famous editor who has had the guts to keep it as real as possible, so
we get to know her better and how she keeps the unbeatable vision of
the publication in full force.
We
also meet others in the office, some of her family and hear of many
amazing stories about groundbreaking writing, unforgettable moments,
historical moments and more in this very compelling release. Koppel
always seems to know how to get to the point fast and she has not
lost that knack yet. See it!
Extras
include three Bonus Shorts on the subject worth seeing after
you watch the documentary.
Requiem
For The American Dream
(2016) is the latest release featuring the challenging philosophy if
the great Noam Chomsky, rightly critical of things happening
worldwide that seem to make things worse. I don't always agree with
everything he says, but even if he may or may not go off the deep
end, getting you to shake off propaganda from elsewhere and think for
yourself is more important than what is being said. Billed as his
last long-form lecture, he offers 10 points on how The American Dream
and promise of the U.S. as a first-world country for all has been
undermined in bits and pieces, slowly but surely, since the early
1980s.
I
wish this one had even been longer than its very rich, smart 73
minutes, but like any other such political release (no matter the
ideology or who speaks), the material can become dated no matter
what. What holds up is how prolific the ideas person is or is not
and Chomsky is on the money more than just about anyone I can name
today. People are hurting and being lied to, but there are those
brave enough like him to speak their mind and not worry about who
does not like it (in this case, Right Wing Extremists who want all
critical thinking to cease and you to be a vegetable), so there is a
pricelessness and pure Americanism to his discourse we should
treasure and value. This is up there with his best offerings and is
highly recommended to those who are serious about not being dumbed
down and like thinking for themselves.
Extras
include a brief Q&A clip with Chomsky after a theatrical
screening if the film and the Original Theatrical Trailer. For
more on Chomsky's thoughts, try the links for these DVDs...
Rebel
Without A Pause
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2311/Noam+Chomsky+-+Rebel+Without+A+Pause+(Docu
Is
The Man Who Is Tall Happy?
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12807/Her+(2013/Spike+Jonze/Warner+Blu-ray+w/DVD)/
Distorted
Reality...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/388/Distorted+Morality+(Noam+Chomsky
Jason
Cohen's Silicon
Cowboys
(2016) is the first of our last two docs, looking at the tech world,
in this case, about how IBM-clone producer Compaq figured out a way
to make bulky desktop computers portable and landed up challenging
and even breaking IBM's hold/monopoly on the consumer computer
industry and more. Though looking bulky and crude by today's lite
and portable device era, getting a very small CRT picture tube in a
heavy-duty box with an attached keyboard was an amazing
accomplishment at the time and made them a huge company. No, they
did not last and that part of the story is told here too, but you'll
learn why we say Mac and PC, not Mac and IBM after the intense 87
minutes of this great documentary.
Anyone
serious about technology, computers or understanding the world we
live in needs to see this one at least once.
There
are sadly no extras.
Alex
Gibney's Zero
Days
(2016) is the other side of the tech world, a secret one involving
cyber-warfare and how 'someone' came up with a new virus that
self-destructed when released and was designed to have no way to
trace it back to the creators. The target turned out to be Iran and
their fledgling nuclear program, but not all went as smoothly as it
should have. Dubbed 'Stuxnet' by anti-virus firms, it turned out to
be a very cleaver piece of tech work. So what happened then? Why do
government officials all over refuse to talk about it?
Gibney
yet again finds an excellent subject to cover, one the mainstream
media wants to ignore or discuss very little and uncovers a deeper
truth about the world we live in so we know what is going on. Cheers
to all those who would discuss the subject and know that the 114
minutes here are as must-see as anything on the list.
Extras
include an
Interview with Director Alex Gibney and the
Original Theatrical Trailer, though I had hoped or a little more in
this case.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the newer
documentary DVD releases are going to show the age of the materials
used, but that is to be expected, so I'll add they look as good as
they can in the format, the newer interviews and footage look fine
and some even add animation to tell their stories. That never hurts
or distract. The 1.33 x 1 image across the six Australian
Television DVDs can have footage as rough as anything
here, as the earliest surviving materials come from kinescopes or
early PAL analog videotape. Flaws
in all five DVD releases offer the expected flaws including video
noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, tape damage
and when you get to color footage, faded color and cross color
issues.
You
can even see that on the best performer her, the 1080p 1.78 X 1
digital High Definition image transfer on the Dream
Blu-ray, but its new HD footage and animation makes it more involving
and compelling, as it is also our first Chomsky Blu-ray. All
releases here are offered in lossy Dolby Digital sound, with lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on all releases save lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
on Danny
and Zero,
but some stock footage is monophonic across the discs (most of the
Australian
Television
DVDs are monophonic until stereo comes to TV in the 1980s). For some
reason, Zero tends to be weaker than usual overall, so be careful of
volume switching and overly loud playback.
To
order the
Umbrella import Fifty
Years Of Australian Television
DVD set, go to this link for it and other great, even hard to get
releases at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
