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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Music > Stage > Gay > Peter Allen - The Boy From Oz

Peter Allen – The Boy From Oz

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Main Program: B-

 

 

The musical A Boy From Oz has been one of the big hits on Broadway lately, in which the too-short life of singer/songwriter/personality/legendary stage performer Peter Allen’s life and work are celebrated.  As musicals become popular again on the stage and screen, so will interest in their artists.  A&E has issued the documentary Peter Allen – The Boy From Oz (1995) on DVD on its ten anniversary.  It runs about an hour, but offers plenty and reminds us that Allen was more ahead of his time than he had received credit for.

 

Writer/director Stephen MacLean has plenty of great, interesting and historic material to choose from and squeezes the most out of it while he edits as much into it as he can.  That makes for a great viewing.  The program already has a good reputation, so its arrival on DVD will make fans happy, but if you know little about Allen, this is more than worth your time.  He was behind hits like Don’t Cry Out Loud, I Honestly Love You and Arthur’s Theme, but was also a performer’s performer.  One of Australia’s greatest sons still has not had his due, so this is a great restart of that.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is composed of all kinds of footage, from stills and kinescopes to various forms of analog NTSC video and even tape transferred to film, which is what you can expect from any documentary.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has slight ups and downs, but is fine for the program otherwise.  Extras include a discography and extra interview piece with producer Ben Gannon, taped recently and presented here in anamorphically enhanced 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 video.  It runs about a half-hour and updates everything ten years later as best it can.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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