Breasts – A Documentary
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Documentary: B
The first of two blunt, honest and still ahead of their
time documentaries about the sexual body originally shown on HBO in the late
1990s, Thom Powers and Meema Spadola’s Breasts – A Documentary is a
little better and more serious than the later Private Dicks – Men Exposed
(also reviewed on this site) about men talking about their most private of
parts. This program is able to deal
with women losing or having their breasts, but the same does not hold true of
the men later, which was a mistake.
This special somewhat deconstructs myths of about the very
private topic, but some of these women have serious topics to discuss. Some have had mastectomies (or half as in
one case) and another is able to boldly show the damage implants have done to
both her body and her breasts. Breasts
can be taboo, but what seems more taboo to discuss is if their condition is not
ready for some movie screen or magazine.
Women have this pressure to have perfect breasts and the dark side of
those results are pretty much being suppressed by the media and those who do
not want to “deglamorize” them. It is
almost some kind of societal sickness, though the program also has some funny
and happy moments. Breasts – A
Documentary runs 55 minutes and is a still vital look at a subject that
deserves more respect than it gets.
The 1.33 X 1 image is a bit soft and slightly noisy, but
everything is as clear as it can be otherwise.
Cinematographer William Rexer recently shot the feature Prime
(reviewed elsewhere on the site) and has a knack for capturing memorable
images. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is
simple and clear. Extras include
interviews with the producer/directors team, text about them, 30 great minutes
of extra bonus footage that should have been left in the program and trailers
for five other First Run titles.
- Nicholas Sheffo
