Raise The Song – The History Of Penn State (Inecom DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: B-
Penn
State is one of the great, famous colleges of higher education in the world,
with a legendary reputation and that tradition is from study, to innovation to
sports. However, its success goes beyond
just its school walls and turns out to be a great American success story. We find out all about that and more in the
new hour-long documentary Raise The Song
– The History Of Penn State now on DVD from Inecom.
The
institution began back in 1855 and as it approaches 160 years of age, has much
to brag about, the kinds of landmark moments that anyone from any school or
walk of life can appreciate. This
deserves more than an hour, but for what is here, it becomes about a school and
the rise of the U.S. itself with great interviews, stills and even archive
footage (when film and video come along) in the chronological order this is
presented in. Producer/Director Patrick
Mansell did a fine job here considering the limits, but this will be far from
the last word on the school or its history as Penn State will be around for a
long time to come and much more remains to be said. You don’t have to be a fan of the school to
appreciate this program.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image has some aliasing and softness issues,
while the makers decided to squeeze too many 1.33 X 1 images out to the sides
stretched too much. They should have
gone for pillarboxing/bookending. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not bad, as most of the audio is new interview
recording and plays just fine as well as Bill Wallace’s narration. Extras include several trailers from other
excellent Inecom documentary releases reviewed elsewhere on this site,
including EXPO and Westinghouse, all recommended.
- Nicholas Sheffo
