The Singing Revolution (2008/Sky Films DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B+ Main Program: B-
When the
two big Axis Power armies of Nazis and Soviets took Poland from both sides,
they annihilated any building or person that got in their way. This also included ideas, from books, to
those with political opposition to song.
Long after the end of the Nazis, the arrival of MTV tended to be the
final bell for communism in all the countries it arrived in, but music had been
politically charged in countries under such oppression and James & Maureen
Tusty’s The Singing Revolution (2008)
is a new 3-DVD set showing how this all built up to a new national song of
freedom in Estonia.
No, it
was not a Rock song or We Are The World,
but a simple tune that became the touchstone for a nation chorus and a
politically charged final return of the repressed after decades of neglect the
country has suffered since it was torn-up and invaded by the USSR and oppressed
for most of the 20th Century.
I was somewhat caught up in the moment of music climax, but knew so
little about what had happened in the country that this became more educational
than musical. Nevertheless, this is an
amazing story disturbingly ignored by the Western Media and is great to see
(and hear) finally told.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image includes pillarboxed 1.33 X 1 images at
times and can be a little soft throughout, but this is shot well enough for a
documentary and along with editing, on the watchable side. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and is
usually just talking until the music kicks in, which is not as often as you’d
think. Extras include two bonus DVDs
with archival footage, stills, additional interviews broken down into
historical pieces, DVD-ROM printable documents covering all those eras, a
booklet with text, illustrations, maps & a guide to those extras, vintage
newsreels and Music Video edits of the music.
The
history in the extras is so spanning of time and coverage so thorough that it
is an amazing document of Estonia and its people. The result is a set worth exploring as the
world changes, yet the New World Order (which is really the old world order)
remains the same.
You can
order this edition exclusively from their website at this link:
www.thesingingrevolution.com.
- Nicholas Sheffo
