Blues fans will treasure new DVD release
|
 | |
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
Television series, a great documentary and some blasts from the past are among the DVD picks this week.
Buster Keaton Collection: The Great Stone Face
I will watch anything with Buster Keaton, the great silent film comedian who many critics regard as a superior filmmaker to Charles Chaplin. His silent comedies were superb, but studio interference and his own demons marred Keaton's sound work.
But the end of the 1930s, Keaton may have been seen as a has-been by the large studios, but his name still meant something to audiences and to Columbia Pictures.
Columbia had a very active unit making two-reel comedies featuring performers such as The Three Stooges and Charley Chase, among others, and the studio signed Keaton on as the star of his own series.
The shorts were popular enough with audiences to run several years, but Keaton fans have largely dismissed them because they were cheaply-made by directors who didn't understand how best to use Keaton's talents.
Never released to home video before, ten of these 20-minute shorts are now available in a two-disc set and a new generation of fans can judge the shorts for themselves.
A number of the shorts have commentaries supplied by various Keaton scholars and there is a dandy little documentary outlining Keaton's career.
Is the set worth your time? Well, these shorts are not classics, but you can see that Keaton wasn't passive in the making of the films and that he brought in classic comic bits of his own. A facsimile of a shooting script is one of the extras and it shed additional light on Keaton's contributions.
His silent work is still the best, but these films do have moments that shine.
Beavis and Butt-Head, Volume Two The Mike Judge Collection
This three disc set brings us back to a more innocent age 1994 to 1996 when MTV still actually played music videos and a pair of animated idiots sent them up.
Although at the time, some media critics viewed animator Mike Judge's pair of morons as bad role models for youth, but in hindsight it's easy to see Judge was satirizing the excesses of the rock scene and its dopiest fans.
The animation is fairly crude and the show relied on clever writing and Judge's vocal performances. I have to admit they still make me laugh.
The set includes 40 B&B episodes and a disc full of extras, which include an insightful look at how the series was made and various appearances of B&B away from their show. The extras also include uncut music videos with the B&B commentaries.
What have fascinated me was to learn that many of those commentaries were made up by Judge on the spot while recording them and how seriously the music world took them.
If you're a B&B fan, this is a must-have.
Antone's Home of the Blues
I love the blues and for anyone who is a fan of this great American art form, this movie will be a treasure.
The documentary tells the story of Clifford Antone, a blues expert and musician who had a dream to open a club where classic blues performers could play. Beginning in 1975, Antone was able to give Chicago blues players a showcase at his club in Austin, Texas, at a time when many of them were forgotten by mainstream pop music.
On camera, Antone comes across as a laid-back fan, but through the interviews from musicians and co-workers there is a clear picture of a man obsessed with a mission to preserve and introduce the blues. Despite years of struggle, Antone always kept his club open and lent a helping hand to the musicians who created much of the musical idiom that was the basis for rock and roll.
Literally every major blues figures played at the club: B.B. King, Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Kim Wilson and Muddy Water. Many of these stars were caught on film playing or sharing their memories of the club.
Antone was no angel: he was convicted of distributing marijuana and served time. He was, though, the rarest of animals in the musical field: an honest promoter who treated his acts and audiences with equal respect.
What makes this film even more touching is that Antone recently died at the age of 56. The club's web site has a calendar full of up-coming attractions and that would make Antone very happy.
The Wild Wild West : The Complete First Season
In 1965, this television series successfully grafted together what were then two staples of popular culture the western and the spy thriller into one fun package, The Wild Wild West.
Starring Robert Conrad as James West and Ross Martin as Artimus Gordon, the series had President Ulysses Grant sending his agents out to thwart the plans of foreign provocateurs, would-be dictators and very mad scientists.
In every episode, there were beautiful women, a very evil villain and gadgets that reflected the technology of the 1870s.
The first of the series' four seasons was shot in black and white, which actually added to its charm the later color photography seemed to reveal the cheesiness of the sets.
This seven-disc package has the 28 hour-long episodes from the first season as well as some extras such as audio interviews and the show's original opening. Frankly the extras leave much to be desired. Where was an interview with Robert Conrad?
Well, that just places more emphasis on the shows themselves, which are still a lot of fun 40 years later.
|
|
