Gimme Some Truth - The Making of John Lennon's "Imagine" Review

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(More customer reviews)As with almost every archival Beatles-related release, this is another product that tries to straddle the line of being for the collector and the casual fan both (leaving neither really happy with the end result). Once again they have erred on the favor of the casual fan, who will not be the one buying the majority of this release. Capitol/EMI never seem to learn from the great bootlegs how to compile really good releases.
If you have Imagine (the videos film), and Imagine (the documentary film), and Yoko Ono Then and Now, and the John Lennon videos collection, then you already have more of THIS video than you SHOULD have. The NEW stuff in this video is GREAT! Where is the rest of it? I could have gone for way more recording scenes, this hardly shows George playing, no King Curtis, no Badfinger. Just enough to tease us, then back to more recycled footage. Obviously these people filmed everything they did almost all the time, so why do we have to keep seeing the same scenes over and over again in each (NEW?) product. I am all for putting things in context, but the old stuff makes the basis for this dvd, not the new stuff. Just enough is left out of each product that you have to buy all of them, but once you have them it's pretty redundant. Of course the casual fan is not going to care because they will only see one of the versions, but for the rest of us this is getting really old. They also took the cheap way out and left in all the dust, hairs, scratches, and streaks in the video too, rather than cleaning it up like Yellow Sub. And, unlike Yellow Sub, the 5.1 soundtrack is not that big of a deal musically, and not that sonically different from the cd remaster.
The extra interview is nice, since they went out of their way to make that complete. I just wish as much thought would have gone into the main feature. Do you need this? Yes. If it's the only Lennon video you have, you'll probably be pretty happy, and it's much better than the videos version Imagine. If you have all the others, you still need this because there is just enough new to re-sell you the old again.

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GIMME SOME TRUTH:MAKING OF IMAGINE - DVD Movie

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Concert for Bangladesh (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)The George Harrison-led "Concert for Bangladesh" will make its DVD debut Oct. 25 via Rhino, the same day Capitol releases a remixed, remastered CD of the project. Rhino is also creating a deluxe edition set with a reproduction of Harrison's handwritten lyrics for the then-new song "Bangla Desh," a postcard set, a sticker and a print of the original show poster.
Staged on Aug. 1, 1971, at New York's Madison Square Garden, the show raised funds via UNICEF for Bangladeshi refugees caught in the middle of the country's battle for independence from Pakistan.
It featured Harrison performing alongside Bob Dylan (making a rare public appearance in the wake of a serious motorcycle accident), Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Ravi Shankar, Billy Preston, Badfinger and Leon Russell. The event was chronicled the following year on a triple-LP set and a feature film.
Rhino's DVD restores the original 99-minute movie in 5.1 sound and tacks on a wealth of extras, including a rehearsal performance of "If Not for You" with Harrison and Dylan and a soundcheck take on "Come on in My Kitchen" with Harrison, Clapton and Russell, plus Dylan performing "Love Minus Zero/No Limit," an outtake from the theatrical release.
The DVD will also include a 45-minute documentary, "The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited 2005," which features interviews with Bob Geldof and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Here is the track list for "The Concert for Bangladesh":
"Bangla Dhun"
"Wah-Wah"
"My Sweet Lord"
"Awaiting on You All"
"That's the Way God Planned It"
"It Don't Come Easy"
"Beware of Darkness"
Band Introduction
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"Jumpin' Jack Flash"
"Youngblood"
"Here Comes the Sun"
"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"
"It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry"
"Blowin' in the Wind"
"Just Like a Woman"
"Something"
"Bangla Desh"

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The Concert for Bangladesh was the first benefit concert of its kind in that it brought together an extraordinary assemblage of major artists collaborating for a common humanitarian cause-setting the precedent that music could be used to serve a higher purpose. The concert sold out Madison Square Garden and has helped to generate millions for UNICEF and raised awareness for the organization around the world, as well as among other musicians and their fans. It is acknowledged as the inspiration and the forerunner to the major global fundraising events of recent years. To quote the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, "George and his friends were pioneers." All artists' royalties from the sales of the DVD will go to UNICEF.

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The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you're here looking at this DVD chances are the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show is meaningful to you. This is ground zero for modern Rock music, sure Elvis popularized Rock `n Roll, but this is where everything switches from singles to Albums and later to an Art form. The performances speak for themselves; the Boys are in fine form and in spite of the antiquated, very primitive sound system they sound great. This new version of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan DVD has been improved, the picture is brighter and a bit more clean, the 5:1 surround sound is quite good. If you're playing this through a surround sound system, the subwoofer handles the bass parts very nicely with little or no audible rumble, the vocals are clear and the overall presentation is quite remarkable especially considering the circumstances. A must buy for anyone of a certain age who wants to bask in the glory of the old days, and for newcomers who want to see what the fuss was all about. If you have the original SOFA release and you don't have a surround sound sytem, the old version will suffice, if you've got the Surround Sound, then spring for the new one, it's worth the investment. You shoulda been there.

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THE 4 COMPLETE ED SULLIVAN SHOWS STARRING THE BEATLES,DIGITALLY REMASTERED AND INCLUDING SOME PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MATERIAL, TO BE ISSUED ON DVD BY UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES When The Beatles stepped onto Sullivan's New York stage on Sunday, February 9, 1964, to make their American TV debut, 86 percent of all TVs on at that hour--73 million Americans--tuned in. It was the most-watched program in history to that point and remains one of the most-watched programs of all time. Nearly 50 years after the four landmark live performances of The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," those legendary appearances with newly remastered audio and carefully restored video will finally be made available worldwide on home video through a major distributor. The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles will be released September 7, 2010. The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles was produced by SOFA Entertainment. "We used the full extent of today's technology," says Andrew Solt, Executive Producer and CEO of SOFA Entertainment. "The quality is better than it ever was, in fact, better than when the shows aired, especially visually. For example, the February 16 performance was from Miami's Deauville Hotel, not from a studio. The quality of the tape image was very fragile. We went back and improved it frame by frame." With a running time of more than 250 minutes, The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles presents those shows uncut, including not only all of the other performances but also all of the original commercials. Also included is The Cast of Oliver! (featuring a young Davy Jones) singing"I'll Do Anything For You."The audio is available in both mono and a 5.1 remix. In addition, the new DVD set has been augmented with approximately 13 minutes of additional footage.

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Nowhere Boy (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy is a marvelously moving depiction of the early life of John Lennon, covering the period from when he is about fifteen and first becoming interested in music to when he is nineteen, when he and his band, The Quarrymen, are about to leave for a gig in Hamburg that would see them emerge as the band known all over the world as the Beatles.
Everything about this film works. Not only because of a great cast of actors, but in the way that it captures the look and feel not only of Liverpool in the late 50's and early 60's, but also of the transitioning music scene of the period, dominated in the beginning by American jazz and rock & roll but soon to be overturned by what would be called (on our side of the pond anyway) as the British Invasion. One of the many remarkable achievements that Taylor-Wood manages to pull off in the film is the subtle way in which she shows Lennon starting with influences like Buddy Holly and Elvis but then slowly moving to create his own sound, particularly after he connects with an even younger Paul McCartney.
The performances of the entire cast are worthy of praise, but two I feel deserve special attention: Aaron Johnson as John Lennon, and Kristin Scott Thomas as his Aunt Mimi. Johnson was best known for his perfomance as the title character in the cult super-hero film Kick-Ass, but his immersion in Lennon's character in Nowhere Boy was so thorough that he was almost unrecognizable. Scott Thomas, a veteran actress of many films of note, including The English Patient, Four Weddings And A Funeral, and The Other Boleyn Girl, was more recognizable, but all the more remarkable for bringing off the very complex character of Lennon's Aunt Mimi, the woman who raised him from the age of five. To bring out Mimi, Scott Thomas has to portray a woman who is tough as nails, making the hard decisions in life while keeping her inner feelings to herself, but who does in fact have feelings that every now and then must come out for the people she does in fact care deeply about. It is a highly challenging role and Scott Thomas pulls it off magnificently. Both performances are Oscar-worthy and I sincerely hope that the Academy will give them the recognition they so richly deserve.
I highly recommend this film for anyone with an interest in John Lennon, the Beatles, the music of this highly important period, or simply in the lives of musicians and how they become the people the world comes to know. Or for anyone who just loves an extraordinarily well-crafted movie with stellar performances and a truly moving story.

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Studio: Sony Pictures Home EntRelease Date: 01/25/2011Run time: 98 minutesRating: R

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