Don't Believe the Hype

Awesome Movie

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Heard a comment about this concert, "Egos checked at the door"; it was right on.I was a teenager in the late 50s and early 60s. My two favorite singers were Roy Orbison (the Big O) and Buddy Holly. I followed Roy Orbison's life and career long after he faded from view. His music helped me deal with the ups and the downs of my life. The tragedy in his life moved me to tears and was one of the factors that led me back to going to church - Anglican or in the States Episcopalian.So when I first saw this incredible concert I was moved to tears by it. To see so many artists I had come to respect and whose music I had come to love backing him up, with no other thought than to help him be the very best he could be was so inspiring.I hope everyone who is blessed to hear this experiences that same joy it brought to me.

Only Roy could make the group of musical "superstars" on the stage look like a bunch of side men. He stood head and shoulders above his peers, and they didn't seem to mind being in his shadow in the least. He goes through just about his entire catalog of hits (and what a catalog it is): his voice is as bright and vibrant, and in some cases better, as the day he originally recorded them. Visually, this is what a concert should look like. Simple staging, black and white video, clear as a bell sound, no instruments being lost by bad mixing. The band playing and singing like the pros they are. And Roy Orbison singing better than any man his age had a right to. If you don't have this DVD, go and get it. I can guarantee you this will not be a DVD that you'll play once and put in the back of your collection.

Saw this was coming on HDTV and tried to watch it. It could have been pretty good had it not been for the constant reminder that there were many other contemporary musicians performing there also. The camera is constantly and clumsily panning to show these has-beens who are almost faking orgasm to show the audience just how much they are "grooving to the music". But even this I could have put up with had it not been for the ever-present image of Bruce Springsteen with his continuous trademark under bite smile. Springsteen is shown so much that one would have to wonder if the narcissistic New Yorker foots the bill for the event. Another thing I didn't care for was the poor editing. I thought at times I was watching a computer generated show with new video added to old.

I own this on DVD, but to this day whenever it shows up on PBS (roughly every 24 hours, where I live, lol!), I am compelled to watch it start to finish.There is a phenomenal array of musicians on stage, all there to play with one of the greatest talents in musical history. It's quite possible that a lot of people think Elvis and Chuck Berry when they think of the start of popular rock and roll music, but Orbison's writing, musicianship (and that voice!) tower over the others of that era. The presence of all the other names doesn't make one think of a 'star studded' VH1/MTV made-for-TV extravaganza, but more a group of able musicians both paying homage and participating in a real musical performance, in concert with each other, not taking star turns even as they step up to play a solo or sing with 'the master'.All the players are fantastic and are thrilled to be there, but Springsteen in particular looks like a little-league 11-year old getting to play ball with Mantle, Ruth, Robinson and Aaron. His awe and exuberance at being there mirrors what anyone has to feel watching this show.(and a P.S. - no audio problems on my disk or on the televised version.)