i just saw this a few weeks ago, i wasnt all that familiar with Talking Heads and but respect jon demme so i watched it and was blown away. A band could only dream of being captured the way the heads are captured here. It's so refeshing after these mass produced quick cut DVD's dominating the market to see the camera stay still and have the band do the work. I especially like Naive Melody, with the lamp dance, incredible.
I totally agree with you. I'm 21 so I wasn't to familiar with The Talking Heads when they were at their peak, luckily my father was a huge fan of theirs and he bought their albums on L.P. records. When I was about 11 I began going through his albums and from that time on, I have been a huge talking heads fan.
This DVD is the best representation of what the Talking Head were about. In fantastic 5.1 surround sound. They hold the screen during every single frame of this film. I have an enormous respect for David Byrne and the rest of the band, as well as for Mr. Demme. He could have made a cliche'd rock movie filled with overdone camera movements or quick cut editing, but he dosen't. He... as you nicely put.."has the band do the work."
If you liked this film, and you enjoy the heavier side of the 80's punk/alt scene, I reccomend the new Pixies DVD of a 1988 or '89 concert in England... that is another fantastic release.
With the recent issue of The Name of This Band is Talking Heads on CD (finally!), it's a good time to be a Head-head, as one of my friends calls it.
I just went back and re-viewed this film after a long time of not having seen it. Lots of fun to watch, great musicians. The running-in-place bit in Life During Wartime is classic, esp for Tina. Turn on your 5.1 mix and listen to her bassline--that's some hard $%#$ to do running in place! I wonder how this whole tour might have turned out had Adrian Belew been on board in addition, not in place of any of the band members. But one more great musician up there taking the music up yet another notch.
Great concert film though--probably for the more serious fans, but it's still a hell of a lot of fun to watch, even if you're just a casual listener/viewer.
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Okay, you all have convinced me! Great comments, avasatani. Very informative. I have wanted to rent the DVD of this concert for a LONG time. This might be the movie I am watching tonight.
Thanks everyone! I dabble in online critiques myself. These were definitely constructive.
You liked it or what?
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something that hasn't been brought up so far is the self interview with byrne on the DVD. it amazes me how he is able to convey such profound truths ("sometimes your body understands the music before your mind") in such a humor-riddled display. he is truly amazing to watch and provides so much access for those who are willing to really listen. this film is magical and i think it's an essential experience for anyone who considers him/herself a music enthusiast.
"I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, dude. Across this line, you DO NOT... Also, dude..."
This is, quite simply, the best concert film ever made. It played at the Fine Arts Theater in Chicago (across from the Chicago Art Institute) for about a year, and I saw it five times there over that span. I then acquired the VHS, practically wore it out, and now have the DVD. The movie turned me from a somewhat casual Heads fan into a major one, and they are still on my top-ten artist list even though they haven't issued a new album since 1988's "Naked."
The Fine Arts theater was a perfect place to show this, because this concert itself was art. Three of the four original members, as most of you probably know, met at the Rhode Island School of Art (Jerry Harrison joined after the band was formed but before the first album was released.) Their art background is in evidence throughout the concert; besides the aforementioned red background in "Swamp" and the pictures in "This Must Be the Place," there is the unique use of bright spotlights amid dark shadow in "What a Day That Was" (I love how Ednah and Lynn actually diappear when they back away from the mike while singing with Byrne as the song is winding down), the hand-held lights making the band's shadows move and distort during "Girlfriend is Better," the words on the background screen during "Making Flippy Floppy" (seemingly random during the opening, then forming phrases during the mid-song instrumental break)...lots o' stuff.
One thing I've always wondered is how much of Ednah and Lynn's little dance routines were coreographed by Byrne, and how many they improvised. As compelling as Byrne's bizarre gyrations are, so are Ednah and Lynn's little routines. You have to watch the movie many times over just to catch what all the band members are doing, despite Demme's herculean effort to capture it all.
And one thing that annoys me about the audio CD and the DVD: they "cleaned up" a line of Chris Frantz's during "Genius of Love." In the theatrical release and the original VHS, after the line "Pychedelic and funkadelic, uh huh!" he then says "Too much of that Goddamn snow white, all night!" In the recent versions this has somehow been transformed into "and everything is out of sight" or something along those lines. Was that really necessary?
Regardless - a great, great concert film. The best!
"It's OK to believe in Cinderella, but you've got to believe in midnight too." -- Bill James
Re: Jon Demme "letting the band do the work," Byrne has a strangely similar comment in the hilarious/confusing "self interview" special feature on the DVD. His response to (his own) query about why he picked Demme and what he contributed was: "He knew to not do what to do and what not to do, is what he did."
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shareI was early 20s when this came out & a HUGE Heads fan, but I never saw SMS in the theater. I seldom went to the theater anyway & I wasn't fond of concert films, so I just said "Nah, I'll listen to the music." Too many years later I saw it & said
Holy #&^%! I should have trusted David! Pure genius.