The Movie
Considering that my parents wouldn't spring for cable, I certainly watched my share of MTV back in the Eighties. And watching many of those same music clips again, now on VH1 Classics, has taught me that a lot of concert performances are pretty darned boring. A drunken, sweaty full-of-himself lead singer half-asses his way through a power ballad, this time without the studio-enhanced "power," typically captured on video from any old angle and with sub-standard audio. Cut to: The audience cheering like they've just witnessed The Second Coming.
Talking Heads were certainly more of an acquired taste than most stadium rock bands, design-savvy musicians known for their world-influenced new wave beats and intelligent (if sometimes mysterious) lyrics. For the concert tour to promote their 1983 album Speaking in Tongues, the band--particularly frontman David Byrne--took great pains to bring an overriding concept, specific choreography and a memorable visual style to the show. The entire evening would be filmed during its stop at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, by the multitalented director Jonathan Demme.
The result is a tight 88 minutes, stripped of all the "We love you, St. Louis!" bullshit and unnecessary "This is a song about..." confessions. Instead, it's wall-to-wall music by the four-person core of uniquely gifted performers, expanded here to include further live accompaniment. It is truly some of the best rock to come out of the era, many of the songs elaborately re-arranged for their concert versions, and not a disappointing track in the bunch.
The Picture
A 35mm interpositive film element was utilized for this new high-definition master at 1.78:1, an unusual aspect ratio for a theatrically released live-action feature film. It's grainy in the best sense, imparting filmic character, and obviously those in charge of this transfer did not go overboard on the dirt removal. Backgrounds, shadows, and out-of-focus areas of the frame can definitely be noisy, and the stage can be smoky at times, which can further hinder the quality of the image, although not fatally. In general, detail is acceptable, but the faint pinstripes of Byrne's first suit can be a challenge to reproduce sharply. Blacks, which can comprise much of the frame, don't surrender much picture information, and overall the image is softer than I would have liked for a new high-def edition.
The Sound
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is the format of choice for not one but two distinct remixes, both of which debuted as Dolby Digital on the 1999 DVD. The Blu-ray defaults to the Feature Film track, but there's also a "Studio Mix." Both represent the concert experience, the immediacy of the performances, the noise of the crowd, but the Studio Mix puts a greater emphasis on the music itself. In both cases the fidelity is impressive. The sustain of a note goes on forever, and can further surprise us as it phases into an unexpected channel, while some of the synthesizer effects seem to float through the auditorium.
But the Film mix seems to incorporate more discrete surrounds, a random clap for the audience, and so forth. The energetic movie quickly becomes a celebration, and so it benefits from being played loud. I also listened to the Linear PCM stereo mix, and found that it actually represents the onscreen positioning of the singers/players more accurately than the multichannel track. Chalk one up for the 2-channel purists.
The Extras
All of the extras from the 1999 DVD have been carried over here. An audio commentary is delivered by director Jonathan Demme and all four band members: David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison, apparently recorded separately. This is an invaluable track for fans, with secrets revealed and technical info shared. "David Byrne Interviews... David Byrne" is a curious vintage four-and-a-half-minute promotional clip, with him playing a variety of characters. The three-minute "Montage" assembles quick snippets from a number of the songs for no obvious reason, interactive Storyboards compare Byrne's sketches created for the tour to a representative frame from the film with Byrne's original notes, while text attempts to demystify the Big Suit.
New for Blu-ray is the April 1999 Press Conference, a very rare appearance of all four members together, to mark the film's 15th anniversary and theatrical rerelease. It is presented in its entirety and runs over an hour. All of the video for the supplements is indicated as HD, but is clearly upconverted from lower-quality video. Interestingly, the audio for everything listed above is high-quality Linear PCM. Two bonus songs dropped from the final cut (but previously seen) are also included here, "Cities" and "Big Business"/"I Zimbra."
Final Thoughts
While a sharper high-definition master would have been appreciated, the upgraded audio and once-in-a-lifetime press conference footage are surely motivating factors to replace that old DVD (doesn't everybody own it?) with this new Blu-ray. Makes sense to me, anyway.
Product Details
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