U2: Rattle & Hum on Blu-ray Disc Review by Brandon A. DuHamel on BigPictureBigSound

Blu-ray Disc and DVD : Blu-ray Disc Reviews

Published: 2008-04-24 - 16:12:34

U2: Rattle & Hum on Blu-ray Disc Review

By Brandon A. DuHamel

The Film

A chronicle of the band's 1987 - 1988 U.S. concert tour in support of their massively successful album The Joshua Tree, Rattle & Hum is a film intensely focused on the music and also gives a glimpse into the influence that the United States had on the band artistically at that point in their career.

Shot originally on 16mm film by director Phil Joanou then transferred to 35mm and enlarged to the 1.85:1 widescreen format and done almost entirely in black and white, but for a few performances, the intentionally gritty appearance adds an immediacy and weight to the film. It is a fitting style given the band had already proven themselves willing to tackle weighty issues with appearances at Live Aid, touring with Amnesty International, and in songs such as "Silver and Gold", speaking out against apartheid in South Africa. Bono famously began to receive death threats for his utterance "f**k the revolution!" during this film's performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in reference to the troubles in Northern Ireland and a bombing that had just taken place prior to that night's performance.

Rattle & Hum is a record of U2 before they had taken on the glitzy personas of the 1990's and added the multimedia stage shows they have come to be know for, but it proves their worth as Rock musicians without all the affectations when you look out over the masses of crowds and see them there, passionately playing from bare stages and keeping the crowds enraptured nonetheless. Phil Joanou's grainy black and white filming works perfectly in the live concert scenes. As any true film aficionado knows, nothing captures mood and plays light and shadow against themselves like black and white photography. The black are inky, the moodiness is at times spellbinding.

But, the brilliance of it all is the little oasis at the center of the film when the band walk out onto the stage at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe Arizona silhouetted by a vermillion backdrop with the synthesized padded opening chords of "Where the Streets Have No Name" gently playing and The Edge starts chiming his heavily effected opening triads. It's almost a shock to the system when you realize that you've been suddenly transported into a world of color. For the next few songs, the aforementioned "Where the Streets Have No Name", "MLK", "With or Without You", "Bullet the Blue Sky", and a particularly engaging version of "Running to Stand Still", it's all in color. Then just as quickly as it came, it's gone again. It's back to black and white for a quick interview segment before launching into a weighty version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and the remainder of the film stays in black and white.

Rattle & Hum the album garnered much criticism at the time of its release. It consisted of a mixture of studio tracks and live recordings and many were unimpressed with the album's overt U.S. musical influences. The album, perhaps, was a bit of a disappointment coming so quickly behind the classic Joshua Tree release. Unfortunately, a lot of the negative reaction toward the album itself was also unfairly aimed at the film. The film and the album are two different entities. Much of the material in the film doesn't appear on the album and the opposite is also true. The film stands on its own as an excellent record of that time period in U2's careers. It is filled with engaging live performances and great rock and roll. From the moment Bono says "this is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles and we're stealing it back" and the band launch into their take on the classic Beatles tune "Helter Skelter", you know you're in for a ride. It is time for a reassessment of where exactly Rattle & Hum in the concert-film canon. I think many will find it ranks right along side the likes of Gimme Shelter and The Song Remains the Same.

U2: Rattle and Hum on Blu-ray

The Picture

Rattle & Hum is presented on this Blu-ray Disc release in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in a 1080p/24 high definition MPEG-2 video transfer. Let me start right off by saying that I have read far too many criticisms of this transfer that pick on the quality of the actual source thereby missing the point entirely. I'm not going to do that. Rattle & Hum on Blu-ray Disc has been unfairly and wrongfully criticized for being a poor high definition transfer because of the quality the film itself.

The look of Rattle & Hum is the result of the process in which it was filmed. Director Phil Joanou shot Rattle & Hum on 16mm film then transferred it to 35mm film and blew it up to the big screen 1.85:1 format. This resulted in the gritty, grainy look that we see today. It was done intentionally. Nearly every review I have seen of this high definition release unfairly criticizes the transfer itself for correctly capturing this intentional look. Statements by reviewers who claim that Rattle & Hum on Blu-ray looks no better than upscaled DVD are the claims of madmen, in my opinion. DVD does not have the proper resolution to even capture film grain properly. This Blu-ray captures all the nuances of every bit of grain -- heavy as it may be -- in this film making it look exactly as it did when I first saw it in the theatre back in 1988. On DVD, it just looks like one soft, amorphous mess.

So, no, Rattle & Hum on Blu-ray does not look like a pristine captured in high definition nature program, but that is not what it was intended to look like. If you are one of those people who wrongfully believe that film in high definition shouldn't contain any traces of grain, then run in the opposite direction, because this release is certainly not for you, but if you want to see this movie captured perfectly with all of its grain in tact, with deep blacks, dark shadows, perfect convergence, and wonderful greys -- in essence, a reference of black and white film making with a complete absence of visible compression artifacts, then this is for you.

The Sound

English 5.1 Dolby Digital EX and English 6.1 DTS-ES mixes are provided on this disc. Unfortunately, no uncompressed PCM or lossless formats are provided.

I listened to the DTS-ES mix for the purposes of this review and occasionally switched to the Dolby Digital EX mix for purposes of comparison during some performances. The mix was from the audience perspective and mixed with all vocals and instrumentation across the front three channels, but an ample amount of ambience and crowd noise was mixed into the surround channels adding an appropriate "big arena" sound. There was a good amount of bottom, but it was a bit indistinct and loose. The high frequencies were harsh and the midrange seemed pushed, giving the overall mix a boxy sound. These characteristics were noticeable during many of the heavier, guitar-driven tracks such as "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Exit", which sounded particularly shrill. The Dolby Digital mix sounded even worse and lacked even more clarity in the higher frequency range.

Truth be told, the DTS-ES mix would rank as a rather good sound mix -- for a DVD. But, this isn't a DVD. This is a next generation format and Blu-ray can achieve so much better than this. There is no excuse for putting out a title so reliant on its sound utilizing a lossy codec when uncompressed PCM and lossless TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are available. What could have and should have been a reference Blu-ray title for audio is saddled with a legacy codec that sounds no better than what can be attained on DVD. With that in mind, I am forced to mark this down.

The Extras

There is only one extra provided on this disc. It is the original U2: Rattle & Hum Teaser Trailer (1.85:1/HD). This might have been a worthwhile extra had it been provided alongside some other bonus content, but tacked on to this barebones release on its own with absolutely nothing else, it is hardly worth a mention. It doesn't even warrant me giving this release a half-star for the extras.

Final Thoughts

Rattle & Hum still stands as a fine document of U2 as a band during the heyday of their Joshua Tree success, but prior to them taking on the glitzy, preening Rock & Roll persona they would don in the 1990's. It proves that they never needed flashy multimedia extravaganzas to be powerful; that their music was and is always what their success is about. This Blu-ray release captures perfectly the director's gritty and weighty vision of the band on tour. Although the Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES soundtracks lack the clarity and ease on the ears that can be obtained on Blu-ray from PCM and lossless codecs, they still offer a very decent approximation of the big arena sound that U2 have come to be known for. I recommend this release highly for all fans of this band and of great Rock music.

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