DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The visual transfer is most accomplished, preserving the tremendous visual exuberance of the film’s design. Unfortunately, the film is offered in 4:3 fullscreen only. It is nonetheless full of lurid colours (as is much of director McBride’s work, including another slice of American immorality in the unfortunately ill-fated remake of Breathless) and with a stunning physical sensuality in its early depiction of Afro-American culture. The film’s use of colour makes for a garish, cartoonish pop-culture sensibility as if the period sense has been virtually exploded for this filmization. Its stylized, pop-art sense of décor and costume add to the overheated visual texture and such is neatly contrasted in the latter stages to the greys of a morally staid and stagnant England – hence, America, and the South in particular, is the proverbial hotbed in this film. Despite some milky blacks, the exuberant colour is preserved intact and contributes to the comedic tone that dominates this fascinating biography. It neatly contrasts the sexual openness of Afro-American influence with the rowdy and violent cowboy culture of country music, with Lewis as an ironic influence in a greater moral transformation: does he represent a rock n’ roll civilization? It is a bold visual design in a provocative film and one which is carried through with consistent aplomb. Lewis’ erotic yearnings for young girls are treated with restraint and humour and always contextualized.
Sound
The sound transfer although available in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo only is often thrilling, with a full, rich score – always important in a movie so centred on music history as is this one. It has some directional finesse but the real plus is the palpable flow of energy gained through the pristine music track, ably suggesting the tremendous moral impetus that rock ‘n roll music initially meant for society as a galvanizing and an enlivening force for youth. This use of song complements the film’s vibrant visual design. Thus there is an aurally demonstrative sense to the film’s depiction of how Afro-American musical influences became such a vital force in rock n’ roll, with Lewis again established an important bridging figure. Rock ‘n roll music and the ethos it spawned are presented herein as potentially necessary moral and cultural forces of change, initially anarchic although perhaps even an equalizer if given the chance to reform attitudes. The transfer’s spatial sense is finely deployed, most notably during a remarkable split-screen phone call sequence, and the spectacularly fiery piano concert sequence is a dynamic standout. There is also a nice, slyly self-conscious comparison between rock ‘n roll and preaching to suggest the ironic responsibility shouldered by rock stars as the arbiters of a new morality. In that design, the immature Lewis is again depicted as ahead of the pack and a serious challenge, a most ironic fallen innocent. read more
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