Bee Gees: In Our Own Time Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Bee Gees: In Our Own Time Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 23, 2010

Martyn Atkins' "The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features on this disc. In English, with optional English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The brothers

Directed by Martyn Atkins and produced by James Pluta, The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is a fascinating new film about the history of one of the greatest bands of our time. The film is comprised of new interviews with Barry and Robin, archival interview footage with Maurice, an abundance of archival concert footage, various videos, and TV performances gathered in eleven short episodes – “The Bee Gees in Our Own Tim”, “First Fame”, Lonely Days”, “Beat of a Different Drum”, “Fever”, “Andy”, “Spirits Having Flown”, “Songwriters”, “Brothers in Harmony”, “Recognition”, and “The Music Must Go On”.

The film opens with highlights from various early performances after which Barry, Robin, and Maurice proceed to explain how the music of Elvis Presley, Lonnie Donegan, Tommy Steele, and the Everly Brothers changed their lives - firts they began imitating their idols and then started 'improving' the songs they loved. After their family moved to Australia, Barry, Robin, and Maurice managed to make a little bit of money while singing at a race track in Brisbane. A local disc jockey, Bill Gates, christened them the Bee Gees and played a few of their songs.

The Beatles visited Australia and inspired Barry, Robin, and Maurice to dream impossible dreams. They recorded a couple of albums and eventually decided to go back to England because they thought that they would never make it big in Australia. But as soon as they reached Southampton, they were told to go back to Australia because England had turned its back on rock’ n’ roll bands. Other struggling bands told them that it was Eric Clapton’s time (meaning the that the record companies were interested in signing solo artists).

The big break came when Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles, heard a tape the Bee Gees sent to him. Robert Stigwood signed them to NEMS, and two months after that the Bee Gees were in the American Top 20 and the British Top 20 with their first single - “New York Mining Disaster”.

Slowly but surely the Bee Gees were becoming stars. They started appearing on various shows and big radio stations began playing their songs. It was a magical time.

Right around the time when the Bee Gees were doing the Cucumber Castle film, however, Robin and Barry went in different directions and the band fell apart. But they managed to iron out their differences and recorded “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”, which became a massive hit. From that point on, the Bee Gees were firmly on the road to worldwide success.

Because there is an enormous amount of factual information in The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time , which is impossible to cover in a single review, I would like to single out two specific events which according to Barry and Robin had a tremendous impact on the Bee Gees. The first was the death of their younger brother Andy, who Barry, Robin, and Maurice were getting ready to introduce to the band. Andy died only days after he celebrated his 30th birthday, and tt took a long time for the Gibb family to recuperate.

The second event was Maurice’s sudden death in 2003. For awhile Barry and Robin retired the Bee Gees name, incapable to overcome the loss of their brother. Eventually they agreed that the legacy of the Bee Gees must go on and began performing again. It was the only way to honor Maurice and Andy.

The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is a fantastic, incredibly moving documentary film about one of the greatest pop bands ever, and, in essence, the history of pop music itself.

Bee Gees: In Our Own Time Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080i transfer, The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment.

As expected, the original content looks very good - detail is excellent, clarity very strong, and contrast levels pleasing. The color-scheme does not disappoint either. The quality of the archival footage varies, but this should not surprise anyone. After all, the additional content is for illustrative purposes only. Actually, a lot of the more recent footage, from the 80s and 90s, looks quite good. All in all, for a documentary film the bulk of which is comprised of archival footage, The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time looks as good as it possibly can. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

Bee Gees: In Our Own Time Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, LPCM 2.0, and Dolby Digital 5.1. For the record, Eagle Rock Entertainment have provided optional English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch subtitles for the main feature.

Anyone expecting a generic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track for this release will be pleasantly surprised - the loseless audio track is indeed very strong. Many of the Bee Gees hits that could be heard throughout the film sound great (in fact, there are some studio album samples that have been used). The bass is rich and potent, the high-frequencies not overdone, and even some of the surround activity quite nice. As expected, the dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. Lastly, I did not detect any audio dropouts to report in this review.

The LPCM track is relatively strong, but I would recommend watching The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track because there is a sizable gap in quality between the two. Dynamics and fidelity, in particular, are definitely better on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track.

Bee Gees: In Our Own Time Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are absolutely no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc whatsoever.

Bee Gees: In Our Own Time Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is a wonderful documentary film, one that will definitely appear on my Top 10 list at the end of the year. As expected, Eagle Rock Entertainment's Blu-ray release is of exceptionally high quality. It is also very attractively priced. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.