Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

D.O.A. Blu-ray Movie Review

Wouldn't 'rite' have been right?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 6, 2018

D.O.A. was one of the more intriguing films to appear during the noir era, with a plot that was equal parts “whodunit” and “whydunit”, elements made all the more visceral courtesy of the fact that the focal character was the murder victim. That victim was a guy who knows he’s been fatally poisoned and who is on a ticking clock in terms of his ultimate and unavoidable mortality, desperately trying to figure out what’s behind his poisoning before the poison actually kills him. There’s a different kind of poison at play in this particular film titled D.O.A., though this film's acronym notably has the sobriquet A Right of Passage, a subtitle which arguably mistakes "right" for "rite", but which was perhaps added to differentiate it from that long ago mystery film, though as will be mentioned below, this D.O.A. was evidently intentionally named after the long ago noir. The poison in this particular instance turns out to be self-inflicted (so to speak), and that’s the acidic attitudes of infamous folks like Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten, whose scabrous approach toward both musical and lyrical content as well as their onstage (and, frankly, offstage) personae have made them two of the most paradigmatic examples of Punk Rock. It’s kind of fascinating that this D.O.A. has been so infrequently seen through the years, given the fact that it quite viscerally documents the Sex Pistols’ one and only United States tour in 1978, a tour which famously came to a close with the dissolution of the band. The Sex Pistols have of course shown up, at least tangentially, in both fiction and nonfiction films, probably most famously in Sid & Nancy, but also in two radically different offerings from Julien Temple, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and the more recent The Filth and the Fury. That last named film is probably the one fans should go to for a clear eyed perspective of both the Sex Pistols in particular and the Punk Rock movement in general, at least if one tends to think that time can provide a little objectivity, even if hindsight is famously always 20/20. However, D.O.A.: A Right of Passage is like actually “being there” at the time (since in fact filmmaker Lech Kowalski was), offering a cacophonous and chaotic account of living inside a musical movement where lack of control was genuinely celebrated.

In an essay contained in this release’s insert booklet, John Holmstrom, Founding Editor of Punk Magazine, offers this comment about this film’s link to the Edmund O’Brien outing sporting the same name:

D.O.A., the original 1950 film noir and A Rite of Passage’s namesake, was about a dead man walking who wanted to get revenge on his killers. This aptly describes D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage, which was made by a man who killed himself a few months later, who wanted to get revenge on his tormentors: Corporate and government control of rock music and youth culture.

While the documentary captures the Sex Pistols attempt at a United States tour, it’s in the backstage material that the film really comes alive, with a number of brief but incisive talking heads segments where all bets are off, content wise. The most famous of these segments includes Sid and Nancy ensconced on a hotel bed offering their “philosophies”. But a number of other hangers on, including audiences with some surprisingly diverse opinions about what they’ve heard, are also offered, making D.O.A. a nice snapshot of its era. (There's even a quasi-cameo of sorts by a young Billy Idol, who wanders through for a moment.)

And in fact it’s the almost violent tendency toward provocation that keeps D.O.A. teetering on the edge of chaos. The whole punk movement is ably exemplified by the Sex Pistols, but there are a number of other bands introduced tangentially here. Still, it’s the footage with Rotten and (perhaps most iconically) Vicious and Nancy Spungen which give this documentary its distinctively counter-cultural ambience. Like punk itself, D.O.A. is rough, rowdy and ready to rumble, and whether it’s a “rite” or a “right”, the passage is inherently a bit on the bumpy side.

D.O.A. Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

D.O.A.: A Right of Passage is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the new MVD Rewind Collection imprint of MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. Detail levels here are somewhat variable and really never overly fulsome due to the fact that this was shot on 16mm and obviously features a lot of very dark and even murky club or other dimly lit interior material. As such, fine detail is often passable (if even that), and general detail levels can tend to be on the fuzzy side as well. The palette looks great for the most part, though there are slight tendencies for blacks to assume a kind of oily sheen at times. Whatever element was utilized has quite a bit of damage, including regular scratches and the like, aspects that may in fact only make the film more seemingly "appropriate" in terms of a true punk ethos, and which at least support the theory that no undue digital processing has been applied.

D.O.A. Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

D.O.A.: A Right of Passage features an LPCM 2.0 mono mix which, like the video element, has some slight but not overly problematic issues, with some noticeable (if, again, slight) distortion during some of the more raucous musical elements. The talking heads sequences make it through the gauntlet relatively unscathed. It's notable that the film features "burnt in" subtitles (rendered in crayon like colors) offering up some of the provocative lyrics of the Sex Pistols, since the "singing" isn't overly enunciated.

D.O.A. Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Dead on Arrival: The Punk Documentary That Almost Never Was (720p; 1:55:23) is a fantastic retrospective with a number of both archival and contemporary interviews with a number of seminal figures. I'd actually almost recommend that some viewers not that up to speed on the punk movement (if indeed there are any who would be drawn to this particular title) start with this piece and then move on to the main feature.


• Image Gallery (1080i)


• D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage Trailer (480i; 3:48) does list the title with it spelled "rite" instead of "right", for those who are keeping score.


• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (480i; 2:11) acts as a preview of sorts for an upcoming release from the new MVD Rewind label.

Additionally, MVD Rewind Collection has provided a (folded) poster (which will be familiar to any fans of the old film Neighbors) and a nicely appointed insert booklet with a good essay (see above) and archival stills.

D.O.A. Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There was a great old radio and, later, television series with the inimitable Edward R. Murrow called You Are There, which sought to recreate iconic historical moments for its listeners and/or viewers. D.O.A.: A Right of Passage is indeed like being thrust into the maelstrom of an epochal moment in the punk rock scene, and it's probably not for the timid as a result. It's often a bit disturbing, just in terms of the personalities at play, but it's incessantly fascinating and provides a real window into some of the forces which would ultimately bring an end not just to the movement itself, but to some of the lives of the people involved. There are some inherent technical limitations to this presentation, but the historic importance of the footage far outweighs any qualms in my personal estimation. MVD Rewind Collection is a really interesting new player on the scene, and this first release augurs well for them. Recommended.