Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Blu-ray Movie Review

Smells like middle aged spirit.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 13, 2011

The internet has made all of us partners in often unexpected, cat’s-cradle-like, interconnections. Nirvana (the band, not the state of mind) had come and gone without me paying a lot of attention to it, until I suddenly started getting inundated with email from fans of the late Kurt Cobain who had found an internet article I had written debunking misconceptions and outright lies about actress Frances Farmer, the subject of course of Kurt's famous anthem "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle." I had known that Kurt had been fascinated by Frances, but his suicide seemed to loosen the floodgates at almost the exact same time as my article started gaining a great deal of international attention from various media outlets. While I had been expecting to hear from Farmer fans, and indeed did, I was somewhat awestruck by the sheer number of Cobain and Nirvana fans who contacted me thanking me for pursuing the truth about Farmer and often indicating they wished that Cobain had lived long enough to have found my research. That, in its very odd and uniquely personal way, is what really turned me on to Nirvana, as I felt an almost preordained obligation to find out more about this band (and frontman) whose fans were so vociferously contacting me. Though I perhaps came late to the Nirvana table, that at least prepared me for Nirvana’s drummer Dave Grohl’s follow up project, Foo Fighters, an alt-rock outfit that firmly established Grohl as a frontman to be reckoned with on his own terms. Finally out from the sometimes depressive shadow cast by Kurt Cobain, Grohl has shown himself to be an aggressive but likable force on the contemporary music scene, one who is perhaps less prone to navel gazing than Kurt was, but who still can ratchet up the angst factor when push comes to shove. In the synchroncitiy department, Foo Fighters gave their very first live performance in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, at a club where I believe the widow Cobain was reputed to have thrown up on a customer during a Hole performance.

Foo Fighters Back and Forth is a really interesting, well constructed documentary which features copious interviews with Grohl and everyone else who has played in the band, which is saying quite a lot considering the rather infamous revolving door issues which confronted Foo Fighters in their formative years. While the piece is more or less a career retrospective, and may not offer any really groundbreaking new information for longtime fans of the band, it’s nonetheless one of the more unpretentious, down to earth examinations of what modern day rock stardom is like for those experiencing it. No one seems more surprised albeit ultimately nonplussed by what’s happened to him than Grohl. He makes no bones about having been intimidated by Cobain’s writing and singing prowess during the Nirvana years, and how that made him loathe to try anything of his own, especially after Cobain’s sad death. But once he did decide to go ahead with what was initially a solo project, he did so on his own terms, choosing the name Foo Fighters in what turned out to be a futile attempt to protect his anonymity. The Rock Gods were obviously not interested in Grohl going gentle into that good night, and soon not only was he signed to a lucrative deal, he was having to put a band together to support a tour and future recording projects.

Grohl comes off as a completely down to earth, regular guy, one who basically says outright he can’t believe “what the f***” happened to him, both with regard to Nirvana and Foo Fighters. But this is not a puff piece by any stretch, and the bandages are ripped off of some still smarting wounds, as Grohl and several jettisoned former band members talk openly about mistakes that were made, poisoned personal relationships, and basically just screwed up behaviors of younger, inexperienced people trying to deal with the pressures of being in the music industry. Taylor Hawkins’ drug and alcohol use is also explored. In fact in all of these interviews and internecine commentary, everyone comes off as completely level headed and resigned to their individual fates. Only on-again off-again guitarist Pat Smear just seems a little smug and self-satisfied.

What’s really interesting here is to see these guys, most of whom now are in their 40’s, deal with the realities of being “grown ups” who are also rock stars (though Hawkins throws caution to the wind and screams, “F*** it, I’m not a rock star, I’m a musician”). Grohl seems preternaturally aware of his unique prominence and what’s amazing about Back and Forth is how naturally he speaks of everything he’s been through, and how genuinely appreciative he seems to be with regard to the opportunities which have more or less repeatedly fallen in his lap. Foo Fighters may not exactly have the blue collar working class cred of, say, Springsteen, but Back and Forth shows Grohl as something akin to his generation’s Boss, and that’s certainly testament to his even keeled demeanor, something which shines through this piece from start to finish.

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Foo Fighters Back and Forth is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There's not a whole lot here to get overly excited about, but this video presentation is generally solid given its rather limited ambitions. Most of the footage is simply interview sequences, and those all sport nicely sharp, well detailed images with accurate color. There is also quite a bit of archival footage sprinkled into the mix, and as might be expected, different source elements (and formats) mean different quality, from pretty ragged to very good. The overall image, though, is clear and precise, with good contrast, decent black levels (which occasionally devolve into crush) and a generally appealing look.

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's good news and bad news with regard to the three audio options on Foo Fighters Back and Forth. Let's dismiss the perfectly adequate but lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track off the bat. Both of the lossless tracks are offered at 48kHz and 24-bit, in uncompressed LPCM in either 5.1 or 2.0. And they sound fantastic. So what's the bad news? Well, there's just not a whole heck of a lot of music, at least uninterrupted or spoken over, throughout the documentary. This is in essence a talking heads documentary, and truth be told, what do you really need a lossless surround mix for in a project like that? All of that said, there are snippets here and there of some great performances, and when those finally roil the sonic waters, the lossless tracks sound absolutely amazing, with great fidelity, awesome low end, and really amazing dynamic range, all the more impressive due to the Fighters'penchant for radically altering amplitude between verse and chorus on so many songs. It would have been great to have been granted at least some supplements of uninterrupted concert footage here, but with the caveat that you're not going to get a bunch of uninterrupted live footage here, these tracks sound great.

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews with Dave (HD; 2:21), Taylor (HD; 1:20), Chris (HD; 2:24), Pat (HD; 1:19) and Nate (HD; 1:17) have a snippet or two of additional information, but nothing too earth shattering.
• Deleted Scenes:
• Pre-Production "These Days" (HD; 2:40)
• Mmm-Mmm (HD; 1:20) is a brief rehearsal scene.
• "On the Mend" (HD; 1:46)
• Dave Struggles With Recording (HD; 1:01)
• "Bridge Burning" Rhythm Plan (HD; 1:57)
• Krist Novoselic Accordion (HD; 3:11)
• Taylor's Cymbals (HD; 1:46)
• Mixing (HD; 2:58)
• Alternate Ending (HD; 4:57)

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

About the only real complaint I can imagine any Foo Fighters fan having with this release is that there isn't more uninterrupted live concert footage. This is instead a fairly typical confessional talking heads retrospective of the Fighters' career (so far). While there's probably nothing here that longtime Foo Fighters fans don't already know about, it's still really interesting to hear about all of this stuff first hand from the guys who lived it. It's especially interesting to hear the still raw emotions surrounding some of the decisions to let various players go at certain times, or Dave's decision to step in an re-record drum parts before he would release an album. Through it all, though, all of the guys (with perhaps the exception of Smear) come off as completely likable and well intentioned, certainly a sort of rarity in the wild and wooly world of modern rock. If you want a concert video, this certainly isn't it, but otherwise Foo Fighters Back and Forth comes Highly recommended.