Now More Than Ever Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Now More Than Ever Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 1, 2017

A little over a year ago, the fine folks at Rhino Music released one of my favorite offerings of the entire year, the massive Chicago: Quadio set, allowing me to revisit some of the most memorable albums of my youth in sparkling lossless sound (and with some quad mixes I had never previously heard). I mentioned in the Chicago: Quadio Blu-ray review how some of us are old enough to remember when Chicago was (however briefly) Chicago Transit Authority, and in fact in its early tenure at Columbia Records, the decided underdog in horn based pop- rock aggregations, since Columbia’s other similarly assembled group, Blood, Sweat & Tears, was the undisputed champion of this subgenre for at least 1968 and probably even into 1969. Chicago proved to be the ultimate champ, however, as BS&T gave way to personnel conflicts and lost their chart mojo. Interestingly, as Now More Than Ever capably documents, Chicago itself encountered personnel challenges along the way, not to mention the tragic death of one of their members, but for this particular group, change seemed to be an agent motivating the players to keep working toward a shared goal. Chicago’s sound has morphed through the years, again as capably documented in this appealing piece, but the group has proven to be one of the longer lasting “sounds” that was born in the sixties but which managed to reinvent itself as new trends appeared.

Some of the most interesting information for this particular Chicago fan came courtesy of the band’s early days, before some members were even calling themselves Chicago Transit Authority, and there are some fun reminiscences about these formative months, when the band got in trouble at various Chicago area venues for not sticking to their “cover band” play list. Later, once they were calling themselves Chicago Transit Authority, and were touring with the likes of Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, there are more interesting anecdotes shared. Their decision to move en masse to Los Angeles to seek a record deal is also documented with some pretty funny home movies (the band shared a rental house “underneath the Hollywood freeway”).

Those interested in the star making machinery behind the popular song (to quote Joni Mitchell) may not have all of their questions answered, but there is some pretty interesting accounts here about what overwhelming success can mean. There’s also good information imparted about such related figures as James William Guercio (audio interviews are included) and Clive Davis (video interviews are included), and the band’s prominence first in the early seventies, and then later in the “David Foster years” (Foster is also on hand with some good interviews) is well handled and typically very informative.

Perhaps the passage of time has never allowed horrifying wounds to heal, but there’s a curious distance from some of the band members in the relaying of events surrounding Terry Kath’s death. Kath’s pyrotechnics on the guitar had already been well detailed in the documentary (including one Jimi Hendrix’s assertion that Kath was a better guitar player than Hendrix was), as well as Kath’s distinctive vocal abilities, but when it comes to his death, no one seems to really want to “go there”, at least overly emotionally. This seems especially odd given the fact that Kath’s death almost put an end to the band, as is discussed in the documentary.

It’s a little daunting to realize that Chicago has been around now for 50 years (more or less), and is still out there burning up concert venues with high energy rock and pop with that iconic horn section in tow. The founding members are all up there in years now, but seem genuinely moved that their efforts have been so appreciated by so many for so long, and as is shown in some brief but appealing performance snippets, the band still sounds fantastic, even given a seeming revolving door of personnel changes. A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet (as some wise man once alleged), and I guess Chicago Transit Authority by any other name would still sound as great.

Now More Than Ever Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FilmRise with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. This is third FilmRise release I've reviewed (the other two are Mail Order Wife and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief), and like the other two titles this release comes on a BD-R (I'm not quite sure whether this is an official "MOD" release or not, but I will say it took Amazon a few days to send me a shipping notice even after I had ordered it as a Prime member). There are no serious issues the format engenders on this release, and the contemporary interview segments look sharp and well detailed, with a natural if sometimes pretty monochromatic palette. The documentary is filled with some fantastic archival video in a variety of formats (and aspect ratios), and that understandably is more widely variant, often looking fairly fuzzy and with only minimal detail levels.

Now More Than Ever Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I've given FilmRise a bit of a break in my previous reviews with their lossy audio options, but to release a documentary about a legendary band, especially when there are supplements including a complete concert, and to only offer Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes, seems downright counterintuitive. (I've frankly never understood why even some home theater aficionados seem to place lossless audio on a lower "wish list" shelf than sparkling 1080p video.) While I'm disappointed (especially with regard to the concert), it has to be admitted that the actual documentary is by and large a talking heads entry, with only intermittent and sporadic musical elements, often used as virtual underscore. The 5.1 mix does open up the musical elements considerably, but is still somewhat anemic on the low end. Fidelity is fine and delivers the interview sequences with no problems whatsoever.

Now More Than Ever Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Featurettes

  Dialogue (1080p; 37:14) is an addendum of sorts to the main documentary providing more background information on the band courtesy of some longer interview segments.

  
  

  The New Guys (1080p; 25:46) focuses on newer band members.

• Deleted Scenes

  New Music and Paris (720p; 2:22)

  
  

  Only the Beginning (720p; 2:15)

• Concert - Two Weeks in May (1080p; 34:13) was filmed over 12 days in 2013.


• Stories

  Robert Lamm - Becoming a Musician (1080p; 2:04)

  
  

  Private Planes Continued (1080p; 3:32)

  
  

  Jimmy Pankow - Helicopters in NYC (1080p; 4:14)

  
  

  Going on SNL in 1979 (1080p; 1:42)

  
  

  The Writing of Making a Man out of Me (1080p; 3:32)

  
  

  Hall of Fame Rehearsal (1080p; 1:40)

• Trailer (1080p; 1:42)

Now More Than Ever Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a longtime Chicago fan like I am, Now More Than Ever will be a nostalgic trip down memory lane, and the documentary utilizes the band members very smartly, with some appealing interviews and tons of fantastic archival video. There's nothing even remotely innovative about the structure and pacing of this piece, but it's consistently engaging and best of all informative. I'm distressed about the lossy audio on this release and so will not offer an outright recommendation, but for those able to overlook this deficit, there's a lot to enjoy here.