6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The life and times of Richard Pryor.
Starring: Richard Pryor, Jennifer Lee Pryor, Mel Brooks, Robin Williams, Lily TomlinDocumentary | 100% |
Biography | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
As a comic, actor and show business phenomenon, Richard Pryor's influence has been so pervasive that it may be hard to appreciate, for anyone who wasn't there at the time, what a jolt Pryor gave to American culture when he first arrived on the scene. No comic, black or white, had ever talked about race to a mainstream audience as frankly as Pryor did. Today any comic can do so because Pryor broke down the barriers, beginning with his hit 1974 standup album That N*****'s Crazy! (a title no one would dare use now). The first African-American host of Saturday Night Live, co-writer of Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles (and Brooks's first choice to star in the film, until he was overruled by Warner Brothers), star of his own NBC variety show in 1977—which the network canceled after four episodes when the comic refused to tone down his humor—and ultimately the first recipient of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Pryor is widely acknowledged by peers of all races and creeds to be the most influential humorist of his era. One of Pryor's most reliable sources of material was his own chaotic and often self-destructive life, and he was as ruthless in dissecting—and then presenting to an audience—his own faults and failings as he was in commenting on race relations and social issues. Indeed, one of the hallmarks of Pryor's standup was the ease with which he segued from personal experience to social satire and back again, creating readily identifiable characters and acting out each part as he went along. Honesty was the secret to Pryor's universal appeal. You knew instinctively that, at least while he was performing, he always told the truth, no matter how unpleasant—and especially about himself. Marina Zenovich, who won two Emmy awards for her portrait of director Roman Polanski (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired ), has assembled a biography of Pryor, using new interviews with fellow comics, former business associates, ex-wives and girlfriends, as well as vintage interview clips and excerpts from Pryor's work. The result is an excellent overview for those who only know Pryor from movies like Silver Streak or Stir Crazy, and it will fill in gaps even for fans who know Pryor's standup work. Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic originally aired on Showtime in 2013 but has now been acquired by Magnolia Pictures.
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic was shot digitally by documentary cinematographer Christine Burrill (Shut Up and Sing) and finished on a digital intermediate, where the diverse sources, including photographs, kinescopes and old film clips, were blended together. Magnolia's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably derived directly from digital files. The contemporary interviews have the clear, sharp image that one would expect from recent digital photography, and the older clips look as good as the sources permit, although most of the scenes from Pryor's films appear to have been derived from standard-definition video transfers. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the HD treatment are the photographs, many of which are rare and show Pryor in situations not often seen, e.g. his early Vegas years. Given the limited extras, Magnolia has opted to place this 83-minute film on a BD-25, but the digital origination and the nature of "talking head" footage allows for efficient compression. The average bitrate of 21.999 Mbps is sufficient to avoid any noticeable artifacts.
Omit the Logic has a stereo soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, which delivers the interviews clearly, as well as the tracks from the older clips (which sound like they have been cleaned up for this mix). Pryor's concert films were released in either mono or stereo, so that those clips have not suffered any diminution in quality. The film's score was provided by jazz musician Mocean Worker a/k/a Adam Dorn, who has contributed tracks to such films as The Devil Wears Prada and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Two of Richard Pryor's concert films are sitting in Sony's vault, and the third, Live in Concert, resides with HBO. The most fitting tribute to this unique performer would be to release these works on Blu-ray with new transfers, because they represent Pryor at the height of his powers doing what he did best and loved most. Zenovich's documentary provides an intriguing look at the man, but only a glimpse of the work. Recommended, but don't stop here.
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