7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
SINATRA: ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL is an up-close and personal examination of the life, music and career of the legendary entertainer.
Starring: Frank SinatraMusic | 100% |
Documentary | 48% |
Biography | 20% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
There seems to come a point in the arcs of many superstars’ lives and careers where they are perceived almost more as commodities than actual, honest to goodness, real live human beings. That disconnect was presented to me viscerally a few years ago when in my guise as a musician I was playing a gig and performed a little known tune by Brazilian bossa nova maestro Antonio Carlos Jobim. A woman who had been sitting next to the piano and listening intently for some time commented, “Oh, that was always junior’s favorite song.” I wasn’t quite sure what she meant and asked her to repeat it, at which point she elaborated, “That was always Frank, Jr.’s favorite song of Jobim’s that his father did,” and I instantly realized that the woman was speaking of the iconic Sinatra clan, since Frank senior had famously collaborated with Jobim in the mid- to late sixties (and beyond). I was a bit gobsmacked, but asked if I could sit with her during my break, which she kindly agreed to, and we struck up a very interesting conversation, as it turned out she was one of the people who have helped the Sinatra kids license imagery of their legendary father. This woman in fact was in my hometown of Portland to sell photographs of Sinatra to various establishments like restaurants and hotels, and she had a huge catalog of available imagery which she shared with me. It was a really a fascinating little tête-à-tête where both the humanity and commoditization of an individual were brought home to me in a really unforgettable way. Sinatra: All or Nothing at All attempts to do something somewhat similar, by approaching its titular subject as the unavoidable monolith he was (or at least became), while also peeling back various layers of preconceptions to try to find the living, breathing soul which animated the fantastically accomplished singer and actor.
Sinatra: All or Nothing at All is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Music Group and Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1 (some archival video and film footage is presented in various aspect ratios running the gamut from early television and/or Academy ratios to various widescreen ratios). As should be expected for a piece stitched together out of widely disparate elements, there's a noticeable quality difference as the documentary segues from source to source. There is ubiquitous use of still photographs employed throughout Sinatra: All or Nothing at All, and those typically look very sharp and well defined. Some of the film snippets are organic looking, if perhaps sourced from secondary elements at times. The newer video sources can be relatively sharp, as in an interview with Walter Cronkite, or pretty lackluster, as a 1980s interview with Sinatra which is riddled with ghosting and other similar anomalies. The historical importance of some of these video elements, including some older interviews with Sinatra's parents, far outweighs any limitations on display.
While Sinatra: All or Nothing at All offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, there's frankly not that much difference between it and the LPCM 2.0 track also provided, mostly due to the fact that the music tends to presented interstitially or even as underscore at times, with more prominence given to the near nonstop array of archival interviews and other quasi-narration. Fidelity is excellent throughout, however, with an understanding that some of the older archival recordings suffer from the limitations of the technologies of the day.
A subject as iconic as Sinatra has both built in advantages and disadvantages for a prospective documentary filmmaker, and it's to Oscar and Emmy winner Gibney's credit that he makes the most of the pluses while mitigating the hagiographic minuses as much as possible. While there's little here that true Sinatra diehards won't already know, it's presented in a very winning fashion, with some excellent commentary along the way from a variety of very interesting people. The "final set list" gambit is probably more of a conceit than anything, but at least gives the documentary some shape. The biggest disappointment for Blu-ray fans is that some of the supplements included on the DVD version are not part of this particular package. Otherwise, Sinatra: All or Nothing at All comes Highly recommended.
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