Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Sprout Wings and Fly Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 7, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Les Blank: Always for Pleasure.

Chances are that unless you have a specialized interest in some of the indigenous folk music(s) of the United States, your recognition of the name Les Blank, if indeed you recognize it at all, may well come courtesy of Burden of Dreams (note that the link points to a DVD, not a Blu-ray), Blank’s fascinating documentary about the filming of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. That piece was actually kind of an outlier in Blank’s oeuvre, a large body of work that otherwise tended to focus primarily on musicians (though there are a couple of exceptions in this set). Criterion’s collection of fourteen Blank documentaries may understandably be thought of as a niche product, but for those interested in this subject, it’s a virtual smorgasbord of great performances and at least some biographical data.

Blank moved a bit more northerly than some of his other outings for this documentary, one which profiles Blue Ridge Mountain fiddler Tommy Jarrell. Once again there's a really intriguing combination of live performance footage with a nice assortment of "local color" that helps to bring an Appalachian community fully alive. There are some fun interviews here, as well as unabashedly sweet moments involving Jarrell and his friends and family.

Sprout Wings and Fly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sprout Wings and Fly is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1.

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the transfers in this set:

All fourteen films are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right side of the image to maintain the proper screen format. These new digital transfers were created in 2K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from internegatives at Technicolor Los Angeles. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management.

This is one of the more consistent looking transfers in this set, though as perhaps can be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review, the palette seems just slightly purplish at times, something that can make flesh tones for example appear a bit on the ruddy side. A glut of outdoor scenes offer good accountings of some lush foliage, Detail levels are routinely very good in close-ups. Once again, it seems to be a requirement that at least one hair gets stuck in the gate smack dab in the middle of the bottom part of the frame.

Sprout Wings and Fly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the soundtracks:

The original monaural soundtracks for The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins; A Well Spent Life; Dry Wood; Always for Pleasure; Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers; Sprout Wings and Fly; In Heaven There is No Beer?; Gap-Toothed Women; Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Creole and Cajun Cooking; and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists were remastered at 24-bit from 35 mm full-coat magnetic tracks. The original monaural soundtrack for Hot Pepper was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance was remastered at 24-bit from a restored DA-98 tape and the restored 35 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for Spend It All was remastered at 24-bit from a restored WAV file. And the original stereo soundtrack for Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX3.

Sprout Wings and Fly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge (1080p; 17:30) is additional footage shot by Blank that went unused in the final film, but which includes Jarrell's "genesis story" of his iconic fiddle.


• Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge (1080p; 12:19) is more unused footage, this time focusing on Julie Lyons, Tommy's sister.


• An Elemental Approach (1080p; 5:22) features editor Maureen Gosling discussing how she assembled the film.

Sprout Wings and Fly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blank again offers an appealing portrait of an individual musician within the context of a larger community. This is another really engaging piece that provides a ton of fantastic music along with some rather touching depictions of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements very enjoyable. Recommended.