7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In 1968, four friends took to the stage of the most iconic venue in the world for a concert that would live on for decades as their best performance ever captured on film. After more than forty years, The Doors: Live at the Bowl'68 is back with a vengeance.
Starring: Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, The DoorsMusic | 100% |
Documentary | 44% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (96khz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (96khz, 24-bit)
English, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
1968 proved to be one of the most tempestuous years in American history. The “youth movement” was in full swing, replete with sit-ins and other protests, with dissent against the Vietnam War leading to President Lyndon Johnson famously announcing he would not accept his party’s nomination for another term. That was followed in quick succession by the shocking assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and then Robert F. Kennedy, and the summer saw huge riots in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. In fact many political historians attribute Richard Nixon’s narrow victory (only a bit larger than his nail biting loss to John F. Kennedy in 1960) to the facts that Nixon promised to end the Vietnam conflict (something he was either unable or unwilling to do for several years) and to be a “law and order” President, which was code for tamping down the simmering unrest that was roiling the nation. Through all of this turmoil the airwaves were vibrant with some of the most interesting and stylistically diverse music of the decade. Looking at the pop charts for that year is like viewing the entire prism of a slightly schizophrenic society in miniature. On the one hand, fairly traditional “easy listening” hits were still big business. Herb Alpert stormed the charts with his plaintive attempt at vocalizing on Bacharach and David’s “This Guy’s in Love With You,” and his A&M label mate Sergio Mendes had three huge hits that year with “The Look of Love”, “The Fool on the Hill” and, late in the year, a psychedelic reworking of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair”. That last hit points up the tendency toward spacey influences that had started being much more prevalent even in supposed “middle of the road” singles, an obvious nod to the burgeoning drug culture that had really exploded in the Summer of Love the previous year. But sitting side by side with these more “adult contemporary” artists were an astonishing array of other styles. The Beatles hit it big that year with “Hey Jude” and “Lady Madonna”. The Stones were charting with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. Blood, Sweat and Tears released their first album (in their Al Kooper formulation), and folksy artists like Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell scored significant hits. There was even a nascent country-pop movement afoot with such smashes as Glen Campbell’s beautiful version of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” and O.C. Smith’s “Little Green Apples”. Harder rock fans flocked to such tunes as Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” and Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”, while at least a couple of tunes like Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas” and Richard Harris’ reading of Jimmy Webb’s quasi-suite “MacArthur Park” seemed to defy any easy attempt at categorization. The Doors also were making chart news in 1968, after having experienced their first Number One single in 1967 with “Light My Fire”. They repeated their trip to the top of the charts in 1968 with “Hello, I Love You,” and just a few days after their July 5, 1968 appearance at The Hollywood Bowl, released their first album to reach Number One, Waiting for the Sun.
How do you feel about DNR? That is probably going to color (at least partially) how you view this new restored version of the concert culled from the original negative. Eagle Rock delivers the concert via an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This new cut has footage we've never seen before, and there are issues with camera placement, focus and various people (audience and band) blocking shots at times. But compared to previous home video releases, this is a quantum leap forward in terms of color, black levels and general clarity. The presentation still shows signs of softness in the wide shots especially, where the band is little more than colorful blobs on the stage. There does appear to have been some digital scrubbing applied to this release though, and those who don't like DNR are no doubt going to obsess about that element. However, despite the scrubbed appearance, it must be noted that there is still fine object detail firmly on display, especially in the many close-ups, where everything from Morrison's bruised fingernail to sweat pouring off of Robby Krieger's face are clearly apparent.
In an analog to the question starting off the assessment of the video quality of this release, how do you feel about ProTools? Bruce Botnick, who recorded this concert the night of the performance, has digitally inserted snippets from other concerts in order to recreate several moments that had previously been lost to microphone issues. If you're not overly bothered by that gambit, both lossless audio options on this release, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down, offer sterling fidelity and brilliant clarity, at least for the most part. Morrison's sudden shouting and weird volume changes mean there is some occasional, albeit fairly minor, distortion that no amount of digital tweaking could overcome. The surround mix also makes the audience's lighting of fireworks during "Light My Fire" a bit problematical as well, with several loud pops interrupting the flow of the music.
This is one of the most legendary live concerts by one of the great bands of its era, and fans will probably be willing to overlook the digital tweaking that accompanies both the video and audio elements here. It's fantastic to see this new cut, especially insofar as we finally get a more complete feel for what The Doors' performance that night really must have been like. This Blu-ray also has some really appealing supplementary content, and comes Highly recommended.
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1970