The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 3, 2017

There’s an unavoidably elegiac quality to Long Time Running, a kind of combo documentary — concert video (which is frankly more on the documentary side) that could have very well emphasized the tragic over the hip, in that The Tragically Hip’s lead singer Gordon Downie had announced that he was battling terminal (though not inoperable) brain cancer, and that the tour this piece includes was obviously going to be Downie’s last, if not the final outing for the band (something that is still somewhat up in the air). There was only about a month or so between the announcement of Downie’s condition and the release of Man Machine Poem, the album that the band had already announced it planned to to support with a multi venue tour. In a way, that short interstitial time frame may have been a blessing in disguise, since it may have allowed the band to simply move into “tour mode” without spending a ton of time ruminating about the inevitable mortality of their colleague. The band wrapped up the tour in Kingston, their home town, in a concert that was televised nationally and reportedly drew nearly one third of the entire population of Canada as viewers. One person not watching on the tube was a certain Prime Minister thought to be extraordinarily hip himself, Justin Trudeau, since he was in attendance at the actual concert. Long Time Running is rather heart wrenching throughout, with some extremely touching interviews and looks at a band trying to come to terms with a really devastating emotional issue while also maintaining that venerable “the show must go on” attitude through it all.

Downie finally succumbed to his disease just a couple of months ago, something that gives this entire piece a subtext of melancholy, especially as it documents the Herculean struggles Downie encountered after a huge chunk of his brain was sliced away in order to try to prolong his life. There are some extremely touching interviews, including with Downie’s brother, talking about Downie’s attempts to regain even “simple” things like language. There’s some touching home video footage of the band’s first rehearsal after Downie’s surgeries where it’s more than evident Downie is confused and hesitant, despite doing material he’s ostensibly familiar with.

That said, some of the most visceral emotional content on display throughout Long Time Running is with regard to shots of the audiences the band encounters on their tour. There are numerous moments where you can see various fans actually tearing up at the thought that they are being forced to say goodbye to one of their heroes. It’s really touching evidence of just how deeply felt Canadians’ reactions to The Tragically Hip seem to be. Kind of interestingly, for being such an iconic band “up north”, The Tragically Hip has had a somewhat lackluster “career” in the United States, at least insofar as chart action goes. While a huge swath of the band’s albums have vaulted to the top spot on the Canadian sales charts, in the United States they’ve only been able to rise to the relatively paltry spot of 129 for their highest charting effort, and indeed Man Machine Poem only made it up to 178. That might suggest that the audience for this documentary might be lacking “down here”, but I’d advise even those who aren’t overly familiar with the band think about checking this out, since it delivers an emotional impact that very few music documentaries do, at least in my personal experience.

The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78.1 (some archival video elements hover more around Academy ratio). This is a somewhat heterogeneous looking presentation, at least partially by design. A lot of the contemporary interview segments look appealingly sharp and well detailed, with a fresh and natural looking palette. That said, quite a bit of the live concert footage, including lots of the shots of the audience, have either been intentionally "distressed" or shot with lower res cameras where noise is prevalent, as can be seen by parsing some of the screenshots accompanying this review. The progressive presentation has ameliorated or outright eliminated many of the issues often seen in concert videos, with few if any instances of posterizing or combing artifacts intruding. Some of the nighttime and/or concert footage isn't especially well detailed.

The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I was frankly kind of surprised to see that Eagle Rock has only provided lossy Dolby tracks for this release, in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0, since this music-centric label has almost always released their Blu-ray product with lossless audio. Perhaps because this was perceived as more of a documentary than a concert video this approach was deemed more acceptable, but there is music in this piece (albeit often presented in snippets, and — even worse — with voiceover talking on top of it), and it no doubt would have benefited from a lossless presentation. All of this said, while the lossy tracks don't really have the sonic "oomph" in the concert snippets that some audiophiles may have hoped for, they suffice at least decently for the bulk of this piece, which is more confessional first person talking head sequences.

The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Musicianship Featurette (1080p; 9:30) features rehearsal footage interspersed with interviews.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:59)

Additionally, Eagle Rock has included a nicely appointed insert booklet with writing and stills, along with a complete list of tour personnel (which is several pages long).

The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a fan of The Tragically Hip, Long Time Running is probably a must have. If you've never heard of the band, or have heard of the band without going crazy for them, I'd still consider checking this piece out, as it has an unusually visceral emotional content that is quite moving. It's a bit of a head scratcher that this release has been granted only lossy audio, and video also encounters a few challenges, but taken as a whole, The Tragically Hip: Long Time Running comes Recommended.