Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 2, 2023

It's a good thing that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences came to their collective senses and bestowed an honorary Oscar on D.A. Pennebaker in 2013 after only giving him one "official" nomination (for 1993's The War Room), because it's certainly arguable that no one has made more of an impact in documentaries than this appealingly eclectic filmmaker, who died in 2019. Primary, which was co-shot by Pennebaker, and Original Cast Album: "Company" have already passed through my review queue over the preceding years, and just those two give some indication of the breadth of Pennebaker's work, though to be fair, those two also highlight two areas where Pennebaker tended to aim his cameras, namely politics and performing arts (some curmudgeons may say the two are the same), with an emphasis on music in the latter category. In terms of the intermingling of politics or at least quasi-political "statements" and performing arts with an emphasis on music, I guess it's arguable that David Bowie inhabits both of those approaches with his at the time quite provocative Ziggy Stardust character.

Unfortunately this release doesn't seem to include the commentary by Pennebaker that was part of this film's history on DVD, a deficit that may be at least somewhat offset by an insert booklet that offers not just an essay by Pennebaker from 2002 that has a ton of fun information (especially for fans of vintage home entertainment formats, like RCA's Select-A-Vision), but also two sweet reminiscences from Frazer Pennebaker and Chris Pennebaker Hegedus. Those pieces offer some history as to the genesis of the project, but also its rather long gestational period. While the piece does offer some actually kind of charmingly low key moments with Bowie backstage at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on July 3, 1973, it's the actual concert footage that will probably be of most interest. This turned out to be the swan song for live performances by Bowie in the Ziggy Stardust persona with backup from the Spiders from Mars, as Bowie briefly announces to a perhaps incredulous audience at the very end of the concert. This version also restores two songs featuring Jeff Beck.

The setlist for the concert is as follows:

1. Opening Credits / Introduction
2. Hang On to Yourself
3. Ziggy Stardust
4. Watch That Man
5. Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
6. All the Young Dudes
7. Oh! You Pretty Things
8. Moonage Daydream
9. Changes
10. Space Oddity
11. My Death
12. Cracked Actor
13. Time
14. The Width of a Circle
15. Let's Spend the Night Together
16. Suffragette City
17. White Light / White Heat
18. Medley: The Jean Genie / Love Me Do / The Jean Genie (featuring Jeff Beck)
19. Round and Round (featuring Jeff Beck)
20. Farewell Speech
21. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
22. Finale / End Credits

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Parlophone and Rhino with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. While a lot of online data aggregators offer a 35mm source for this film, I'm glad my eyes weren't deceiving me when I read the following from Chris Pennebaker Hegedus in this release's insert booklet:

Restoring the original 16mm reversal film to a new 4K digital master has involved intricate dust busting, precise grain reduction, color correction, resyncing the audio master tracks and adding Jeff Beck back into the film.

The fact that I was able to pretty easily discern this was a 16mm source should allay fears generated by that "precise grain reduction" quote above, though I will say there were at least passing moments, typically some of the intermittently lit audience shots, where grain didn't have the same organic qualities it still displays (despite whatever tweaking) throughout the bulk of the presentation. I'm not sure if "reversal film" alludes to a CRI, but this does have a somewhat skewed looking palette which may indicate just such a source, though that said, "skewed palette" may be a relative term for at least the concert sections, which as can be seen in many of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review are quite often lit in a lurid orange (to evoke Mars, perhaps?). Detail levels can range from downright fuzzy in some midrange and wide framings to actually quite good in close-ups. There are "on the fly" issues with things like focus pulling that can inherently affect clarity and detail levels.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options. Those aware of some of the history of this project will know that part of the holdup for its initial release was due to some mixing issues vis a vis the live recording, and I'm assuming these tracks were based off the rather impressive restoration that was undertaken for the film's 30th anniversary. The results are quite impressive but can still show a few balance issues, as in some of the backup singers who at times can barely be heard. This may be heresy for some Bowie fans, but he frankly sounds a bit tired on this very last concert of a long promotional tour, and there are a couple of moments where he doesn't aim for the high parts that are in the single versions of songs like Space Oddity and Changes. That said, his almost Sprechgesang vocals actually adds to the "performance art" aspect, and maybe even links him to his future co-star Marlene Dietrich (kind of ironically, Just a Gigolo actually beat Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture to theaters by a year). One way or the other, overall fidelity here is very good, and while audience sounds are certainly in evidence, they thankfully don't overwhelm the actual performance.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the Blu-ray doesn't sport any on disc supplements, the release offers 2 CDs offering the entire concert, plus that aforementioned insert booklet, which has some very worthwhile writing in it.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a somewhat slapdash quality to this documentary that even Pennebaker was evidently more than aware of, but even so it provides a really unique opportunity to see Bowie at a formative stage in his career inhabiting an iconic persona. There are some built in limitations to the source element utilized for the transfer, as well as what were evidently hugely challenging mix issues (dealt with in some detail in the insert booklet), and so this may not be an absolutely perfect presentation, but it's a hugely enjoyable one. Recommended.