Paul in Red Square DVD; A Review
Paul McCartney in Red Square Back in the U.S.S.R. ...for the very first time. June 29, 2005 - As the last surviving relevant Beatle, Paul McCartney occupies a rare "rocker emeritus" position in the musical firmament; unlike The Rolling Stones' money-minting traveling self-tribute show, the former 'cute one' at least attempts to maintain a degree of credibility when performing live. In May 2003, Macca played Moscow's Red Square to a huge crowd that included Russian President Vladimir Putin. And despite the Beatles' famous White Album rocker "Back in the U.S.S.R.", this show (and one in St. Petersberg) marked the first time McCartney set foot on Russian soil, much less played there. Naturally, the landmark event was recorded for posterity; but the resulting DVD, Paul McCartney in Red Square, proves to be a poorly-handled mishmash of concert footage and revisionist history rather than the satisfying documents of McCartney concerts that appeared on DVDs past.The problem isn't as much the performance material as it is the way it's presented. Segments sometimes as long as fifteen minutes interrupt the concert footage, featuring testimonials from old Russians who explain how the Liverpool quartet almost single-handedly brought down decades of Soviet Communism- a significant feat indeed for a rock band who couldn't even keep themselves together.Additionally, Paul is shown visiting a music school in St. Petersburg where he mentors young performers and receives a chorus of orphans, shares an audience with Putin, whom he rhapsodizes about as a "man of the people," despite the Russian leader's previous credentials as head of the KGB, an outfit that anyone who's read a Tom Clancy novel knows weren't exactly Boy Scouts.While the travelogue footage is of questionable merit, what really kills this disc is the way it's integrated, or more accurately, not integrated into the program. The tacked-on scenes appear to exist only to fill out the chapters; I didn't even know they were there during a cursory run-through of the disc because chapter stops are set at the beginning of each song. And while it's possible to skip to the next song, it's an annoying distraction to have to reach for the remote every few minutes.The concert itself is a businesslike production that never builds any real excitement. Not only do the non-musical segments disrupt any song-to-song momentum, but the day/ night continuity is virtually nonexistent; Paul and his 4-piece backing band sound good and play with enthusiasm, but little about the overall presentation inspires much enthusiasm. Reportedly, 26 cameras were used to cover the event, and it shows: hyper-caffeinated editing cycles constantly through most of the camera angles, no matter how incoherent is the end result, and proves to be a questionable aesthetic choice given McCartney's likely older audience. Further, as the brilliant Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense demonstrated, it is possible to get away with extremely lengthy takes from one camera, so there's little excuse for such a slick take on a classic form. Despite the gaffes with the structure of the program, the problems could easily have been solved if someone had only thought to break the non-musical parts in to their own chapters and then offered the viewer an option to either watch the show in its original form or just the music or just the sightseeing. But, alas, no such option is provided, so keep the remote close by. Set List: It's Getting Better Band on the Run Can't Buy Me Love Two of Us I Saw Her Standing There We Can Work It Out I've Just Seen a Face Live and Let Die Someone's Knocking at the Door Fool on the Hill Every Little Thing Birthday Maybe I'm Amazed Back in the U.S.S.R. Calico Skies Hey Jude She's Leaving Home Yesterday Let It Be Back in the USSR (reprise)Score: 6 out of 10 The clearest shot of McCartney on the DVD. The VideoThe 4:3 full-screen transfer is pretty mediocre, coming in looking nearly as bad as a VHS tape. There's plenty of aliasing on diagonals; the reds in Paul's shirts are noisy and smeary; detail is seriously lacking with distant shots consisting basically of fuzzy blobs. Fuzzy blobs rock out! Whenever there are fast camera pans, it goes jittery and indistinct. Colors are soft and unimpressive and black levels are weak. The documentary footage looks a bit better, but we're not buying the disc for non-concert related footage, so who cares if their vacation videos look nice when the show itself is weak?Score: 4 out of 10Languages and AudioAudio choices are English 2.0 Stereo, Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 with English subtitles. Audio tracks can be switched on the fly, but the stereo mix is pathetic and should be avoided like Ringo's movies. Levels are low and the mix is blah. Pass. Guitars in the left channel, percussion in the right channel... Of the two surround choices, I give a very slight nod to the DTS track because it sounds more glued together than the Dolby track. The high-end is a tad exaggerated in Dolby with audience noise, cymbals and acoustic guitars being more prominent. As a result, the DTS track sounds less zingy, but more musical and cohesive. What stereo panning is present is a bit more pronounced in DTS.Overall, it would have been nice if they mixed the show more aggressively - made it rock a little harder, particularly with the bass and drums - and gave more of a "you are there" vibe. While the DTS mix gets my nod, the Dolby isn't far behind, so see what sounds best on your setups. Just stay away from the stereo! No offensive hiss or distortion was noted and the mix levels are adequate.Score: 7 out of 10Packaging and ExtrasThe disc comes in an Amaray case with cardboard slipcover that duplicates the case art. An 8-page booklet with photos, quotes and song listings is included. Putin raises the roof! The best extra is Paul McCartney: Live in St. Petersburg, billed as a hour-long bonus concert, but judging from the lack of overlap in the set lists, it's more like the outtakes culled from unused remnants of the main show.Set List: Jet Got to Get You Into My Life Flaming Pie Let Me Roll It Drive My Car Penny Lane Get Back Back in the U.S.S.R. I've Got a Feeling Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/The End Helter SkelterWhat makes this better than the main concert is it cuts to the chase pretty quickly after a 10-minute chunk of rehearsal footage and blather from McCartney; thankfully, it's a pretty straight-forward- albeit truncated- sequence of performances that mantains better momentum than the main event materials from the Red Square set. Behind the Curtain: Memories from Red Square is a six-minute featurette of random footage of Paul greeting people with him commenting about how meaningful all this was. Now everybody try to stay together... Russia and The Beatles: A Brief Journey is a bit from A&E's sister outlet, The History Channel, which purports to trace the simultaneous historical tracks of the Soviet Union and the band, managing to trivialize both in less than six minutes.Finally, Resources - which is just a half-dozen web URLs to sites concerning Russian history and music - wraps up the extras.Score: 6 out of 10 -- Peter Schorn The MovieAn okay concert hamstrung by disruptive political interview segments. 6 The VideoFuzzy, unimpressive VHS-grade transfer. 4 The AudioLousy stereo, but decent surround mixes. 7 The ExtrasBetter-paced bonus concert footage plus extra interview segments. 6 Overall Score (not an average) 6 

Posted by Robin at 12:12 PM