U2 - Rattle & Hum [Blu-ray]

The movie explains some of the songs better, for example I didn't really care for "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with the gospel choir untill I saw how they went to harlem and actually recorded in a little church. I didn't care much for "When Love Comes To Town" till I saw how they pulled B.B. King into it. So the movie did enhance the CD. Plus the movie has 11 extra live songs (all the rest of The Joshua Tree live), plus an incredible version of Bloody Sunday and others.

DVD version is cool just because you can access all the songs just as if they were on CD, plus you can turn on the subtitles and read along with the lryics.

I heard somone comment about cheap "black and white" and "grainy video", the footage was shot like that on purpose, it's more of an artisitc statement.


A Masterpiece   March 15, 2004
T. Hooper (Osaka, Japan)
16 out of 23 found this review helpful

This is one of the ultimate rock movies for me. It ranks alongside The Beatles "A Hard Day's Night." It doesn't really have a story though. It's closer to a concert video, but instead of showing a single concert, it puts together some of the best performances of U2's Rattle and Hum tour. There are quite a few masterpiece performances in the movie. Of particular note is "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" which takes place in a Harlem church with a full choir. It's a very moving performance. Also I really loved "Angel of Harlem" which was performed in the Sun Studio in Memphis. It's the use of these kinds of unique performances that make this special. For fans of U2's 80's songs, this is the ultimate collection. It's a must have for every U2 fan.


Delusions 'R' Us   April 11, 2003
Michael (Silver Spring, MD)
15 out of 41 found this review helpful

One thing you can count on in a movie about U2 is good music. I saw them play at Largo, MD's now-demolished Cap Center (the one in "Heavy Metal Parking Lot") in early '85. While not at their musical peak, their passion and generosity were astounding. They turned around and sang to those of us unlucky enough to be seated behind the stage, and when bouncers tried to clear kids from the pit, Bono angrily confronted them. This got them banned from the venue, but to do anything else would not have been U2. They weren't chart-toppers then, but my college was full of their fans: earnest, clean-cut boys with a taste for social causes and a cultlike fervor for the band. And no wonder; their songs were bursts of rapt sincerity in an age of jaded techno-pop. The guitar may have sounded a bit like PiL on uppers, but such lyricism and raw emotion were almost unheard of in pop music.

I loved what I saw and heard. But there's an adage that every man is really three men: the one that others see, the one in the mirror, and the one inside. With "Rattle and Hum" U2 try to show us version two, and unintentionally give us a load of version three...to our lasting dismay.

Scene by scene, reel by reel, we watch their illusory greatness crumble. Phil Joanou's pompous camerawork, complete with artsy slo-mo and affected graininess, plays off their Olympian gestures to ludicrous effect. I'm sorry, but weren't we first drawn to U2 by their *lack* of murk and dour pretension? Their down-to-earth idealism is precisely what made them stand out. By ramming Ambience down our faces, Joanou buries the band's chief virtue.

And that's before we hear from U2 themselves. In the interview scenes the band does nothing but giggle and snort between mumbled cliches like "It's a musical journey." Commentary that could have been telling is instead coy, smug, and inscrutable. Weirder still is a scene where Bono leads a young Gospel choir in a version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", maybe his most narcissistic song. The power disparity is unnerving: Bono comes off almost as a plantation-era taskmaster, waving a ferule, and you can't help but wonder what these Harlem kids are thinking. Do any of them actually like this music? Have they bonded in any way with the band, and how do they relate to this tycoon's self-satisfied angst? There seems no point to the scene beyond flogging the band's playskool liberalism.

But the worst clip, where their insular idealism chafes hardest with reality, is the version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday". This was filmed one day after an IRA bomb killed eleven people, and Bono sounds justifiably furious. But context makes this version ghastly: during a swelling guitar solo he lectures us about the uprising in Northern Ireland: "(This is) a revolution that the majority of my countrymen do not support...(Screw) the Revolution."

Sincere words no doubt, but U2 are also using the emotional clout of real tragedy to add extra oomph to a musical bridge. You can totally hear it: they're too slick a bunch of showmen to keep from pumping Bono's sermon into an arena-rock crescendo. (Couldn't he have given this speech between songs?) I know art and politics are inseparable, but when torn flesh and pop are woven together so blatantly and glibly you just get squalor. Almost like an Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway fantasia about My Lai.

Even stripped of their pompous score, Bono's words are a misstep. His "countrymen" are Irish, so why should they decide the fate of Northern Ireland? The two are completely different countries, and Dublin has as much to do with Belfast as Timbuktu. Also, he seems oblivious of the connotations of telling Americans to "(Screw) the Revolution". Screwing revolutions isn't something we take lightly; for decades we've tried to crush every popular uprising that ran afoul of our plans for global finance, whether in Chile, Colombia, East Timor or Vietnam. Honestly, Bono, we need no encouragement.

The songs are mostly good, though the band's view of themselves as Protean Oracles from the Celtic Mists kills a lot of the pleasure. One exception is the abysmal cover of "Helter Skelter", introduced thusly by the ever-humble Bono: "Charles Manson stole this song from the Beatles, and now we're stealing it back!"

The grim fact is that Goths will still be creepy-crawling to the original at their Manson-themed raves long after U2's albums have landed in the cut-out bins. What Revolution was that?


U2's great & misunderstood rock film comes to DVD   October 26, 2000
Jeffery K. Matheus (Indianapolis, IN United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I have always loved U2's "Rattle and Hum", both the movie, and the acompanying soundtrack album. Both managed to catch U2 at what I consider to be the height of their artistic powers. Now that this film has come to DVD, I now appreciate it even more! The sound and picture quality is superb - in fact you should listen to it through a good set of headphones if you can! While some have complained about the "grainy" black and white photography that dominates most of the movie, I find that it really sets a mood and adds a unique dimension - a song like the dark and imposing "Exit" just would not be same filmed with bright colors and flashing lights! The interview segments are nice, especially when we get to hear drummer Larry Mullen Jr. speak about his hero Elvis, but it is the music that is the rightful focus of the movie. Songs from "The Joshua Tree" are heavily featured, including an emotional version of "Running To Stand Still" that surpasses the studio recording. Ditto for the aforementioned version of "Exit"...Wow! Other highlights include the "Angel of Harlem" recording sessions at Sun Studios, a live performance of the anti-aparthied anthem "Silver and Gold", a powerhouse version of "Desire" taken from the tour rehersals, a dark and menacing concert version of "Bullet the Blue Sky", and an emotional re-working of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", which is perhaps the esential version of that song! Bono is an engaging presence throughout the film, and it is obvious that he really poured his heart and soul into these performances. (I really wish that Bono would take himself this "seriously" again, rather than performing that "rock star parody" character that he has taken to in recent years) If you love the music of U2, then just ignore the critics and buy this movie! Those narrow-minded critics simply didn't understand the premise of this film, or the band who inspired it! "Rattle & Hum" is the story of four guys who loved rock-n-roll so much that the dedicated their entire lives to it...it's a simple as that!