Help! on DVD
I must've been a good boy this year, cuz I got the deluxe Help! DVD box set for Christmas.
As quick overview: The extras on Disc 2 are a bit slim. There is some cool premiere footage and news clips, including one of them accepting some kind of award on the "house" set. John seems surprising happy in the footage. It's nice to see that, considering he would later refer to that period as being not so happy.
A lot of "memories" from Richard Lester and Eleanor Bron. We also get some interviews with Neil Aspinall, Victor Spinetti (who, in his brief appearance, comes across as kind of a kook), the make-up/hairdresser and other crew members.
Surprisingly, the feature about the restoration is actually interesting. But they all fly by pretty quickly, and one is left wanting more. Sadly, the "deleted" scene with Sam Ahab is only shown with stills. I guess the original footage is gone. But they do provide a lengthy explanation of the scene and have tons of photos.
The booklet is sparse, but it does have a nice tribute by Martin Scorsese. Who woulda thought he was such a fan of Help!?
The coolest extras may be the nice movie poster and eight lobby cards. All done on high quality paper, suitable for framing. And the lobby cards have that old fashioned "hand painted" look that we old-timers remember so well. They look like the real thing, only smaller. Which is good, actually. They look better small.
There's also a copy of Lester's script with his hand-written notes. A super item to have, especially for such an ecclectic film.
Personally, I don't care that there aren't more interviews. Pretty much everything you want to read about Help! has already been written and talked about. Maybe they realized that, too, and hence the nice quality "goodies". I do, however, wish Lester would've done a commentary track on the film.
Ah yes. The film. It looks gorgeous. The color is great. So rich, like a comic book cover. And the sound is super, too. I also dug watching it with sub-titles, since there was always a bit of dialogue here and there that wasn't clear.
Another must have for Beatles fans.
As quick overview: The extras on Disc 2 are a bit slim. There is some cool premiere footage and news clips, including one of them accepting some kind of award on the "house" set. John seems surprising happy in the footage. It's nice to see that, considering he would later refer to that period as being not so happy.
A lot of "memories" from Richard Lester and Eleanor Bron. We also get some interviews with Neil Aspinall, Victor Spinetti (who, in his brief appearance, comes across as kind of a kook), the make-up/hairdresser and other crew members.
Surprisingly, the feature about the restoration is actually interesting. But they all fly by pretty quickly, and one is left wanting more. Sadly, the "deleted" scene with Sam Ahab is only shown with stills. I guess the original footage is gone. But they do provide a lengthy explanation of the scene and have tons of photos.
The booklet is sparse, but it does have a nice tribute by Martin Scorsese. Who woulda thought he was such a fan of Help!?
The coolest extras may be the nice movie poster and eight lobby cards. All done on high quality paper, suitable for framing. And the lobby cards have that old fashioned "hand painted" look that we old-timers remember so well. They look like the real thing, only smaller. Which is good, actually. They look better small.
There's also a copy of Lester's script with his hand-written notes. A super item to have, especially for such an ecclectic film.
Personally, I don't care that there aren't more interviews. Pretty much everything you want to read about Help! has already been written and talked about. Maybe they realized that, too, and hence the nice quality "goodies". I do, however, wish Lester would've done a commentary track on the film.
Ah yes. The film. It looks gorgeous. The color is great. So rich, like a comic book cover. And the sound is super, too. I also dug watching it with sub-titles, since there was always a bit of dialogue here and there that wasn't clear.
Another must have for Beatles fans.
posted by John Goins at 8:25 PM
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