Customer Reviews

Classic Albums: 2112 / Moving Pictures [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This Blu-Ray is essentially the documentary that aired on the Classic Albums TV series. There have been a number of releases for Rush lately from concert footage to documentaries. For a band who is as prolific and influential as they are I say it's high time more stuff has been put out there. While the recently released documentary, Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, gives a lot of details spanning their entire career this disk delves into great detail Rush's two most important albums. While the band has released more than 20 albums these two bookend the five albums that defined them as the ultimate power trio and masters of the progressive/art rock genre.

2112 was Rush's fourth (third with drummer Neil Peart) album and it was created out of a mixture of defiance, anger, and pure sense of uncompromising. Their album Fly by Night made critics take notice and Caress of Steel made them disregard the band out of hand. 2112 not only make them take notice again, but it caused a frenzy from just word of mouth. This documentary goes into the thought process behind this. Not only the "we are gonna do this album our way" and "if we are going out we are going on our terms" kind of thinking, but also the music theory behind the songs written and the long play format of the titular 2112 suite (consisting of an entire side of a vinyl album.

So you have that breakaway album, and then Rush makes a couple more critically acclaimed concept albums, then two albums that take the band to a more radio-friendly arena. This is where Moving Pictures comes in. As the last of the albums of this genre it marks the band's complete departure from the art-rock/long form suites (The album Permanent Waves still had the multi-themed Natural Science) to single concept, self contained songs ready for airplay. This album also marks Rush's greatest hit single to date with Tom Sawyer.

Again this doc goes into not only the thinking of where they were going with Moving Pictures as a band, but also the musicality of the various songs (and studio theories and techniques). It's a good message Rush says when the changes they went through on each of these albums were something they did all for themselves and for the love of music. This documentary really shows how a band can change their (for lack of a better word) shtick and still be true to who they are.

You get some great early footage from studio to concerts and more as well as current interviews with each band member. You get to see the breakdown of many of the songs of each album and how they were put together both instrumentally and post production. You also get interviews with Terry Brown, Rush's studio producer and engineer from both albums and each one in between. All in all this is a great resource for anybody who loves these two albums.

This Blu-Ray has some solid video comprised of the newer interviews and footage done in high definition and older concert footage getting some decent touch up (not as good as the high def stuff, but it's as good as you can get). The video I believe is in 1080i, and while that's not quite full 1080p I think it's probably a better idea so there isn't too much of a difference seen between the older PAL footage. The audio is in Linear PCM Stereo. That may sound like a limiting factor, but you don't really need surround for interviews and the music was recorded in two channel stereo. BTW that music footage sounds awesome on this disk so forget the need for 5.1 anything.

What's cool is the extras, which is about an hour of additional interviews and concert footage not shown in the original airing on Classic Albums. That's like getting twice the show in one disk. If you are a fan of the classic Rush this disk is worth going for. If you are a serious music fan and enjoyed the song Tom Sawyer I think this will be a very informative and enjoyable disk to have in your collection as well. If you have been collecting all of the other Rush videos believe me; there is still stuff in here you don't have.

If I wasnt a HUGE Rush fan I would have given this 2 stars.There is nothing new here.The interviews seem rushed (no pun intended) and there is no new vintage footage and you just KNOW they got it.Most of it is from Live in Rio concerts with some stuff from the other concert films.There is some Black and White footage and studio footage they provide but my old bootleg VHS tapes look and sound better!!! Dont know where all these 5 star ratings are coming from.Maybe the reviewers havnt heard all these stories before or seen the same old footage before?? I dunno but save your money and just get Beyond the Lighted Stage dvd (which I gave 5 stars as I love Rush!) Anyways-I wish I would have just rented this instead of buying it but I just couldnt resist.Hope this helps somebody out.......................

There is about 50+ minutes of additional footage on the DVD. It is great seeing RUSH talk about the making of their two greatest albums. Seeing the behind-the-scenes of making 2112 and the pressure they were under was unbelievable. 2112 was a do-or-die project and they clearly made an amazing effort. You really can hear the anger in their playing of 2112. As for Moving Pictures, this is their masterpiece. As Neil said "This was when we became Rush" They discuss almost every song on both albums and the studio scenes with Terry Brown are great. Lets just hope they release "The Time Machine Tour" on Blu-Ray.

I got "Beyond the Lighted Stage" recently and absolutely loved it. My only gripe was that it was too short. It was the Rush biopic that you could sit down with your wife and watch but not quite enough for the rabid Dungeons and Dragons playing muso uber-fan.

Not that I know anybody like that. Ahem.

So many things that I'm really interested in hearing about were kind of glossed over quickly that I could have really used a BTLS pt 2. This Classic Albums video was about as close as we'll probably get to that. It was obviously shot around the same time that biopic was, but I was happy to see that almost none of the footage was used in both places and in fact if you were to take both of these DVDs and edit them together you would come up with what is probably an excellent and cohesive Rush super-documentary.

Some other reviewers have griped about there being a lot of the same stuff as in the biopic. Obviously much of the same ground is going to be covered because of these albums' place in Rush's history and because it's not like Rush spent ten years making these albums. There's only so much to talk about! That said, there was a lot of stuff in this DVD that really should have made it into the movie. There things that the studio and musician nerds are looking for: many of Alex's solos are discussed specifically and played sans backing music for instance - very interesting stuff. There are bits of band history, such as a lot more specific discussion about Ayn Rand's influence on the band as a whole as well as how Mercury's arm-twisting of Ray Danniels and Terry Brown led those sentiments to heavily influence the writing of 2112 rather than whatever else they were reading at the time.

In general, it is absolutely silly to suggest that this video is at all ripped off of BTLS or that the stock footage (mostly some clips of old videos like "Tom Sawyer" and some concert shots from "RE30" and "A Show of Hands") makes up too much of the DVD. I almost didn't get it because of this and am really glad that I went ahead and bought it anyway.

NO Mention of Camera Eye, Witch Hunt, Vital Signs or Tears. WHAT???????
Over 50 minutes of BONUS features and no mention of these great songs?? Why would the director not ask them to discuss these songs for at least 30 seconds?? Plus most of the time you see the trio jam it is to dubbed songs and not live. The Metallica and Pink Floyd Classic Albums shows band members playing LIVE but not here.
I would have given this a one star review save for seeing Neil do a GREAT drum warm up on one of the bonus features.
Buy "Beyond The Lighted Stage" instead. You learn about as much.

Just a stellar documentary on two of the best rock albums, by one of the greatest bands. Where as the doc Beyond the lighted stage covers the band in general you get a little background for reference of the band and in depth looks at 2112 and moving picture. Great interviews and some amazing footage of the group playing parts from the albums.

I am a huge Rush fan and have seen a lot of different videos, but found a lot of new info here that was very interesting. I especially enjoyed the parts about the not so popular tracks from 2112....Something for Nothing, Twilight Zone, Passage to Bangkok. Also the interviews of the 3 giving their opinions of the other 2 was great. It is excellent that they break down the different sections of 2112 (the song) and explain the different parts and I was surprised about the ending which Neil described. I have understood it wrong for 35 years. Most people (non fans) hear 2112/Temples of Syrinx on the radio and think that is 2112, not realizing that it is a 20+ minute novel, set to awesome music. I have never heard the complete "side" on radio and it would be great if some stations would play it. Between this and the documentary earlier this year, it's no wonder that Rush is probably more popular than ever now. I went to the Time Machine concert and was amazed at the number of females there and also the young kids and all were enjoying it. I think they have opened up an even broader fan base. Overall excellent purchase and lightning fast shipment.

This DVD release is a MUST for Rush fans! It is amply long (including the bonus stuff), and chock full of great new footage of the band expounding on each other, their music, and illustrious career. There are also industry comments by other notable rock musicians, famous radio DJ's, talk show hosts, 'Rolling Stone' reviewers, etc. But the biggest treat is watching their original producer, Terry Brown and the band dissect (and perform in a studio setting) their great, clockwork masterpieces '2112' and 'Moving Pictures'. The audio/video quality is top notch, even on the non Blu-Ray version. It's about time Rush did a 'Classic Albums' DVD, and they do this one justice bigtime. A huge THANK YOU to Geddy, Alex, and Neil for sharing this with your fans (this 49 year old 'fossil' has been one since 1977).

I was not thrilled with this dvd. The band uses the same footage as their "Beyond the lighted stage" dvd and the interviews are almost identical too. On both album reviews, they left out the songs: The camera eye, Witch hunt, Vital signs,Lessons, Tears. They should have left out their brief life story(all this can be found on the Beyond the lighted Stage dvd) and concentrated on talking about EVERY song on both albums.I own other "classic albums in review" dvd's from other bands and they do go into all songs of that album in detail. The only thing that saved this dvd from getting one star from me is the bonus stuff. Rush is my favorite band of all times and I enjoy learning a little history about their songs. I just wished they include all songs when they decide to do another "Classic Album" dvd. Hemispheres and A Farewell to Kings would be awesome!

The extra features on the DVD are worth the price alone. It troubles me that two such pivotal albums are combined into one show for TV. I understand it, but both are very different and important albums--for different reasons. I won't reveal spoilers, but there's a good deal of inside stuff that even I as a long-time Rush nut didn't know.