Product Details

• Actors: Gentle Giant
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Import, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Alucard UK
• DVD Release Date: August 24, 2004
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002Q9V3Y
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,243 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Gentle Giant - Giant on the Box" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joyful noise, December 22, 2004

By 

Andrew Stephens (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gentle Giant - Giant on the Box (DVD)

Words fail. This is sublime noise, music, raw creativity. But it's bloody brilliant. If you are a fan of this band and never got to see them then this is a must purchase. If you saw them, like I did for the Interview tour, and just forgot how intense the experience could be, then buy this and let all those memories come flooding back.

I have to say this is one of the few music dvd's I have watched in sequence from beginning to end. There is admittedly a little filler, the Italian interview is perplexing (though you can read the English transcript at the official GG web site - http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/ ) and the photographs, while interesting - lack captions, and there is duplication between the two main features. However that is a needless quibble. The quality of sound and video are generally quite good and the selection of material is excellent, primarily from In a Glass House, Octopus and Power and the Glory.

The band is tight, powerful, extraordinarily talented and what's even better, play like they love what they're doing and take great joy in playing with one another. There is a lot of interaction between band members, who are quite emotive and self reliant in front of (well at least in the first segment) an audience that doesn't quite know what to make of them.

To sum up, worth every damn penny. I can only hope that there is more video somewhere in the vaults that covers off the next segment up to The Missing Piece. I'll book mine now, please.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On The Box -- and more, November 24, 2004

By 

Cato - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gentle Giant - Giant on the Box (DVD)

I would only add to comments about this must DVD for Gentle Giant fans:
- the package contains a bonus audio CD of the German TV concert, so you get 50 min and 28 sec of listening pleasure away from the TV
- the background music to the menus is new music composed by Kerry Minnear. It's brief but quite good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure from the past, August 4, 2004

By 

Lee LaFarge "Zontar" (West Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gentle Giant - Giant on the Box (DVD)

I've been a Gentle Giant fan since I first saw them backing Jethro Tull in 1972. For me, GG was the best of all the progressive rock bands from that era. Their music was full of melody and very inventive. You might find several different song styles and counter melodies in one five or six minute track, and all of them extremely beautiful and interesting. They never indulged in the excesses that some of the prog bands did at that time. Just virtuoso performances of totally unique music that could be both haunting in it's beauty, or rock your socks off. Their music styles ranged from rock to English folk, as well as baroque classical music. Jazz was definitely an influence as well as blues, and it all came together in a style that was uniquely their own. The sheer joy of making music is evident on every track of their first 8 or 9 albums. All of the other prog rock bands could get bogged down in pretentiousness or sometimes bore you with long tedious unmelodic compositions. Not Gentle Giant. There was never a wasted note.
It's been twenty four years since they disbanded, and I'd given up thinking I'd ever get to see them again. This DVD is like finding home movies of a lost loved one. The performances are from an old German TV broadcast as well as an American TV broadcast (I think from the old Don Kirshner's "In Concert" series), as well as some brief black and white Italian TV footage. The film and sound quality from 1975, though not up to todays digital standards, looks and sounds remarkably good. The camera work sometimes annoys (a blistering guitar solo, while the camera shows a face), but that's typical of far too many concert films unfortunately. The music from the American show culls a few songs from the German performance for the briefer American TV appearance. The American audience is livelier than the Germans, but the GG performances from both shows are equally excellent! It's just so great to see them again, I refuse to take away any stars for these minor imperfections. If you love Gentle Giant, and you miss seeing them perform (or worse, never saw them perform), then enjoy this gift from the past.