Customer Reviews

The NFL's Greatest Games: The Ice Bowl [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The ice bowl is the first football game I have clear memory of. This tape,which is very well done, sets s up the game by showing what happened the year before in the championship game in Dallas,and how the Cowboys were ready to avenge that loss. Also, juxtaposed nicely, are the story of the 1967 packers, in the final year of their glory under Vince Lombardi. The tape brings the voice of Ray Scott,longtime voice of the packers and the NFL before the corporate suits took over the broadcast booth with ex jocks. The the game itself is shown virtually in its entirity, with clever voiceover by Scott sounding very much .like it did that day. With the temperature being -16 below zero, the players and fans literally were trying to survive as well as win. This is the best of the NFL tapes that I have seen,perhaps because of the seminal importance of the game,or simply for nostalgic reasons. Either way, this is an excellent tape and a good bargain,considering that you are likely to re-watch a sports tape. And, listening to the voice of the great Ray Scott is a distinct pleasure.

This video is a must have for any football fan. Rather than a short synopsis of a few plays from the Dallas-Green Bay NFL Cahmpionship game of 1967, this video shows nearly every play of the game, with radio broadcast and recent interviews of players involved in the game. You'll want to turn up the heat in your house when you hear the players talk about about how tough it was to play in sub-zero temps. The game itself was a great one, too, with many Hall of Fame players involved. Post game footage is shown, with a New Years party at Lombardi's house. Gotta love Vince!

DVD #1 presents a terrific hour-long history of the franchise. It hits both the high- and lowpoints, and indicates why the Packers are a national treasure and probably the greatest team in NFL history. Lambeau, Hutson, Lombardi, Starr, Nitschke, the Ice Bowl, Favre, White, the nine NFL championships, the three Super Bowls they won (I, II, and XXXI), and the one they lost (XXXII). The best fans in the league, the smallest venue, the most legendary stadium, and the team's miraculous survival over 80+ years, in no small part because they are the only pro team in any sport that is entirely owned by their fans. The highpoint, of course, is the 15-minute section entitled "Lombardi" which encapsulates the Green Bay career of the NFL's greatest coach--but at the end of this DVD about the Packers' heroic ongoing history, you realize that as great as Lombardi was, the team is greater still.

DVD #2 was produced earlier in VHS format (I bought it at the Packer Pro Shop in GB) and portrays the greatest game in Packers history and one of the greatest in NFL history. Other reviewers have justly praised its play-by-play reconstruction and modern-day interviews with the participants. Yes, Kramer was offside--but luck is a part of any game, and the Cowboys had a generous helping of it in the second quarter. Like another reviewer, I love the postgame interviews, even the glimpses of Green Bay in 1967. The muted colors of the frigid game (maybe Packer jerseys actually were that dark in the 60s--I see the same thing in footage of other games) and the elegaic tone of the final interviews give a haunting sense of a world that is now departed.

Being only five years old when the Ice Bowl took place, I have spent much of my adult life attempting to re-create in my mind what it must have been like that arctic Sunday afternoon when the Packers and Cowboys attempted to play a game of football in weather unfit for man or beast. This video does a remarkably good job at transporting you back to the late sixties, when NFL football was still very much a game.

The reminiscences of players, coaches, journalists, and broadcasters is blended quite skilfully with the vivid footage of players shivering in makeshift tents on the sidelines, errantly melting their shoes in front of portable heaters (because they had no feeling left in their feet), mistaking effects microphones for sources of heat, and fashioning makeshift ballaclavas out of whatever was available. Such imagery lends great credence to the words of the participants.

Under such conditions you could forgive NFL Films for reducing the actual game to little more than a sideshow, but with many drives presented play-by-play, the tape pretty much flows like an actual broadcast (maybe better, given the absence of commercial breaks). For once, the famous goal-line sneak by Bart Starr is presented in its proper context - as part of an amazingly determined drive in which Chuck Mercein's reception a few plays earlier probably swung the game the Packers' way.

If there are any complaints, they're that Earl Mann's narration is sometimes a little too melodramatic and the "play-by-play re-creation" of the inimitable Ray Scott cheapens the overall quality of the production. Scott's voice still has the same remarkable sense of drama and suspense it did when he was the top voice at CBS, but surely it would have made more sense for him to have replaced Mann as narrator. "Re-creating" a play-by-play seems a overt appeal for the dumbed-down market.

That this is "The Greatest Game Ever Played" may be moot, but certainly this is one video whose time is long overdue. In the absence of footage from the original CBS broadcast, this is as close to real as it will probably ever get.

NFL Films did an admirable job transferring the footage into the digital age, although the color of the Packers jerseys almost look black in many cases. Otherwise, the overall color and clarity are exceptional. I agree with one of the reviewers who noted that the voiced over play-by-play done by Ray Scott (as well as the canned fan responses) cheapens the product somewhat. It lacks the energy, timing, spontaneity and adjectives of his typical broadcasts, which all Packers fans became so familiar with at that time. Without much live reaction from players, coaches and fans during the game it seems a bit too sanitized. I would rather that NFL Films simply remastered the original version narrated by "the voice of God", John Facenda, then have Ray Scott add narration to whatever additional footage was necessary to spice it up. It was great to hear the perspectives from some of the former players, although I would like to have seen more post game interviews and in particular, live commentary about the playing conditions. No matter, any Packer fan will enjoy reliving one of the most memorable games in sports history.

Not much can be added to the other online reviews listed here. Two things that amaze me to this day are: 1. CBS Sports either never bothered to videotape the entire game, or else they erased and lost the broadcast videotape. 2. The fact the NFL Films 16mm camera equipment did not completely freeze up from the cold during the game. Good thing their cameras functioned and recorded the action.

Was all I needed for this one. The aforementioned segment mentioned can be described succintly: LOMBARDI. After reading David Marniss' "When Pride Still Mattered" - A must read, purchasing the DVD was a no brainer, just for the Lombardi excerpt.

The ICE BOWL brings out all kinds of emotions. I am a Cowboy fan, so it kind of hurts to watch the 3rd-and-1 Starr sneak (Kramer moved;). Few people realize the psychological damged it did to Dallas, it took them four years to recover. But those sentiments get tempered in viewing this classic contest. Though I was only one years of age at the time of this classic, the footage alone has me calling this the best game ever.

Being a native Texan, I am actually a Cowboy fan. However, I am married to a die-hard Packers fan and have thus come to appreciate the team's history and tradition over the years.

The disc on the history of the team was interesting, especially the very early years from the team's founding in 1919 until the arrival of Vince Lombardi in the late 1950's. Given today's corporate mentality it is interesting to note that the Packers were founded and coached by the same man - Curly Lambeau, who also played the position of halfback for the Packers during the team's early years. The history did brush over the years from the late 1960's to the early 1990's, but then these were such disheartening years for the Packers that this is understandable. The history gets more in detail again with the arrival of Holmgren and Favre in Green Bay, and continues through to the Mike Sherman years and the building of the new stadium.

Of course, the real reason to own this set is for the reconstructed version of the Ice Bowl. Fortunately, although I am old enough to barely remember the Ice Bowl, I am not old enough to be as bitter about it as my parents are, so I could watch the segment on the Ice Bowl and appreciate it for the history and for the titan struggle between two great teams that it was. Overall, there are about 40 or so minutes of the 60 minute game shown, and NFL Films has done a good job of piecing the game together so that it doesn't appear to be a patched and spliced up job. It has a real feeling of continuity about it and the video quality is quite good for such old footage. The film conveys the mood of the players and what it was like to play on a field in such conditions through interviews with the players, officials, and some of the broadcasters that were there. Apparently, each time a player fell it was like landing on jagged concrete. Whistles had to be abandoned by the officials due to the cold, and the planned halftime show was also impossible. Also, the film finally confirmed an "urban legend" that I had heard about for years. There really was someone on the sidelines that poured themselves a cup of coffee, turned around to do something else, and when they went back to their coffee it had frozen solid with the spoon in it, forming a coffee-sickle. There is also footage of the post-game show featuring interviews with various Green Bay players including Bart Starr, and also footage of the post-game interview with the legendary Lombardi.

What really impressed me watching this film is how obvious it is that the level of remuneration in the league has escalated since the Ice Bowl was played forty years ago. This really shows in how the Packers choose to celebrate after the game. The segment on the Ice Bowl closes with Lombardi celebrating with family and friends in his wood-paneled rec room - it was nothing fancier than you would find in any middle class three-bedroom two-bath home. It was truly the end of an era "when pride still mattered". I'd highly recommend this set for any Packer fan.

NFL Films produces some good stuff, so I picked up this two disk set. I was disappointed in nearly every aspect of this set. First, the "history" is a typical NFL film with lots of game footage and the kind of music you would expect to hear on something like "Inside the NFL." How could anyone possibly call this a "complete history," when the main feature (covering a period of nearly 80 years) is just under 60 minutes! Little to nothing is said on the years between Lambeau and Lombardi and between Lombardi and Holmgren. Infante is not even mentioned. Relatively little biographical information is presented on Lambeau, Lombardi, or anyone else, and there was surprisingly little shown of Lombardi other than him stalking the sidelines. If you are a Green Bay Packer's fan, chances are you already know everything presented in the "complete history," and have probably seen much of the footage in other contexts.

The special features on disk 1 are laughably week and not worth mentioning. Given how little there really is on disk 1 (60 minutes for the feature and perhaps 25 minutes of extras) one wonders why there are two disks at all. Disk 2 is a different story. It's main feature is an approximately 75 minute feature (and a few extras) on the Ice Bowl, which is excellent in both quality and detail. In my opinion, it puts the first disk to shame.

In the end, I cannot recommend buying this set. The Green Bay Packers have a long, rich history that deserves far better than an incomplete and pitiful 60 minute NFL films treatment. If you buy this set, but it for the Ice Bowl feature.

i didn't watch the first disc much b/c i just saw a separate doc, but the 2nd hour-long disc focused on the ice bowl is awesome, great interviews, and what seems like a play-by-play review of the game. great live action footage!