Customer Reviews

Rage Against the Machine: The Battle of Mexico City

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Will Rage Against the Machine (RATM) go down in history as one of the greatest live acts ever? Only time will tell, but this DVD is testimony that they are serious contenders. And with recent news that lead singer Zack de la Rocha will be leaving the band, this may be the final testament of RATM at their peak.

The energy is nuclear in this concert. RATM does not hold back and the crowd is bursting at the seams of the enormous venue. Especially in the popular "Bulls on Parade", the roar from the crowd will send chills down your spine. You have not heard RATM until you have heard them live, but playing this DVD on a high quality sound system comes close.

Chances are, if you are reading this, you are already a fan. If you are not already a fan, this DVD is an excellent introduction to the Rage phenomena. Here, you can truly appreciate RATM as the speaker for an entire generation of angst.

There are two quirks to this DVD that may bother some viewers. First, snippets of political documentary are spliced in between songs of the concert footage. In these snippets, Zack describes his leftist political views in an abbreviated documentary-style format and one understands better the source of his piercing anger. If you are a strong-minded right-wing politician, you will hate this DVD even more than their studio albums. The inverse is true for left-wingers.

Second, there are two audio tracks that each have a shortcoming. In the high-quality 2-channel audio track, the energy of the crowd is very much evident, but the "F***" words are muted. In the lower-quality but enveloping 5-channel Dolby Digital track, no lyrics are muted, but the crowd noise is almost completely absent.

three things keep this dvd from earning 5 stars. thing number one: censorship. rage is highly against censorship of any kind, so i find it very ironic that many of the swear words are cut from the dvd. while only slightly annoying, it does take away some from the performance. thing number two: the propaganda documentary. while i enjoyed these, i found it annoying that they were interspersed throughout the concert. i would have preferred to be able to watch these separately and be able to watch the concert as a whole without the documentary pieces. i also got the feeling that some songs may have been cut out, but i have no way of knowing for sure. thing number three: the dvd seems to be rather rushed together. while the editing and the picture quality were very good, the packaging is lacking. there is no real track listing anywhere. there is a song list on the back cover, but this does not include the documentary footage so you don't know what track number is what song without going to the menu and looking. also there is no insert in the case. while this is a very good quality dvd, i would have liked to see some extras.

This is a very good DVD of RATM. The song selections are good. The video shots are clear and closeup. The song selection includes Calm Like A Bomb, Bulls On Parade, and Killing In The name of. I have just two concerns about this DVD, and I think that anyone who plans on purchasing it should be made aware. First, the DVD has "freeze frames" inserted periodically throughout the video. It is hard to explain but the best way I can try is that it looks as though the DVD is scratched and skipping. This does not effect the sound, it took a few times of watching to get used to. It's just some video trick used after production, a type of enhancement. It just doesn't work well with a live show like RATM. The second problem I have is with the sound on Bulls On Parade. All of the other songs except this one seemed to be mixed great. The vocals on Bulls on Parade are almost nonexistant and are what an engineer would call "at the back of the mix". In other words the music is way to loud for the vocals and therefore are drowned out. Other than that this is an good DVD. If I didn't own any RATM DVDs, I would suggest getting one of the others first.

Rage Against The Machine are one of the BEST live bands ever.But there are many flaws to this DVD.The live concert is great,but why did they include the dreadful "Zapata's Blood" instead of "Bullet In The Head"?Also,every song with cussing except "Killing In The Name" is edited.The worst thing is the slo-mo shots.Zach and Tom are known for their stage presences,why put in slo-mo?Also,the docunmentary footage is in between songs.Why couldn't they have had this has a bonus feature?Also,there is absolutely NO connection between the band and audience.Zach talks to the crowd a lot on the other 2 DVDS,why not this one?The intro sucks to.They should should have shown the scene they describe on the back of the box.This is an OK DVD,but the other 2 are much better.The 3 stars is for the live show alone.Star with the Grand Olypmpic show,then get the self-titled one,then this.

This DVD/VHS is truly rage at their best. Perfect timing just with the release of The Battle of Los Angelas. Plus, it was their first show in Mexico. The documentary was great, and it helped with them doing a show in Mexico city. I admit the VHS picture was better meaning in the DVD, Zacks head is cut in half, you can't see Tom Morellos head and his guitar at the same time, same with Tim C. And Brad Wilk looks like he's not hitting the cymbals at all. The DVD may have all the extra bonus stuff, but if your a true Rage fan, you look for quality concert footage, so I recommend the VHS. But all and all this is one of the best concert DVDs i have ever seen. Rage is a great band and will be lodged in history of rock forever.

[April 29, 2003]
First it starts with the opening of the show, "Testify" and "Guerrilla Radio". You may have read in other reviews that songs are censored, and that is mostly false (read below). A "song" is censored, namely "Guerrilla Radio". I was disappointed, but it's not really a big deal that all that's audible is "Turn that .... .." when every other song is completely uncensored. I have no idea why, but it might have been a condition set by the label for them to even have the show, and is made up by everything else. For other songs, it can be hard to make out some words because this was a LIVE SHOW.

Then the first documentary (of 4) starts, and they are well done, sometimes giving essential background information for understanding the songs. I had no idea who Emiliano Zapata was or what the Zapatista movement is about before watching this DVD.

The rest of the songs and documentaries continue without disappointment. The slow motion thing going on after a few seconds of close-up on band members is annoying, but not worth mentioning except that other people have.

There are some "bonus features" to look forward to after watching the whole thing:

Zack interviews Noam Chomsky.
A Mexican guy named Marcos talks about globalization and the importance of independant news media.
Both of those are good.

Tom Morello goes on a tour of Mexico, which isn't all that great.
Tom Morello dominates the footage of the band getting ready for the show, with a few appearances by other members of the band.
Files you can access with a computer about everything they talked about in the documentaries. They actually care about this stuff, which is great.

[Added on May 2, 2003]
I was playing it on my computer, and realized that there's another audio track! In that one Guerilla Radio is uncensored. The whole show actually sounds better in that one too.

RATM is one of the greatest bands ever. It's not even debatable. I miss them, their music, and their message. This is of course a must have for any Rage fan. I can't find anything bad to say about this dvd or anything Rage put out. I highly recommend you pick this up if you don't own it.
By the way, this dvd is NOT out of print. There are some sellers, here on Amazon, who are trying to rip off us Rage fans by charging $45 and up for this dvd. Those sellers should know that this dvd can be found, BRAND NEW, for 13 bucks or less. Don't believe me? Check out pricegrabber. Note to those sellers: just because Amazon doesn't carry this dvd, does NOT mean it's out of print.

RATM fan or not, the intensity and energy this band gives off in their live performances is undeniable. It is this same energy and intensity that initially drew me to them, wheich led to learning more about the substance of their messages, which led to an understanding of other views and opinions previously foreign to me. The live footage in this DVD in Mexico City is incredible, and the additional featurettes can open your mind to what they're about. Good stuff.

Words can't describe how great this DVD is. One of the best bands of the 90s, RATM know how to rock. The documentaries in between the songs are cool too, and very informative. This DVD helps get some good insight into the band and the way they think. The songs are awesome too- I can't pick a favourite.

This DVD is Great...And if you are a fan of RATM then this is a must buy!!! [....] The Music is as good as ever. Rage is bye far one of the great live acts and this proves it. Its just sad that Zach left. But not to worry Rage Fans there is still one more CD and DVD left to be released... The Live From the Olympic Auditorium CD (which is a Live Best of) turned out to be there last consert. I know that we will all be waiting.