10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Look at Sarah's Career, August 15, 2008
This review is from: Sarah McLachlan: A Life of Music (DVD)
For those looking to buy a DVD featuring concert performances by Sarah, this is not the DVD for you. Check out "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy: Live" (1994), "Mirrorball" (1999) or "Afterglow Live" (2004).
This DVD is a well put together biography of Sarah's career as told by her family and friends along with her producer/co-writer Pierre Marchand and Sarah herself. The soundtrack to this DVD biography features Sarah's music, which gives it a familiar touch. The biography starts with Sarah's early days and goes up to the release of 2003's "Afterglow." Throughout the biography, we see a collection of old video footage as well as pictures.
Towards the end of the DVD, Sarah sits down and plays a beautiful piano acoustic version of "Fallen."
Bonus Features on this DVD include a solo interview with Sarah on a variety of topics.
Overall, I recommend this DVD if you are interested in learning more about the musical life of Sarah McLachlan.
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29 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Film biography of Sarah, March 1, 2006
This review is from: Sarah McLachlan: A Life of Music (DVD)
I like Sarah McLachlan a lot, and I was interested in the biography on this dvd, but it only mildly held my interest and it wasn't a strong experience for me. Compare it to the way that Cyndi Lauper At Last makes you feel.
The problem is that it's hard to make a film biography that will hold an audience's interest. And this one only succeeded on a lukewarm level.
Off on a tangent here, how many times have you heard an artist say that they don't want to explain their material, they want you to take out of it whatever you take out of it. It's a cliche. And I really don't accept it. If I'm drawn to your song I want to know what YOU make of it, why YOU wrote it, what YOU meant by that line, not what I make of it. If I'm interested in your song I'm interested in you and the way your head works. I already know how mine works. And if you don't want to share that information with me, I'm not going to pine over it, but I will probably think less about you and care less. I wanted to know about you.
But that isn't a Sarah McLachlan issue. That's an Every Artist issue. Somehow I think they miss the point. Maybe they are ashamed of their own material and don't want it examined too closely. Maybe it isn't rocket science and they don't want us to know how superficial it is. Again, that isn't a Sarah issue, and I do love her music. She's one of my favorite artists of all time.
I was happy to find out what Adia is about. I already knew what Possession was all about, and I was glad to hear that the stalker did not write it, Sarah did. I would like to know what Good Enough is about, what led to the writing of that song. I never would have guessed what Adia was, and I'm glad she violated that "I won't tell you what it was about, just leave it to you to gather your own impressions".
I don't know how this video could have been improved. I'm not a film director or screen writer. Maybe search for more intensity in her life and show it. A pleasant and interesting conversation doesn't make for a good video. We're more demanding than that. If I was sitting in a room having this conversation with her I would have liked it a lot, but when you are making a video you have to raise the bar.
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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a DVD, January 16, 2007
This review is from: Sarah McLachlan: A Life of Music (DVD)
I love Sarah McLachlan's song and bought this DVD for that. There are songs in this DVD according to the editor's review. But there is none, only interview. What a misleading description. I am returning this DVD.
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