Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Mpi Media Group
• VHS Release Date: October 28, 1987
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300200892
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,225 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting little video sampler from Zappa's video catalog, November 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Video from Hell [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is another one of those Zappa movies that has been out of print for years. The video is sort of a compilation of selections from Zappa's other movies (which are also out of print). In addition to that, Frank also gives a few exclusives including some concert footage, the "You Are What You Is" video, and Frank's court testimony against a Maryland censorship bill. Frank's commentary throughout the tape is funny too. Worth checking out if you can find it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zappa fans will enjoy this, if they can find it, August 29, 2010

By 

Michael Schell (www.schellsburg.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Video from Hell [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is actually one of the most interesting of the "official" Zappa videos. It's a collection of various Zappa music videos, live band footage and quick edited cinema pieces set to Zappa music, all connected by interview-style clips of Zappa and some of his associates. The title refers to the contemporaneous album Jazz From Hell.

The brief title sequence constructed by Bill Bickford from shots of melting wax gives way to a segment combining fast edited A- and B- rolled 8mm film footage shot by Zappa at a carnival in the 1960s, accompanied by G-Spot Tornado from Jazz From Hell. The imagery here is probably the closest Zappa came to being a bona fide filmmaker. Granted, that's dim praise, but this sequence is at least cinematically competent. It's not the caliber of, say, Brakhage's 8mm masterpieces, but if you omitted the commercial-sounding music, making it a silent film, it wouldn't seem laughable amidst a retrospective of American experimental cinema from the 1960s and 1970s.

The first "present time" video sequence follows. We see Zappa in his home Synclavier-centric studio. "Right now we have a President from hell [Reagan]...so we should have jazz from hell also". This leads into a live performance of St. Etienne, another Jazz From Hell track, this time built around a Zappa guitar solo. Next up are Zappa and Steve Vai jamming over the Stevie's Spanking riff during the 1982 tour, a nice bit of live concert footage (at least if you can get beyond Vai's sleeveless leopard print shirt and skimpy shorts). The shots of Zappa with a lit cigarette temporarily tucked beneath his E string while he solos is a poignant reminder of his chronic habit (the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center says "men with heavy smoking exposure face a 60% increased risk of prostate cancer").

Next we see Thomas Nordegg muttering about using fisheye lenses for videotaping rock concerts. Though he's identified as a "video-obsessive", his main gig was as Zappa's guitar tech. The next segment is the MTV-style "You Are What You Is" music video. Zappa made very few videos of this genre in his career, and this one was purportedly suppressed by MTV because of its use of the N-word and Reagan lookalike actor. Low-res versions of this video are viewable online at YouTube and the official Zappa Web site.

Next up are outtakes and documentary footage from the making of the movies Uncle Meat and 200 Motels. If you're curious what some of the early Mothers of Invention performers look like, then the identifying captions here are of some value. Bookending this section is Don Preston mumbling about assembling a "hit single" using a dead bird and coat hangers. Consider this section a warning of sorts if you're considering watching the complete Uncle Meat or 200 Motels films, as you'll be in for a couple hours of material that's no funnier than the ilk sampled herein.

Next up is some "home" 1968 footage of the Mothers of Invention accompanied by Dog Breath from the Uncle Meat album. This is followed by a 1973 Australian TV talk show appearance by Zappa where he leads the audience in a conducted improvisation, yet another side to his ever fertile imagination. This segues into Zappa conducting his band in Baby Snakes in NYC in 1978.

We return to Mothers of Invention "home" Super 8 footage accompanied by We Are the Other People. This looks more amateurish, mainly showing band members preening for the camera and the ubiquitous footage of Don Preston almost naked. More imagery of Uncle Meat provenance follows, and this is later combined with the cover photo shoot for We're Only In It For The Money (the one that parodies the famous Beatles cover). Back in the "present", Zappa displays an old PA amplifier found on the shelf of his equipment room, then his friend Al Malkin wastes three minutes of our lives fellating a banana to the accompaniment of a King Kong performance from the 1982 tour. The video ends with Zappa testifying at a Senate committee hearing, but it's not the famous 1985 PMRC proceedings in the US Senate that he satirized in Porn Wars, but a later circus in the Maryland State Senate.

The three-LP box set featuring guitar music that Zappa promises in this video is presumably the Guitar album, actually two disks, released in 1988.

In all, it's a worthy hour to spend if you're interested in Zappa, if you can track down a copy.