Customer Reviews

In View - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Jewel Case)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Contains 16 music videos, plus 6 rare music videos and a 3-song live performance. Also includes short interview pieces from 7 documentaries filmed from 1988-2003.
From the WB website: The simultaneously released DVD com- panion to In Time:The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003 ,the band's first greatest- hits album from its most successful years (which spans its ongoing tenure on Warner Bros.),is also R.E.M.'s first best-of video compilation from the period.Featuring 16 video clips,includ- ing the acclaimed classics Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts, the DVD brings together several compelling performances from 2001s South Africa Freedom Day concert in London's Trafalgar Square and fascinating excerpts of EPKs from throughout R.E.M.'s history.

R.E.M. experienced explosive commercial success thanks to its "Losing My Religion" video, so it's a natural move to release a collection of videos from throughout the band's career.

But as far as retrospectives go, I expected this DVD to be comprehensive and it is far from that. Where is "Drive", a subversive, moody masterpiece of expressionistic photography which fit the sepulchral majesty of the song perfectly? Where is "Shiny Happy People" which, despite being saccharine and musically uninteresting, nevertheless represents a vital side to R.E.M.'s career (in the same way as "Stand")? And I could be dreaming, but I remember "Fall on Me" having a video. This was one of the band's best songs and if there were a video, I would've liked to see it here.

What does get included is still prime R.E.M. material. Reflecting the decline of music video since the mid-'90s, the late-'80s and early '90s material is the best. "Losing My Religion" was one of the most bizarre hit singles ever made, and the Tarsem-directed music video (which swept the 1991 MTV Music Video Awards) retains its strange, provocative, yet humorous edge. "Man on the Moon"'s gorgeous black-and-white photography picks up where "Drive" left off, continuing the stark vision of the Automatic for the People album; "Everybody Hurts" expresses a highly cinematic vision; and "Stand" is a dumb piece of bubblegum pop, an exaggeration of what the song aimed to be.

Out of the bonus material, the concert performances in Trafalgar Square grabbed my attention the most. Michael Stipe sounds a little offkey on "Losing My Religion", but the band performance is superlative, especially Peter Buck's shimmering mandolin, and the shooting manages to avoid the hyperactive camera-move-obsessed concert shooting that plagues modern music video. This director actually seems more concerned with capturing the onstage action than with moving the camera (eg. Metallica's 'St. Anger' DVD), and the result is a good, solid piece of concert performance.

There's enough good material on here to make this worthwhile for the R.E.M. fan and music fans in general. All I'd say is that you won't get the entire R.E.M. canon here, but you won't be disappointed in what you do get.

REM has changed dramatically through the years in sound, style and meaning, but has never given up the essence that makes the group one of benchmark performaners in American music.

The DVD has the option of playing the videos with interview snippets between the takes. While short and relatively benign to most long time fans, the clips do provide glimpses of the band member's thoughts on the songs to newer fans. The 5.1 sounds incredible with the proper equipment.

A little about my favorite videos:

The DVD starts out with REM's "Bad Day" video, which is probably one of the funniest and best shot video concepts on the scene to date. The band takes the persona of the "Morning Team" with Michael Stipe as an anchorman and Mike and Peter as satellite reporters.

There are supposedly 2 versions of the DVD release, one that carries the warning "Explicit Material" which is due to the extended version of "Nightswimming" which contains female and male nudes. These shots are tastefully done and convey the innocent nature of the song. The imagery does not overpower the feeling of the song.

Other highlights include the video from "The Great Beyond" which has been edited slightly different from the version on "Man in the Moon" to include actual footage of Andy Kaufman rather than Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman.

There are also several bonus videos, including "Tongue" which is a nice treat for hard core fans and casual listeners as well.

Perhaps one of the best features of the DVD are the 3 bonus live performances. REM is one of the few bands that can truely deliver an amazing live performance. The energy on stage is electrifying and makes it hard to stay in your seat.

Overall this DVD is excellent and I recommend it for hard-core fans, even if there is overlap in your DVD collection. For casual listeners, this is a collection of REM highlights with very well done videos. This is the perfect DVD to put in the home theatre while having friends over- the videos are intelligently done and provide a great conversation piece that is also entertaining. The range of emotions the selection brings, from getting up and doing the "Stand" dance to the more thought provoking and stirring "All the Way to Reno" "Everybody Hurts" and "At My Most Beautiful" makes this the perfect DVD to add to your musical collection in Dolby 5.1.

This came out along with In Time: The Best Of R.E.M., which was a hit all over the world. But if you thought the songs were good, you really gotta check out the videos!

Except for Animal and All The Right Friends, every song's respective video from the first disc of In Time is on this DVD, and that's quite an impressive collection.

So what do we have? We have the fantastic new video for Bad Day (like a mock news report), Imitation Of Life (my favourite video, it's incredible), and clever videos for All The Way To Reno, The Great Beyond, E-Bow The Letter and Daysleeper. It also contains the award winning video for Losing My Religion, the emotional Everybody Hurts, the silly Stand, and the bizzare Electrolite vid... what a collection!

But there's more! The DVD comes with some bonus videos of rarely heard R.E.M. classics. I love Tongue and How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us, both rarely heard but very good, both with a great vid. Highlights, however, are the awesome Lotus video (almost as freaky as the actual song!) and the quirky vid for my favourite R.E.M. song, I'll Take The Rain. Wow... I love this DVD!

There's even live perfomances of three of their more popular songs (Imitation, Religion and Man On The Moon), and a discography included, so the collector can start ticking them off!

All in all, this is one DVD that is definatly worth your while if your interested in seeing some of the videos backing some of their best songs!

what else is there to say. If u are a fan of R.E.M. and their videos, then you probably already have it. If u dont, what are you waiting for. Only reason I didnt give it 5 stars is because a couple of my favs, (Near Wild Heaven, Radio Song) wasnt included. But you can get those and more on the dvd This Film is On.

In a vast, and eclectic collection of REM's greatest hits, the videos emote what REM has stood for all these years. The music. Though fully formed thoughts that went into videos like "bad Day" and "imitation of Life" balance well against the morning and lathargic feel of "E-bow the Letter", "Nightswimming" and "At my Most Beautiful". Balancing this video emotional roller coaster is revitalizing songs like "All the Way to Reno" and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?". In all this collection has something for every music lover....more so for the REM fan

I definitely love acts that speak clearly with their music, but as well as the innovation of their videos. There are just very few acts that still have maintained that after almost twenty years of music television like U2, Bon Jovi, and definitely R.E.M. After nearly a quater of a century of making records that really have withstood the test to time, the group that originated from Athens, Georgia have made some of the greatest videos of the MTV era. While so many seem to rather have interest in younger acts like Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears who are more about looks than the artistic feeling of their videos, it sometimes tell the classics never die, and R.E.M. have placed that into one video collection.

In View: The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003 is a well received reflection of some of the most delightful videos that R.E.M. developed during their era with Warner Brothers that have been just delightful then as much as they are now. The DVD has so many great videos including award-winning classics like the somber Everybody Hurts, to the unique Losing My Religion, to the omages to Andy Kaufmann from clasics like the quirky The Great Beyond, which R.E.M. released for the Jim Carrey flick Man On The Moon, to so many other greats. The videos have all been restored to their best quality and remastered very well. But, yet while there are so many classics, the compilation does overshadow a few classic video R.E.M. released like Pop Song '89, and the joyful diddy Shiny Happy People to name a few.

Despite a few overlooks, In View: The Best Of R.E.M. is a great compilation that is great for die hard fans, and people whpo've never witness these great music videos. This still shows R.E.M. haven't lost the potetntial of making great music videos, and I hope that more of them can be just be as good as back then.

DVD Cover: A-

Videos: B+

Remastering: A-

Price: A 1/2-

Overall: B 1/2+

R.E.M has done a great job putting this DVD Video Collection together. DVD feathers all the videos, plus 6 bonus ones and 3 live appearances. The audio and video quality is simply the best, featuring DTS 5.1, the best sound quality available nowadays.

Just want to say REM thank you for giving us such a great opportunity to view your works in a perfect way.

I really hope artists like Tina Turner, Aerosmith and Madonna will also release their video collections in DTS 5.1 Audio option, instead of cheap PCM Stereo.

Without any hesitation, I advise you all to get this DVD.

Greetings from sunny Azerbaijan!

Don't get me wrong, I REALLY like this DVD. I just think it could include more videos from that era.

The live videos are very cool, an outstanding performance. The Rare videos are what they say... rare. Most of them I had never seen before.

I think this DVD lacks some more interviews, some behind the scenes, and as I said before, great videos from that period, that definetely could fit here.

But still, very worth the money spent.

Product is only playable on European DVD players. Make sure you have one or it will not play. I do not have one. Got my money back.