Customer Reviews

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

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

 

 

I saw this documentary on PBS last year, and it is highly recommended for anyone who is interested in film history and the history of the most successful entertainment empire today - Warner Brothers. It's much better than "Here's Looking At You", the documentary made in the 90's on the studio. For one, there is one consistent narrator - Clint Eastwood, rather than a series of personalities as there was in "Here's Looking at You". In "Here's Looking at You" it seems like these series of narrators are there to show themselves off rather than talk about studio history. Eastwood keeps the focus on the studio, its product, and its strategy.

Of course, as the studio moves into the era of special effects the documentary can't help but show off a little bit with some of their superhero and fantasy films, but I'll grant them that. Because so many of the directors that were around when Warners transformed from an upstart playing with sound to a major studio have passed on, they have interviews from the 60's and 70's with directors such as Mervin Le Roy talking about what it was like in the early days. Of course, there is a big focus on Jack Warner who turned out to be much a much shrewder studio head than his nemesis Louis B. Mayer over at MGM. It shows how Warner made the decisions that got the studio through the depression, the war, and the competition of television.

I might have missed it, but I don't think the documentary talked too much about a very bad move that Jack Warner made that only the good fortune of the future managed to rectify. At one point Jack Warner sold the pre-1949 Warner film library to raise capital. Warner Bros. would today remain a studio with the finest part of its legacy no longer under its control had it not been for Ted Turner purchasing the RKO/pre-1949 WB/pre-1986 MGM film library in the 80's and then reuniting it under Warner Bros. control at the turn of the century when Ted Turner sold his interests in his cable network and film library back to Time-Warner. This is mentioned in "When the Lion Roared", the sister documentary on MGM.

In conclusion, this is a very good documentary on the history of Warner Bros. and its lasting film legacy. Highly recommended.

I do enjoy these studio documentaries & find them fascinating, often wondering what those pioneers of film would of thought to us putting our shiny discs in players & seeing our favorites at any time of the day or night?

The early chapters were much more interesting for me & I found the later chapters to be some what missing in their information, example, I would of thought the Lethal Weapon series would of played a huge part in Warner's income in the 1980's & 90's but they are missed out & the only time we hear from Richard Donner is on Superman, er Goonies anyone? a huge hit in it's time?

I do like the way there was a huge contribution from the then studio heads & their reasons behind some of the movies that were made, that was 1 of the high lights for me.

The other plus point for this presentation, is that you can go to any 1 decade without seeing the whole documentary.

Good picture image in a mixture of ratios from all the different clips.

Worth buying just a little disappointing.

The story of Warner Brothers is great, and most of the best films are included in this five chapters anthology, narrated by Clint Eastwood. Many of the big names that made Warners one of the major studios in Hollywood make their mark: Cagney, Robinson, Bogart, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, directors like Michael Curtiz, Raoul Walsh and John Huston, the gangsters era, the Busby Berkeley musicals, the war years, the film noir with Lauren Bacall and Joan Crawford, the post war nonsenses with Doris Day, the new faces (Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman) and the Elia Kazan films, the controversial sixties, the caothic seventies and the blockbusters of the eighties, Spielberg and Eastwood, Superman, Batman, Matrix and Harry Potter, it's all there, well documented, fully explained and related by most of the people that made the films. That's good. But there's something missing, too. In the war years we don't see any clip from WATCH ON THE RHINE (with Bette Davis and an Oscar winning performance by Paul Lukas), in the post war years there's not one word about JOHNNY BELINDA, and the Oscar to Jane Wyman. What about A STAR IS BORN in 1954, with the glorious come back of Judy Garland? And what about the romantic dramas, very popular in their time, with Troy Donahue and the direction of Delmer Daves (A SUMMER PLACE, PARRISH, SUSAN SLADE, ROME ADVENTURE)? I enjoy very much these kind of anthologies. It's much better than read the same story on books, because you simply can't explain a movie in printed words instead of showing it on the screen, just like it must be seen. How can you explain the face of Bette Davis without seeing it, the way she opens her eyes, the way she moves? And the voice of Humphrey Bogart, the kaleidoscopic choreographies of Busby Berkeley and the way that Lauren Bacall says "If you need something, just whistle"? Great fun, and an unforgettable experience!

This is just a short message regarding wrong labeling on this DVD cover. This DVD set is not ENHANCED FOR WIDESCREEN TVS as stated on the cover. It is presented in STANDARD/FULLSCREEN format, with film materials from different movies present in their original format - either FULLSCREEN or LETTERBOX WIDESCREEN.

I repeat - It is NOT ENHANCED FOR WIDESCREEN TVS! 3 STARS for WARNER BROS. for a sloppy job.

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story (Amazon.com Exclusive)

I was disappointed upon receiving this eagerly awaited DVD to find it had absolutely no enhancements. For example there were no identifying name supers as various people spoke. While some faces were familiar others were not.This certainly makes the doco an incomplete work. Also there was no identification of the various film clips used and again while some are familiar others are not.It proved quite a guessing game.The closing credits are also absent in their place are shots of the WB backlot with music but no superimposed credits. Also as previously mentioned the DVD is not enhanced for W.S.
I can only assume there has been a glitch in the manufacturing process and these DVD's have slipped through the cracks.
Finally rather than be completely negative let me say I enjoyed the doco and the archival interviews. I hope this problem is one that can be fixed for future buyers. Or was it just my copy?

Having been long looked forward to, this documentary covering the history of Warner Bros. Pictures is a real disappointment. Compared to the superior, if a bit glitzy, MGM documentary, it is a rather weak entry. The packaging states "Standard Widescreen Version", whatever that means. It also states "Enhanced for widescreen TVs", which it certainly is not. The MGM presentation was presented in a variable format accurately pointing out the differences between widescreen and earlier non-widescreen movies.

The WB presentation is repetitive and the narration shallow. The people being interviewed don't seem to have had much to say that is illuminating, especially when compared to the interviews in the MGM presentation.

The subtitles, giving the names of the interviewees and titles of the movies being shown, appear to have been electronically added as an afterthought and often are too brief to be read comfortably. Apparently, from other reviews I've read, some DVD players don't automatically start these subtitles. In such a case it is necessary to turn on English subtitle no. 5 to get them. These titles should been inserted as an integral part of the film and not as subtitles that can be defeated. Lastly, the closing credits appear to have been forgotten so we don't know who to blame for the poorly written narration. One gets the impression that this project was thrown to a DVD programming beginner.

Considering Warner Bros. Pictures as one of the world's great film producers, which it certainly is, this presentation does them a real disservice.

A gift for my son who lives in Hollywood, and works in the industry. He loves it!