Product Details

• Actors: Shania Twain
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: March 2, 1999
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630530162X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,295 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #4 in	Video > Music Video & Concerts > Artists > Twain, Shania
  #41 in	Video > Documentary > Music & Performing Arts

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
At its best, VH-1's Behind the Music series walks a fine line between valentine and deep dish, coaxing personal tragedies and dark career missteps from its subjects while still acknowledging their achievements and saluting the fans. This well-timed profile of the Canadian country crossover queen is an apt example, benefiting from abundant early video footage and a willingness (albeit very delicately employed) to raise some of the tougher questions about her public image.

The former Eilleen Twain's struggle from provincial lounge bands to a budding Canadian career, only to be thrust into the role of surrogate parent when her parents died in an auto accident, is presented sympathetically, of course, as is her identification with her adoptive father's Ojibwa culture. But the 60-minute documentary also notes subsequent media skepticism about this rags-to-riches saga, while allowing Twain and some passionate defenders (including singer Faith Hill and Nashville journalist Robert Oermann) to knock the nay-sayers.

Meanwhile, Twain's putative country credentials are examined more in terms of Nashville's Music Row power elite than her music. We learn how she was initially groomed as a country marionette, mouthing other people's songs, dismissed as an outsider, then begrudgingly accepted as a star after she teamed with producer and future husband Robert "Mutt" Lange to record her own songs. What's never really addressed is whether Twain's slickly crafted songs are true examples of country music, or archetypes of the chicken-fried mainstream pop-rock that now accounts for much of the "New Country" boom. Twain's readiness to exploit her beauty and aerobicized midriff is another story, of course, but who can blame the filmmakers?

If the story sometimes edges toward hagiography, crude but endearing video footage offers un-retouched glimpses of the future superstar in early, pre-pubescent performances, as well as in teenage Canadian TV excerpts, and as the big-haired, chameleon vocalist in a slick resort review. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very headstrong and talented woman, July 5, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Ohio, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

I think it was so courageous of Shania to take care of her siblings after her parents got killed in that head on collision. She is a woman who truly gave her all in life, and she really strove to make the most of it. She started out in poverty, and she ended up having several multi-platinum albums, and many #1s. She marks an era in both Country and Pop music, and she hit the #1 spot in both categories. Coming from me, an aspiring singer, I know it's not easy. Shania, my dream would be to sing with you, and you truly are #1!!!!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A five-foot-four brown-eyed bombshell, July 27, 2001

By	SOH "SOH" (Bowie, MD USA) - See all my reviews

"Behind the Music: Shania Twain" is a one hour episode of the VH-1 television series. It's definitely a made-for-TV show, complete with breaks where you would expect commercials to run - but of course, there are no commercials on this recording.

It covers her life from when Shania first started singing in a diner at 3 years old, and her life in Timmons, Ontario, on the edge of the Canadian wilderness. It includes interviews with the family about their life then, their poverty, their sacrifices, the near hits and misses, and early struggles, when, according to Shania, her family ate nothing but "bread, milk, and sugar for days, that's all we had". She describes how her mother's drive was largely responsible for her early music career as a young child. There are clips of Shania performing as a young early teen, including her national Canadian debut, and through her teens as she moved to Toronto to advance her career - until her parents were unexpectedly killed in a car accident. Shania walked away from her dreams and her chance at financial stability to go home and be the surrogate parent to her brothers and sister, who were still children (so was Shania, for that matter), faithfully sticking with her family until the youngest brother graduated high school. Finally, she moved to Nashville and built her career.

The show includes interviews with Faith Hill, Shania, Robert K. Oermann (critic), Carrie Brown (sister), Richard Frank (attorney and agent), Norro Wilson (producer), Luke Lewis (president of Mercury Records), J.P. Aube (former employer), Amanda Thisdelle (niece), and her little brother. It features music from throughout her career up to when "Come On Over" was released, and includes a few clips and some live performances from that release, as well as clips from "The Woman In Me".

Noticeably absent from the video is Mutt Lange, Shania's husband producer who is described as someone who "has always fiercely guarded his privacy, refusing to be photographed or interviewed". But the video is fine without him - it has plenty of Shania!

In short, it's the story behind the woman who, less than three years after her recording debut, "replaced Patsy Cline as the best-selling female country artist of all time." It's an informative and inspiring presentation, and done very well. Good for Shania fans, or anyone who loves pop music, or true stories of inspiring accomplishments.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just My Opinion, In a Nutshell....., May 1, 2000

By	Eric Degerstrom (Columbus, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Please understand that this is just my perspective, my opinion, but I consider this an exceptionally important and emotionally moving video.... that being said....I have to add...If someone made a 1 hour video of Shania Twain sitting on a sofa drinking tea....I'd buy it.....