Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ILLUMINATING LOOK AT THE BAND, FANS & PA, August 27, 2005
The Grateful Dead movie came out in 1977 but consists of footage shot during an October 1974 series of concerts at the Winterland, the last to use the "wall of Sound" system, and the shows preceeded a break from touring but by the time it came out, they had already resumed performing. It is as much about the fans, the sound crew, the "wall of sound" PA, and promoter Bill Graham as about the band. When I saw it back when it came out and a couple times at local high school auditoriums over the next few years, I was always left with the feeling that it was a little short on uninterupted concert footage. The film tries to cover so much ground the music performances suffer. The other place I felt it was lacking was the sound mix. This new DVD release basically fixes my two main gripes about the original release. It has a second bonus disc of extra song performances, and it has been remixed- it now sounds alot better (but for those who want the original mix, you can play it that way too for the movie portion). There is also some extra interview footage. The transfer of the film has been well done. The dead always had good people working for them, whether it was Betty Cantor, Dan Healy, Steve Parish or Ron Wickersham- and now Jeffrey Norman and David Lemeieux, the keepers of the vault. They have done some excellent work with this release and "The Closing of Winterland" DVD....both come from a period many consider to be their best. Now we can have our own virtual Dead concert. If you like this DVD, I'd also recommend the 5 CD "Movie soundtrack" set which is one of the best audio releases.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
David Lemieux Does It Again!, July 17, 2005
David Lemieux is the Grateful Dead organization's current "keeper of The Vault", having taken over for the band's original archivist Dick Latvala, may he R.I.P.
Remastering The Grateful Dead Movie is his second major video project, the first being "The Closing of Winterland", which is also highly recommended.
Even though the Dead were at their creative peak in 1974 (my opinion, of course), the audio and video quality of the multitude of concert videos that have been released by and of this band arguably improves as we move forward in time, if for no other reason than technology. Simply stated, they were able to make a better recording in, say, 1990 than in 1974.
All that changed when when David Lemieux decided to go back to some of earlier masterpieces and painstakingly remaster them.
I own The Grateful Dead Movie on VHS and on LaserDisc. Yet they rarely get played due to lack of decent audio quality. There's simply so much more to enjoy from this band that's of so much better quality.
The remastered Grateful Dead movie on DVD is a treat for the eyes, ears, and spirit! If I'm not up off the couch dancing as if I were at a show, I'm sitting there mesmerized with an ear to ear grin, sort of like the dude in the front row of the show!
THE REAL TREAT, however, is the "second disc", which includes footage that never made it to the original movie. In my opinion, the second disc with its never-seen-before-footage is where you'll find the real nuggets of pure joy, pure Grateful Dead heaven, the band at their best! Wait, oh just you wait, until you experince The Other One > Spanish Jam > Mind Left Body Jam > The Other One! Yeeow!
I own every piece of commercially available Grateful Dead video, and some that are not commercially available and this magical "Second Disc" is the finest bit Grateful Dead video available. Period.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I see Dead people..., December 26, 2004
This is a totally great movie about The Grateful Dead. It really captures what it was like to see the Dead live in concert.
Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I used to be a total Deadhead. I saw them 587 times in concert.
The only thing missing for me in this movie that I used to see during the actual concerts is the 30 foot tall talking turtle that used to sit next to me at most of the shows. That dude was awesome! He'd sit there and tell me stories about life in Giant Turtle Land and then he'd play air guitar along with Jerry's real guitar playing. Giant Turtle Guy was the best!
Anyway, if you love the Dead, you'll totally love this movie. Get it and get a Grateful groove on...
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