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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 2NDVD 3127
- Running time: 93 + 42 minutes
- Year: 1992 / 1985
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 / 9
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 / Dolby Digital 5.0, Stereo (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 / 1.78:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £29.99
- Extras:
Baraka: ‘Making of’ feature, Crew interviews, Behind the Scenes clips, Trailer
Chronos: Behind the Scenes, Audio Commentary, Location Subtitles
Director/Cinematographer:
- Ron Fricke
(Baraka, Chronos)
Producers:
- Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson
Writing credits:
- constantine Nicholas and Genevieve Nicholas
Music:
- Michael Stearns
Barakatranslates as ‘a blessing’ or ‘breath of life’ and was shot over 13 months in 24 different countries.It feels like a 90-minute snapshot of all walks of life and we see many different religions and beliefscovered throughout.
Notable landmarks featured include the Empire State Building and Grand Central Station in New York, AyresRock in Australia and the Grand Canyon and when it comes to bringing up the various practices used in modernlife, there’s even a piece about battery hens that makes you think, as we see the rather nasty process theygo through before being consigned to their workday fate.
It even features the River Ganges with everyone having a good wash, but I couldn’t help but think “Verruca City”,since it really is the world’s biggest bathtub! Yes, I understand how that might sound disrespectful to some,but when you realise how many people in your workplace can’t even be bothered to wash their hands after they’vebeen for a No.1, it did turn my stomach somewhat. That said, after all the wonderful sights around the worldhave been seen, it ends with a look at the stars above, as if you say, “And that’s only *this* planet!”
Baraka is a good film, but even at 87 minutes before the closing credits kick in, it’s still too longto take it all in in one sitting, particularly given that there’s no points of reference along the way, nor arewe told at the time what we’re looking at, so there’s a feeling of it ‘going on a bit’.
There’s no problems whatsoever when it comes to the pictures and sound. The spectacular visuals are backed upnicely with the terrific anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer, which makes it somewhat baffling that the trailer whichaccompanies this disc is presented at around 14:9 letterbox and looks dreadful. The sound comes in Dolby Digital5.1 and delivers a fantastic experience to complement the images on view, courtesy of composer Michael Stearns,and it’s also quite often loud which was a help to me as there’s something not quite right with the actualdisc I received in this boxset which rattled round noisily in my DVD player – something I’ve never experiencedbefore and, I checked, wasn’t happening after this movie had been in my machine.
When it comes to extras, we have the aforementioned Trailer (2:34), a ‘Making of’ featurette(8:07), in 4:3 with letterbox 2.35:1 film clips, with the director, composer, plus supervising producer AltonWalpole and others all talk about what went into the concept and reality in how they filmed everything.Fricke comments how everyone is connected to each other and that he was invited into this life, as was everyoneelse, and that “Life didn’t ask anybody to approve the guest list”, so we’re all in it together.
The Crew interviews (6:43) answer several queries including how the film was written, what the reactionto Baraka was like and why there were no location IDs, the latter Fricke telling us that it’s not aboutwhere you are, but how you feel about it… Well, I felt like location subtitles should have been optional.Finally, the Behind the scenes clips show the camera crew at work in a few different places,but when it came to both this and the interviews, the rather knackered disc I’d received wasn’t helping whenit kept stop/starting. I couldn’t even get towards the end of these clips, but it seemed that it couldn’t lastany more than about five minutes.
The menus are static and silent and the 20 chapters break up the film just right. As mentioned, sadly, thereare no location subtitles here which Chronos has, so you’re left wondering the exact details about ascene if you’re unsure or simply have no idea. How disappointing. There is, however, a full list of thelocations available at:this link on IMDB.com,although it’s not really feasible to keep stopping the film to check the list as you’d lose the flow.
Shot in IMAX, Chronosis an exercise in time-lapse photography that effectively takes you from morning, through the day andinto the night.
Through the course of the brief running time we take in the sumptuous visuals of Lake Powell in Arizona,Stonehenge, busy New York streets, the pyramids of Egypt, the Sphinx, English castles, French castles andcathedtrals, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and so many more places that if I were to list them all you’dthink you’d clicked on to a text-based world atlas by mistake.
It’s incredible to see things like the temples of Egypt in such a state of disrepair, but then you seethe scale of them and can’t begin to imagine how they ever got built in the first place.
To review this DVD based on its film content is rather a difficult one because what’s put in front ofyou is a must-see. After all, it’s the closest most of us will get to seeing the world’s wonders and theway all the images are intercut and put to music has to be seen to be believed. It’s incredibly cleverand as it runs for 42 minutes there’s absolutely no reason not to make time in your busy schedulefor it. It certainly knocks spots off anything normal telly could throw at you of an evening.
The picture is mostly spot-on perfect. I say mostly because, for some unknown reason, when fast motionoccurs there’s a slight jitteryness as things pass by you quickly, such as a ‘flight’ through theGrand Canyon and the aforementioned Lake Powell. Maybe this was a combination of how it was filmed andof the process of transferring it to DVD since it was shot with the intention of being played on ascreen that fills the wall of the cinema and would be a treat to behold. That said, the fast-motionsections that are affected by this don’t happen too often.
The music is a triumph with everything blending together seemlessly and coming across at times asif Rick Wakeman’s been taken back to the ’70s and given all his favourite keyboards to play at oncewhile dropping a few happy pills. It’s a bit odd that the sound is just Dolby Digital 5.0, so there’sno subwoofer channel as that would be the icing on the cake, but what we have here is already a delightfultreat.
According toIMDB.com,composer Michael Stearns used a instrument called the Beam to generate many of the sounds for this film,which is 12 feet long made of extruded aluminum with 24 piano strings from 19-22 gauge. The originalinstruments it was based upon were made from cast iron and difficult to move around.
I haven’t seen the films always mentioned in the same breath as this one, Baraka, also directedby Fricke, plus Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi, but I’ve got the last twoon DVD so I’ll have to make time to watch those.
When it comes to the extras, the Behind the Scenes (30:59) section is split into four parts,starting with a look at all the artists pointing their cameras and how they got the job done. This isshown by showing static pictures while a commentary on this is given by Ron Fricke, production managerand co-editor Alton Walpole and composer Michael Stearns. The other three parts go into moredetail about the Beam, Michael Stearns and Alton Walpole.
There’s also a feature-length Audio commentary from the same three guys and, finally, theLocation Subtitles option is certainly one worth turning on as it’s used in every sceneand tells you what and where you’re looking at so that’ll eradicate any traces of “Ooh, what’sthat place. It looks familiar” happening in your household.
It may not seem like there’s a massive amount of extras but there’s plenty to be going on with andfor the film that you get on this disc, plus the fact most discounted sites like Amazon are sellingit for less than a tenner, it’s a must-buy.
There are 9 chapters to the short film which is fine for the length here and the main menu has a shortpiece of music from the film played over a static image of several shots from the film blended together,part of which can be seen on the cover.
Note that the boxset is simply the two indivudual DVDs put together, so if you already have them on separatediscs then you’ll get no more additional material with this release.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.