Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Take Me To The River
Collapse
-
- Published: 03-14-2016, 08:46 AM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
-
Take Me To The River
Released By: Universal
Released On: February 2, 2016
Director: Martin Shore
Cast:Terrence Howard, Snoop Dogg, William Bell, Mavis Staples, Otis Clay
Year: 2014
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Al Green. Elvis Presley. Otis Redding. Memphis, Tennessee, the surrounding area, the Mississippi Delta...all ridiculously rich with musical talent. It was here that Royal Studios and Satellite Records...which became more famously known as Stax....cranked out pioneering soul and R&B records that have remained part of our collective consciousness for decades. In an effort to document the impact of Memphis, musician and producer Martin Shore has created Take Me To The River, a look at Memphis recording sessions with the legends that made the area famous. Along for the ride are some more modern faces, like Memphis' own Al Kapone, Lil P-Nut...and Snoop Dogg?
Starting more or less at the beginning, Take Me To The River celebrates the contributions of Royal Studios, originally run by Willie Mitchell and now maintained by his son, Boo, and of course, Stax records. Featuring interviews with just about everyone still alive, we're introduced to the unique Memphis scene and told about the importance of Booker T. and the MG's success, being one of the first integrated bands to get noticed with their smash hit, "Green Onions". Ben Cauley of the Bar-Kays makes an appearance as well, the soul surviving member of the plane crash that killed Otis Redding and other members of his band. Later additions to the scene, such as Charles "Skip" Pitts also have their say, with Pitts discussing his work with the Isley Brothers and his phenomenal wah-wah guitar on Isaac Hayes' Theme From Shaft. Hayes, who came to Memphis as a session player and writer is absent from the film in person, having passed away a few years ago, but his segment is one of the most impressive; after crediting he and Dave Porter for penning the monster hit, "Hold On, I'm Coming", it's Hayes' appearance in a packed football stadium with the Reverend Jesse Jackson that highlights how popular the Memphis scene actually was.
In between the interviews, the past and present come together in the studio to put together a number of tracks. Living legends from the heyday of Royal and Stax like Charlie Musselwhite and William Bell do what they do best, while an assortment of rappers...Yo Gotti and Snoop Dogg to name a couple...put their hip-hop stamp on the grooves laid down by live musicians. Old bluesmen, younger students from Stax Music Academy, and present-day talent blend together to create a unique twist on a sound that remains unmistakably Memphis. And not content to focus only on the music, but also the inspiration behind the songs, Take Me To The River hears first-hand about a music born to slaves as a way of communicating that made it's way off of the plantations and into the streets, intertwining itself with the civil rights movement of the 1960's and the assassination of Martin Luther King. The Staple Singers (March Up Freedom's Highway) are on hand to discuss the racial situation of the day, and the importance of Stax musicians attempting to keep the peace showcases how relevant they were in the community.
From the beginning of a music scene, to the closure of some fantastic studios, and in some case, rebirth as music schools passing the torch to this generation, Take Me To The River is a pretty massive undertaking that has a lot of highlights, but is also deeply flawed. The biggest concern? There's so much information being conveyed here, so many people and places, that it's difficult to get a full idea of timelines. Viewers going into the film with extensive knowledge of the Mississippi blues/soul/R&B scene will follow it easily enough, but the less initiated will more than likely flounder as the film darts left and right to cover the bases. Still, as a permanent document, it functions well, having captured some of the last performances of legendary players; and those performances, which take up a large chunk of the running time, are the main draw here. Nobody is going to walk away from Take Me To The River with the type of knowledge that comes from watching other recent documentaries such as Muscle Shoals or The Wrecking Crew, but they will have witnessed some brilliant talent.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Take Me To The River comes to Universal Blu-ray in a 1.78: AVC-encoded transfer that looks great for the most part. The majority of the interviews and performances in the studio look decent and sharp with no issues, despite some "Do The Best You Can" lighting techniques and filming environments. Other parts of the film, however, curiously including a more recent clip from the studio, look rough, having been taken from lesser sources. As a result, some portions of the film have a youtube ugliness to them, displaying digital flaws that don't enlarge well or function in a high-def environment. Still, these moments are few and far between, and the disc is largely up to par.
Two audio tracks are provided on the disc, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. The 5.1 track is fantastic, with the dynamic range of lossless being taken full advantage of during the studio sessions. Aside from that, dialogue is clear and consistent, and up front where it should be. Some of the older material suffers in the same way the video does, but like the video, it's where it should be for most of the running time.
English Subtitles are provided.
The first bonus feature is a full performance of "Be Like Me" (3:58) featuring MJG and 8 Ball.
Next up are two extended interviews, portions of which can be found in the film. The first is Snoop Dogg and William Bell (22:22), in which the former further illustrates the influence and inspiration of the Memphis sound in his own work. The second interview features Terrence Howard and Al Bell (8:19).
The Final Word:
There's no doubt that Take Me To The River is a film that has only the best intentions. Although it could've been more informative, it's hardly a waste of time, and the last chance that viewers will get to see the top-notch players of a long ago generation take care of business in their natural environment.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4140)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -