U2 - Rattle & Hum (1988)

Rattle & Hum is a documterary of U2's 1987 tour of America. Director Phil Joanou follows the band to New York, Texas, Memphis, San Francisco, Denver and Arizona. The movie is shot in black and white for the most part until the end when a couple of concert sequences appear in color. The sharp contrast is startling and gives the film an added power. One of the more poignant scenes is the band's visit to Graceland and Sun Studios as the visit the cradle of rock 'n' roll. For four guys from Dublin, Ireland this visit is like a visit to the Holy Land and it is treated with justifiable reverence. While the interviews and look at the behind the scenes are nice, the meat of any rock film are the live performances and U2 does not disappoint. Their performance of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with a Harlem choir in a church is uplifting. The do a gut wrenching take on "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and haunting version of "With Or Without You". They practically explode off the screen with the rampaging "Bullet The Blue Sky". Rattle & Hum is a must for any U2 fan and now that fourteen years have past and the band has changed its image and look a couple of times, it is interesting to look at them in a simpler time.

U2--nothing more nothing less. This is U2 at it's best. No video screens. No Zoo-tv. No props whatsoever. Just a band that knows how to rock. And rock they do from the beginning with a version of The Beatles "Helter Skelter". They take you on a journey thru America in 1987 and 1988 during the Joshua Tree tour--perhaps the bands best years. Highlights include a version of "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with a Harlem chior, and the recording of "Angel of Harlem" at Sun Studios in Memphis--same studio that Elvis used, and a blazing version of "Desire". Perhaps the most moving moment is the chilling version of "Running to Stand Still". Along the way Bono tries to educate, from the problems in Northern Ireland ("Sunday, Bloody Sunday") to the problems in Nicaragua ("Bullet the Blue Sky"). During one such moment, Bono uses one of the best lines I've heard in a long time when talking about money-hungry evangelists--"The God I Beleive in Doesn't Run Short of Cash". If you missed this defining moment, this is a great catch-me up.

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This DVD is a slightly dressed up version of the VHS tape, with some introductory panorama shots overlaying the opening tracks. The sound quality is great, the "grainy" black and white is intentional as is the eventual transition to color toward the second half of the movie (I saw it in the theatre on 70mm...) If you already have the VHS, it is worth getting the DVD just so you can skip to your favorite tracks. There is no new material on the disk, even though it claims to hold "Ruby Tuesday" and "Sympathy for the Devil" they have just put that down on the track list since Bono sings a few lines from those songs towards the end of "Bad". Like I said, if you like U2, you should own this DVD.

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I had the CD before seeing the movie, I didn't know this was actually a theatrical movie, released by Paramont Pictures.

The movie explains some of the songs better, for example I didn't really care for "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with the gospel choir untill I saw how they went to harlem and actually recorded in a little church. I didn't care much for "When Love Comes To Town" till I saw how they pulled B.B. King into it. So the movie did enhance the CD. Plus the movie has 11 extra live songs (all the rest of The Joshua Tree live), plus an incredible version of Bloody Sunday and others.

DVD version is cool just because you can access all the songs just as if they were on CD, plus you can turn on the subtitles and read along with the lryics.

I heard somone comment about cheap "black and white" and "grainy video", the footage was shot like that on purpose, it's more of an artisitc statement.

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It's easy, in these iPod-era times, to forget why we originally fell in love with U2. We still listen to "The Joshua Tree" and think that "I Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is one of the best songs ever written in all of human history. But somewhere between "Achtung Baby" and "Atomic Bomb" Bono morphed into "the fly" we started taking U2 for granted, knowing they would always make good music (even "Pop" was listenable)(I just lost a ton of "helpful" votes saying that anything U2 does isn't perfect) but we forgot when they were great.

That's what this video is for.

I was introduced to Rattle and Hum by my wife. One day I was going through her CD collection because I was tired of mine, and came across the Rattle and Hum CD. I put it in, and couldn't belive my ears. This was U2 times seventy, "Why didn't anyone tell me there was music like this in the world?" I asked her. She smiled understandingly and said, "You should see the video." Then she gave me the video for my birthday. It was the best present ever.

Rattle and Hum writes in blazing lines of fire across your soul. There is intensity, passion, and raw rock and roll energy that surges through you and makes you see the world completely differently. If this video doesn't move you, you are clinically dead.

From Bono's classic reclaimation of "Helter Skelter" to the fading decrecendo of "All I Waint Is You", what you see is a rock and roll band at the top of their form, but still young enough and humble enough to adapt to blues and gospel along the way.

I can't explain it. Buy it, turn the lights off, take the phone off the hook, watch it, and 90 minutes later you will understand. Then you can write your own incoherent review. But at least you will know.

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