DVD shelf life

The Free Press Houston film library shelf is bustling with DVDs of every sort. There are BBC series, there are movies only sold online, of course some cool reggae discs, and even mainstream releases. We’ve clocked over 22 hours watching the various extras, movies, songs and outtakes in the past two weeks and now pass our experience on to you.
New Street Law: The Complete First Season offers a different view of the law. When these lawyers appear in court they first go to a kind of chamber room where defense and prosecution don robes and white barrister wigs. It’s the equivalent of teams suiting up for dodge ball only here words are being hurled. This BBC 1 series stars John Hannah, who actually does quite a few of these type dramas in the UK, as a legal eagle that actually cares. No, really, he gives a shit. In one show the firm Hannah heads nearly goes bankrupt while working on a pro bono case. In another they lose bigtime (and maybe even a little faith) when their client is found guilty of murder.
There’s interesting cast interaction, and even some hanky panky. Most viewers won’t be familiar with the majority of the actors here, but they all are familiar faces in Blighty. Natch, Hannah is the second banana guy in The Mummy movies and his main court nemesis Paul Freeman was the baddie in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The series lasted two seasons and the final ep of the first season fades out on a cliffhanger.
Ziggy Marley: Love is My Religion was recorded live at the Avalon Theater in Los Angeles (in December 2006). This concert DVD features 19 songs, plus backstage interviews with Marley and making of featurettes. The performance consistently engages whether Ziggy sings his father’s songs or his own. Both this disc and Africa Unite have street dates of February 12.
Africa Unite documents three generations of the Marley family. On the surface the film follows the current Marley family on their initial trip together to Ethiopia. Thematically Africa Unite offers a concise history of imperialism mixed with rare news footage showing various parts of that continent as they achieved their freedom. Some obviously earlier than other, and thus Ethiopia, not only the cradle of civilization but an African nation that was not involved in the late 19th century Scramble for Africa. The concert footage was taken from a 12-hour event attended by over a quarter-million people. Cool extras include a video of Bob Marley strumming an acoustic guitar, singing “Redemption Song.” This particular DVD demands respect.
It would be impossible to make a documentary about illegal immigration without the jingoism of a macho man crying with pride for his country. There are a couple of scenes like that in Border but they are balanced by interviews with Minutemen, ranchers who live along the border, and illegals just trying to tell their story. Made independently by actor and director Chris Burgard, Border works best when it lets the image tell the story: night vision photography that places the viewer less than the length of a game field from armed smugglers guiding over a dozen illegals through the desert. In the light of day Burgard traces the path that brought him close to danger the night before. The Border Patrol requests copies of his footage for training purposes. Another government agency tells him he violated the law by filming without a permit.
There are some sequences that perhaps drag on too long, or footage ruined by bad sound, but these moments are leveled by the amount of statistics the film pitches. For instance, so many Chinese illegals also cross the southern border that additional translators are required by law enforcement. Included are some of the more horrific aspects of human smuggling, like rape trees and decomposed bodes rotting in the wilderness. Border, now on DVD after making the rounds at film festivals, is available at www.bordermovie.com
Watching the two-disc edition of Across the Universe left me in awe at the overall accomplishment of the movie, directed by Julie Tamor and starring Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess. I found myself playing a couple of the musical sequences over and over, and the second disc includes extended musical staging of some of the songs.
On the soft side are the extras that feel like rejects from an Entertainment Tonight special. As much as the film resonates with me, I would’ve liked a bit more depth from the featurettes, none of which address the conflict between Taymor and the producers who wanted to recut the film before it rolled out theatrically. The music commentary reveals lots of great insight into the production perhaps redeeming the weakness of the other extras. If you love the Beatles this movie speaks busloads about that magic time.

DVDs reviewed: New Street Law Season 1; Ziggy Marley Live: Love Is My Religion; Africa Unite; Border; Across the Universe