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The Movie:
The British version of the Woodstock festival, Glastonbury is a long-running festival that highlights a number of different genres of music from all around the world. This documentary, made in 1995, takes a look at not only the bands, but interviews with a number of the fans who attend - a number of different types, from those who just want to get wasted, to entire families who've come to enjoy the music.
The film frequently seems more like a tour guide than a documentary; the film often has stretches where it simply wanders around the ground and nothing happens. Occasionally, an interesting (or just plain weird) event is covered, but after a while, there's just not enough going on to sustain interest.
There are quite a few bands included in the documentary, but few are actually given more than a few moments of screentime. I didn't recognize too many, either. A couple of the bands are Lemonheads (whatever happened to them?) and the Verve.
The sort of relaxed, informal quality of the documentary does do a nice job of bringing the viewer to the festival without leaving their living room, but often you wish the filmmakers would go a little deeper than they do - ask more questions of people, go behin-the-scenes of the concert, something. It's an okay movie that has a few fun moments, but tends to drag on after a while.
The DVD
VIDEO: The video quality is not as pleasing as the sound quality. The picture is letterboxed at about 2.35:1 and tends to have a slightly grainy look to it at times. It also varies quite a bit in look, from sharp and clean to soft and somewhat hazy to dimly lit and murky. Detail varies, but generally isn't too great.
Aside from the flaws mentioned above, there are some print problems - some slight dirt and minor to moderate marks/scratches. Colors are fine though, looking natural and without any problems. The main comment about the video quality is that it looks to have been filmed a number of different ways, leading to frequent variations in quality. I didn't find any of the problems to particularly distracting, and was able to overlook the flaws.
SOUND: The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 sound isn't what anyone would call demo material, but it is still pleasing, with deep beats from the occasional background music comes through quite well. Even in the scenes that are simply wandering around the festival, there is some nice ambient sounds such as wind, birds chirping or music off in the distance.
Like the "look" of the movie, the audio has a quality that's not "polished" or "slick", but still very natural and not harsh or thin. Once performances are finally featured, they aren't particularly dynamic or remarkable sounding, but are captured cleanly and come almost completely from the front - there isn't a whole lot of surround use throughout the movie, and the sound folds up quite a bit during the less intense scenes where the camera journeys out into the campground.
MENUS:: Enjoyable non-animated main menus with images from the concert in the background.
EXTRAS:: Nothing.
Final Thoughts: Occasionally entertaining documentary, but there's not enough to fill 90 minutes. Maybe worth a rental.
The Film:C+
Video Quality:C+
Sound Quality:B-
Extras Quality:N/A
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