Martyn Atkins'
"The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of
Eagle Rock Entertainment. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental
features on this disc. In English, with optional English, French,
Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch subtitles for the main
feature. Region-Free.
The film opens with highlights from various early performances after
which Barry, Robin, and Maurice proceed to explain how the music of
Elvis Presley, Lonnie Donegan, Tommy Steele, and the Everly Brothers
changed their lives - firts they began imitating their idols and then
started 'improving' the songs they loved. After their family moved to
Australia, Barry, Robin, and Maurice managed to make a little bit of
money while singing at a race track in Brisbane. A local disc jockey,
Bill Gates, christened them the Bee Gees and played a few of their
songs.
The Beatles visited Australia and inspired Barry, Robin, and Maurice to
dream impossible dreams. They recorded a couple of albums and eventually
decided to go back to England because they thought that they would
never make it big in Australia. But as soon as they reached Southampton,
they were told to go back to Australia because England had turned its
back on rock' n' roll bands. Other struggling bands told them that it
was Eric Clapton's time (meaning the that the record companies were
interested in signing solo artists).
The big break came when Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles, heard a
tape the Bee Gees sent to him. Robert Stigwood signed them to NEMS, and
two months after that the Bee Gees were in the American Top 20 and the
British Top 20 with their first single - "New York Mining Disaster".
Slowly but surely the Bee Gees were becoming stars. They started
appearing on various shows and big radio stations began playing their
songs. It was a magical time.
Right around the time when the Bee Gees were doing the Cucumber Castle
film, however, Robin and Barry went in different directions and the
band fell apart. But they managed to iron out their differences and
recorded "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", which became a massive hit.
From that point on, the Bee Gees were firmly on the road to worldwide
success.
Because there is an enormous amount of factual information in The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time
, which is impossible to cover in a single review, I would like to
single out two specific events which according to Barry and Robin had a
tremendous impact on the Bee Gees. The first was the death of their
younger brother Andy, who Barry, Robin, and Maurice were getting ready
to introduce to the band. Andy died only days after he celebrated his
30th birthday, and tt took a long time for the Gibb family to
recuperate.
The second event was Maurice's sudden death in 2003. For awhile Barry
and Robin retired the Bee Gees name, incapable to overcome the loss of
their brother. Eventually they agreed that the legacy of the Bee Gees
must go on and began performing again. It was the only way to honor
Maurice and Andy.
The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is a fantastic, incredibly moving
documentary film about one of the greatest pop bands ever, and, in
essence, the history of pop music itself. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080i transfer, The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment.
As expected, the original content looks very good - detail is excellent,
clarity very strong, and contrast levels pleasing. The color-scheme
does not disappoint either. The quality of the archival footage varies,
but this should not surprise anyone. After all, the additional content
is for illustrative purposes only. Actually, a lot of the more recent
footage, from the 80s and 90s, looks quite good. All in all, for a
documentary film the bulk of which is comprised of archival footage, The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time looks as good as it possibly can. (Note:
This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play
it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).
There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: DTS-HD Master Audio
5.1, LPCM 2.0, and Dolby Digital 5.1. For the record, Eagle Rock
Entertainment have provided optional English, French, Spanish, German,
Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch subtitles for the main feature.
Anyone expecting a generic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track for this
release will be pleasantly surprised - the loseless audio track is
indeed very strong. Many of the Bee Gees hits that could be heard
throughout the film sound great (in fact, there are some studio album
samples that have been used). The bass is rich and potent, the
high-frequencies not overdone, and even some of the surround activity
quite nice. As expected, the dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and very
easy to follow. Lastly, I did not detect any audio dropouts to report in
this review.
The LPCM track is relatively strong, but I would recommend watching The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time
with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track because there is a sizable gap
in quality between the two. Dynamics and fidelity, in particular, are
definitely better on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track.
Most unfortunately, there are absolutely no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc whatsoever.
The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is a wonderful documentary film,
one that will definitely appear on my Top 10 list at the end of the
year. As expected, Eagle Rock Entertainment's Blu-ray release is of
exceptionally high quality. It is also very attractively priced. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED.
