Stop Making Sense
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Movie Reviews of Stop Making Sense
Movie Review: A Truly Excellent Video Concert!
Summary: 5 Stars
The New Wave Era (mostly Late 70s) in rock music resulted in the introduction of a host of newly formed bands into the music scene. The music was simple, energetic, danceable and fun. Of all the bands, three stand out as strange departures from all the rest: Talking Heads, Devo and Pere Ubu. I own LPs produced by all three and I love the music. Then in the early to mid-80s, Talking Heads produced a movie of one of their concerts called "Stop Making Sense." Some critics billed it as the greatest filmed rock concert of all time, perhaps in part due to the music but mostly for the way that the movie was put together. Of course, I had to see it during the first run and it was excellent. Wonderful film/concert! Well, now the original film/concert has been redone (re-mixed and re-mastered, as they say) and put out in the much more modern DVD format, Well, I waited a long time, but I had to have it.
"Stop Making sense is a truly excellent video concert. I've never seen better. I was captivated from the moment David Byrne wandered out onto the stage and did his first song with the help of a portable boom box. Then it just got better and better as Byrne and his bandmates progressively joined in on the fun. And what fun it was! The energy released in this concert is just amazing. How Byrne manages to keep going throughout the whole concert is amazing in itself. He jerks and twitches, staggers around, runs around and around the stage, but never misses a note. He's always beautifully in step with his spastic performance. The other band members are somewhat less energetic, but close-up shots reveal that they're all sweating from the effort.
The Talking Heads band, ordinarily a quartet including Byrne, Chris Franz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Waymouth, was supplemented by five additional musicians and all performed excellently. Perhaps it's just because I'm used to listening to their records, but I prefer the band as a foursome. Well, that's just my personal quirk. The band, as constituted, ran through a long list of Talking Heads songs and did an outstanding job. The sound was excellent and the visuals, such as they were, added to the performance. The movie seemed short. Maybe that's because I was enjoying it so much. A couple of songs were included as a bonus at the end and I felt it was too bad these weren't included in the concert film irself.
Well, the film seems to have changed quite a bit from that which I remember from the mid-80s, but it's excellent. Quite well done! I loved watching it again and this is a DVD that I'll be able to watch again and again.
Gary Peterson
Movie Review: Same As It Ever Was!
Summary: 5 Stars
Here we have a very fine example of popular music in the mid-1980s in a very highly regarded concert film that was directed by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs and much else). The Talking Heads were quite popular and very admired within a certain fan base, but only broke out into pop stardom with a few numbers such as "Burning Down the House", whose lyrics even David Byrne notes are a series of disconnected phrases.
It is shot with a story arc in mind. Byrne comes to a bare stage alone and does "Psycho Killer" ostensibly to a ghetto blaster playing the drum machine while Byrne plays acoustic guitar. As the first numbers progress more of the band and stage equipment is added until the full ensemble and stage is set for "Burning Down the House". Byrne notes that his "character" does evolve over the course of the concert. Yeah, but we only notice that after multiple viewings. Most of the time we just enjoy the building of musical intensity and the way the whole thing sounds and looks.
The stage antics create the presence for Byrne and the ensemble. He runs and twitches, and makes what were then very strange gestures. He explains the derivation of most of them and the iconic BIG SUIT in the commentary audio track. He also notes that you could also use the film as an exercise video. If, he says, you do everything he does in the video as hard as he does for as long as he does you will be in pretty good shape by the end of the film. He seems to be onto something. It is possible to get winded just watching him do all he does on stage.
On the commentary track from the band members and the director, we learn that the movie was put together from performances over several nights. We learn some of the shooting tricks they used to avoid having any of the seven cameras in the scenes (at least most of the time). That is, one night they shoot everything from the left, the next night everything from the right, and so forth. The also note that there are some continuity errors. While they tried to keep it as true as they could to the live concert experience, they took a balance of the best pictures with the best audio and sometimes that led to things not matching up just right. There were also some studio over dubs, but as few as possible.
It is still a fine concert and a fine film of music making by some very gifted musicians. And it is a great document from the mid-eighties. Tina Weymouth notes her "blimp suit" with the big shoulder pads and so forth.
Still very much worth seeing and enjoying. Who can get enough of "Once in a Lifetime"?
Movie Review: There is no concert DVD better than this...and nothing is better than that.
Summary: 5 Stars
Given the relatively few good concert films that have been made, saying "Stop Making Sense" is the best of the lot might be akin to being proclaimed the best Shakespearian actor in Greenland. But "Stop Making Sense" is far better than that. A timeless, stirring, joyful celebration fueled by the relentless energy of David Byrne and the masterful performance of the Talking Heads.
Beginning with the stark simplicity of "Psycho Killer" through the frenetic finish of "Cross-Eyed and Painless", the Heads are captured at their creative peak by the future Oscar-winning director Jonathon Demme. The film forgoes the boring interviews and needless crowd cutaways that drag down most concert films and begins with the feet of David Byrne who walks onto an empty stage to begin the concert. For the next six songs, the road crew assembles the rest of the set and the songs grow in power. The sound quality is astounding as they used a 24 track digital recorder (something unusual for late 1983) which gave the film a studio-quality sound especially in the bass, something that is lacking in most concert films.
The highlights are many, but three that stand out begin with the energetic "Life During Wartime" where the band jogs in place during most of the song and has Byrne run around the stage at the end. "Girlfriend is Better" features the most iconic image of the film, Byrne in his famous "Big Suit" shimmying to the relentless rhythm that builds throughout. And finally the euphoric "Once in a Lifetime" featuring an unbroken 4+ minute shot of Byrne performing until the climax when the next cut shows the backup singers slowly rising up (a photo exists on the booklet). This combination of image and song still sends shivers up my spine, a unique, powerful moment of cinema.
The DVD includes an informative commentary track featuring all the "Heads" and director Demme. Three bonus songs that were not included in the original theatrical release, a storyboard to film comparison, the original film trailer and most bizarre, a four minute interview of David Byrne wearing his "Big Suit" being interviewed by...David Byrne, who goes through a variety of changes (Please Mr. Byrne, never dress as a woman again...please).
This is an absolute must-have DVD for music fans, not just the Talking Heads ones. A film that captures one of the most creative forces in rock at their thrilling peak with top-notch sound and imaginative cinematography. And the show is just as fresh today as it was when I first saw it back in '84. A testiment to the enormous talent of David Byrne and vision of Demme.
Movie Review: Making Flippy Floppy
Summary: 5 Stars
When I saw the Heads play in 1983, David Byrne came out during the second act in the big white suit, the one three times as large as the white suit he wore in the first act and which wiggled about his body like a flippy floppy clothing of Selfhood. I had never seen it before, nor had I heard about it. It was a shock and it was one of the funniest moments of my life. I was pleased a year later to see this concert film documenting a great tour, a great band, a great collection of tunes and the Big White Suit which Byrne would forever on be identified with. Of course, the joke grew dim over the years and the Big White Suit became another icon of rock history, like the Beatles Sgt. Pepper costumes or Madonna's underwear. The original soundtrack release to Stop Making Sense was short, about forty minutes, and only had eight songs on it. To hear the other tunes, you had to go back to the movie, but it was now out of the theaters and the video release was extremely hard to come by. In fifteen years I only found two video stores that stocked it, so I wound up only seeing the film twice in fifteen years. The re-release of the movie last year was a shock and a revelation and I immediately bought the DVD. I subsequently watched it ten times in one month.How did I do it? It was easy. The film is the greatest concert film ever made, not just in the quality of the music and the performances, but the sheer technical bravado of the filmmaking. Here is Johnathan Demme six years before Silence of the Lambs, already a master filmmaker with an eye for fluid motion that manages to impose a sense of narrative over a collection of disconnected songs.
The narrative is the evolution of the band and the gradual shifting of the songs from one mood to another, from one costume change to another. The music is great, the lyrics are astonishing, the performances are the Heads at the peak of their greatness. Sadly, this would be their final masterpiece. Nothing they did after this, with the exception of a few songs on Naked, came close to what they had accomplished as a band at their greatest.
One of the gems of this movie is "What A Day That Was," my favorite David Byrne song, originally from The Catherine Wheel solo album, but here reorchestrated in a way that brings to the fore certain driving rhythms of the original tune. It is tense, paranoid, savagely prophetic, mystical and full of Byrne's characteristic discordant poetry.
Buy this DVD. Watch it ten times in one month. This was a great band.
Movie Review: Been There, Seen That, Never Get Tired
Summary: 5 Stars
Some of the other reviewers comment about the contrived nature of the film. the sequential addition of players on stage.
Well.
The film "Stop Making Sense" was not a stand alone creation. Talking Heads toured the production you see in the film. I saw the concert on their tour stop in Binghamton, NY. A 5000 seat Hockey arena. By that time in my life, i had see a number of arena rock concerts and had expectations.
Arriving at a general admission show, true believers were packed up front and would usually have to endure the random opening act before their heroes arrive. the norm was to have multiple sets of equipment already arrayed on stage for the bands. opening acts squeezed on the apron with little room to maneuver while the main event drum kits and backdrops loomed above them implying the thunder to come. Even with all the equipment set up in advance and (presumably) tested, there were inevitable equipment glitches.
How then to explain the empty stage with only a proscenuim arch? had the band equipment bus broken down somewhere? was there going to be a riot when they cancelled the show?
No.
what followed is pretty much exactly what you see in the film Jonathan Demme created. the only real difference is that as an audience member, you were not required to focus on David Byrne, the way the film does. As the band grew in size over the first half of the show, there were so many exciting performers to watch, Byrne was only 1 of the team . in the film, he is ( my only quibble) too much the focus.
By the middle of the gig, i was convinced i wanted to marry one or both of the background singers, Lynn Mabry and Edna Holt. They were mesmerizing to watch.
And I was convinced that Alex Weir had the ideal gig as additional guitarist. I watched him going through exhilirating stage moves, but unable to discern what part he was playing in the mix. Friend and I even supposed he wasn't even plugged in , but just there for the movement. No. He really plays.
That concert is the one I rank highest in my pantheon. All the more exciting to have the film come out and be so faithful to the concert i had loved. I saw an Ad for it playing in a city 50 miles away and hopped on my motorcycle to see it. To this day, every viewing is a revelation.