You've heard it
all before..."Sense" is the best concert film ever made, and one of the
greatest rock films ever. And the most uncanny thing about all of
these claims is that they're absolutely true. "Sense" is a
terrific film...a perfect snapshot of an eclectic, ingenious rock band
at their peak, filmed as if it were a feature film and not a concert
video. Demme's insistence on long shots of the band members works
wonders...it allows the performance to breathe and gives a bird's eye
view of the festivities. Cronewith's cinematography is
spellbinding...I'm reminded of the blood red background and eerie fog
of "Swamp," which perfectly suits this demonic song delivered in cackly
baritone by Byrne. Or the incredible shot during the coda of
"Once In A Lifetime" of backup singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt
leaning *very* far back as keyboardists Jerry Harrison and Bernie
Worrell jam and Byrne proselytizes to the audience, clad in hornrims
and scientist coat. Mabry and Holt look like androids as they
reel up to a standing position, perfectly in sync, while Harrison and
Worrell are shrouded in a peculiar fog that makes them look as if they
are floating on clouds. And Byrne's neurotic tics and bent genius
lead the way. An incredible moment in an incredible film.
And of course
there's the music. It is certainly one of the best live
performances ever captured on tape, by one of the best bands of all
time (though, to be fair, a certain amount of post-production
overdubbing was engaged in by the band members in 1984). While
not *flawless* (Harrison makes a few synth flubs near the end of "This
Must Be The Place," for one), it is breathtaking and captures T Heads
at their absolute peak. A bit of a greatest hits show, with some
highlights from their then current album "Speaking In Tongues," the
music all hangs together wonderfully. The extended lineup all
cook on funky numbers like "Crosseyed And Painless" and "What A Day
That Was," scorch the earth on the new wave gospel of "Slippery People"
and treat more somber numbers like "This Must Be The Place" with a
gentle, human sensitivity. And of course, there is the absolute
highlight and centerpiece of the film (at least in this reviewer's
opinion): the double whammy of "Burning Down The House"--T Heads' then
current hit--and "Life During Wartime." These two performances
are like manna from heaven...the band all hit their marks
perfectly. In "House," Worrell burns the synth to the ground with
bizarre noises and funky fills...Byrne, Weir and Harrison all give a
driving guitar rhythm...Harrison, Mabry and Holt mirror dance while
Weir and Byrne drip with sweat. Percussionist Steve Scales dances
around and even finds time to give the camera a silly mug. In
"Wartime," Byrne plays at being aerobic instructor. His sinewy,
bizarre movements and jogging in place give the song an energy that
never lets up. Exhilarating for band and audience alike.
And herein lies
the charm of this film...nine players on stage, of different races,
genders and personality types, all coming together to give one
incredible performance. All are represented at one time or
another in the film. There are also some great bonus materials,
such as a self-interview with David Byrne, where he masquerades as
several different characters interviewing himself in the big suit, and
gives suitably Byrne-esque pseudo-intellectual answers (he answers at
least three of the questions with "I'll tell you later").
The sound of the
DVD itself is quite nice, though fans of the original film and video
will need to get used to the new 5.1 mixes. I personally prefer
the "studio mix," which, ironically, sounded much more "live" to me
than the "feature film" mix.
So then, why do I
give this DVD only four stars instead of five? Well, frankly,
there are some aspects of the disc itself that are a bit
disappointing. The transfer itself looks okay, but I'd only give
it three and a half stars out of five. There are little white
flecks occasionally, and a few very egregious flaws, most noticeable
when Mabry, Holt and Scales first emerge on stage (there are marks that
scroll up and down the screen for a few seconds). There are also
a few scenes where the holes in the top right side of the screen (which
are used in theatrical prints to denote a scene change) haven't been
digitally edited out. Also, without explanation, some lines in
the movie have been changed. Near the end of "Place," where Byrne
once uttered a cheery "uh-huh!" into the mic, it has been replaced with
the same exact "hey!" he delivers later. Frantz's "too much of
that g** damn snow white...all night!" during "Genius" has been
replaced with the wholly inoffensive "and everything's just jumpin'
outta sight...all night." Quite why they decided to change these
lines is not known, and, in the case of Byrne's "hey!" just seems
downright bizarre.
The last
irritating aspect is the fact that the bonus songs are on a separate
track, so that once you enter that section following the film, you
can't skip back into the film. Furthermore, I don't understand
why they were cut in the first place. They were in the running
order of the videocassette for years, and are terrific performances in
and of themselves, so why not leave them in for the DVD release?
But, as Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap once said, "that's nitpicking, isn't
it?"
If you're a fan of
Talking Heads, the 1980s, music, fine films or art, you must have this
in your collection. All gripes aside, it's an incredible piece of
filmmaking that will stand the test of time and remains fresh after
almost 20 years. Certainly the best concert film ever made (yes,
I said it again), and the second greatest rock film ever made (behind
"A Hard Day's Night"). Five + stars for the film, four for the
DVD.
