Into the Blu

Nature documentaries and Blu-ray go together like peanut butter and jelly or macaroni and cheese. In this humble writer’s opinion, the two best nature documentaries on Blu-ray to date are Planet Earth and Galapagos, both produced by the BBC, which feature some compelling storytelling and above all else, stunning video presentations. Now along comes another nature documentary showing great promise, Earth. Snappy title huh? While Earth is released by Disneynature, it is a co-production with the BBC and the Discovery channel along with Green Light Media. Given this pedigree, it will be interesting to see how Earth stacks up against the best. Continue Reading

Team building.  If you’ve ever worked in an office, you have probably experienced some sort of team-building exercise.  If you have ever played team sports or were in the military, you certainly know all about it.  Now throw a twist on it.  Take 11 intelligent, but barely seasoned sailors and give them one of the best racing yachts money can buy.  Mix that all together and make it a 10-day competition on the high seas of the Pacific Ocean.  Batten down the hatches and hoist the kite!  We’re about to set sail on the Morning Light.  Continue Reading

It seems that nature films and documentaries have found a home on Blu-ray, and what a fitting home it is.  The reason why I say that is all of those Imax and nature films have a strong emphasis on the quality of photography.  One of the more recent of such films to join the ranks is National Geographic’s Arctic Tale.  Can this frigid film follow the same grand path of Planet Earth, or will it be something in your local retailer’s bargain bin in the near future?  Let’s read on to find out! Continue Reading

Bullfighting is a ritual deeply rooted in the Spanish culture.  Roughly 18 million people a year attend bullfights in Spain.  Here in North America, most of us know little more than the matador being the guy in a funny hat who taunts a bull with a cape while the crowd yells, “Olé!”  But after watching The Matador, one can come to the realization that it is much more than that. Continue Reading

Documentaries can be a hard sell, especially when they’re covering nature, as this is subject matter that has been covered time and again.  So when the BBC decided they were going to do one on a grand scale, they had their work cut out for them.  How could they do this documentary differently and what would they cover?  How about the diversity of our great oceans?  What about the untamed plains of Africa?  Why not choose to film our planet’s least-explored environments; caves?  In the end, the BBC covered each of these environments and many, many more.  Continue Reading

Captain Planet.  That’s what some of my coworkers call me as I’m always on the lookout for discarded plastic bottles and aluminum cans that others throw away when the recycling bin is but a few steps farther.  Yup, champion of the environment.  That’s me.  So when I came across a documentary earlier this year about sharks, I was ecstatic.  To see sharks in their natural habitat in high definition would be a wonderful thing.  Without further ado, I made my online purchase of the film known as Sharkwater. Continue Reading

When it comes to ranking concert films, the best always seem to have The Last Waltz at or near the top of a very short list. For those unfamiliar with the production, the film centers around the farewell concert of The Band, the Canadian group who helped Bob Dylan transform and expand creatively in the ‘60s, and Dylan’s assistance in their album “Music from Big Pink” was retribution for this. The album continues to be widely regarded as a very influential piece of music decades after its release. The group continued to release albums and tour at a frenetic pace, until Robertson had finally grown weary of the pace in 1976. Rather than hold a simple farewell concert, which would have been the easy choice, The Band decided to make the event a celebration of their careers in a very pure sense. They decided to hold it on Thanksgiving at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, where they held their first live performance seven years earlier. They fed the several thousand concertgoers before bringing them the group’s work. And little did the fans know they would be witness to one of the great live performances captured on film.

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The arrival of Blu-ray and high definition home video has had an enormous effect on the documentary industry. Suddenly cinematographers can bring us to the most remote reaches of our globe and even beyond, and they can do so with such detail and sharpness it’s like opening a window to these once unreachable places. Wild China is a perfect example of this ability. With incredible HD equipment, this mini-series from the BBC brings the hidden realms of China into our living rooms. Continue Reading

Warren Miller has been putting out these snow sports videos for decades. If you’ve seen any of his previous efforts, you will pretty much know what to expect here. The real difference, of course, is that for the first time you can catch it all in high definition. Fans of the sport will get plenty of the action and loud rock soundtrack that they’ve come to expect from these kinds of films. What the fans and even some nonfans, like myself, can get out of this film is the experience it offers. Miller has taken some impressive equipment and exceptional photographers to the slopes to deliver an up-close and in your face tour of some of the world’s greatest snow sports mountains. Continue Reading

According to most surfers, surfing is a way of life. It is also no different than any other sport and it deserves the same treatment as baseball or football. In most other countries, Australia for one, surfing is shown on the sports highlights shows right next to other sports within the country. Within the United States and Canada, you never see surfing highlights on ESPN. After watching Step into Liquid, the incredible hard work that is surfing deserves the same attention just as much if not more than other sports taking up highlight time on Sportscenter. Continue Reading

Sometime after 1990 when Blue Planet was released, I remember really wanting to see it. Unfortunately I was young and with time my interest in the worlds around our own dwindled. Recently with the advancements in technology my interest in space has sparked up again, making for just the right time for Blue Planet to land in my hands. After nearly 20 years I’ll be able to set my eyes on this for the first time, and in hi-definition. Then of course there’s the additional documentary The Dream Is Alive of which I’ve never previously heard of. The footage on this one is over 20 years old, so my expectations aren’t extremely high. Continue Reading

This past year has truly been the year of the penguins. March of the Penguins won the Academy Award for best documentary and Happy Feet winning best-animated feature. Society?s interest has been sparked on the hard life of these amazing little creatures much in large due to the release of March of the Penguins. Politically this picture has made an impact as well, sparking debates between such political commentators as Andrew Sullivan and Rich Lowry. I think it goes without saying that a documenta… Continue Reading