A MESSAGE TO LOVE: The Isle Of Wight Festival
Sony/Legacy
www.sony.com

This is real rock and roll!  Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Free are featured in the first fifteen minutes of this DVD, and it only gets better from there. This classic hippie documentary presents one of the most famous, and perhaps dramatic, of the true sixties-style festivals. The movie is complete with multiple, acid-drenched interviews with stoned-out hippies. The movie's focus, in fact, is as much on the people as it is the music. Like Woodstock, a lot of attendees didn't have tickets, and eventually it became a "free" concert. Unlike Woodstock, we get to see the guys who put the whole gig together freak out as they desperately try to keep bands paid, the customers paying, and the island conservatives at bay.

Despite the interesting backstage antics and lysergic interviews, the performances are what really turn my crank. Here's a list of artists not yet mentioned: The Doors, Moody Blues, Kris Kristofferson, Joni Mitchell, Taste, Miles Davis, ELP, Jethro Tull, and Joan Baez. Man, I feel dizzy, giddy, and stoned just mentioning those names. I could say a lot about the individual performances but I'll only mention one. The most powerful moment in the movie is the point at which the angry, desperate, non-paying crowd gains entry to the festival. In a slow fade, the rioting crowd fades into a psychedelic, red-glowing shot of The Doors playing their apocalyptic song, "The End." It's heavy, man.

 Now, I'll talk about the DVD experience. Like never before, the average consumer can enjoy both visual and audio qualities through their television and stereo that rival those that the best theaters of yesteryear had to offer. The sound on the DVD has obviously been processed, but in the most delicate and transparent of ways; It somehow sounds the same, but better than ever. Nothing will replace real, cellular film, but DVD does an excellent job of retaining the original luster, including the colorful, docu-artistic flaws this film has. The DVD menu offers the usual parameters consisting of chapters throughout the movie, a couple of extra interviews, and lots of fast-forward goodies. This is the type of DVD to buy rather than rent because of its archival status. Many will continue to watch this film every few months or years because, instinctively, this 1970 reference point is needed to make any sense of what is going on in our year of 2001.  Jeff Muendel