The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 11, 1988 Page: 9 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1988 9
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RATTLE 1 HUM
The band from Northern Ireland
sweeps across the U.S. with a new live
album and concert film
With the recently released concert film
U2 Rattle and Hum and its
accompanying soundtrack, U2 has
attempted to return to the roots of rock
'n roll. Working with director Phil Joanou
and record producer Jimmy lovine, the
band has created a film that fails on the
documentary level but succeeds as a
concert film.
The film speaks for itself, thrusting the
viewer into the experience of hearing and
seeing U2 live. Unfortunately, the album
does not fare as well and lacks the
passion and intensity that the film
provides. Without the visuals to back it
up, the album U2 Rattle and Hum is
inconsistent and dissappointing.
The film opens up with a searing
version of The Beatles' "Helter Skelter."
The black and white images of the band
onstage are breathtaking, but from there
the film dives like the plane that the
band has taken their name from. Director
Joanou tries to interview the band and as
he acknowledges on camera, the
interview style simply does not work. In
take after take, Drummer Larry Mullen,
Jr. says that the film is "a musical
journey." He is joking, but unfortunately
that is what Joanou wants the film to be.
Though the film is mostly concert
footage, there are a few segments in
which we see the band in the studio
recording new songs. The scenes look
rehearsed, andthe result is the' audience
can't help but feel manipulated. The
songs we see recorded are the "new"
ones that appear on the soundtrack.
Joanou's project began far after The
Joshua Tree was completed, so we learn
nothing of how the band produced the
album that was the basis for the tour
that the film documents.
What is even more disappointing is
that the new songs aren't very good. Only
The Edge's "Van Diemen's Land" works,
and that's because it is fresh and
surprising. Hearing The Edge sing
provides a welcome change.
The other new songs on the album are
basically flops, like "Love Rescue Me"
(co-written by Bob Dylan) and a song
written for and sung by B.B. King entitled
"When Love Comes To Town." All of
these songs attempt to return to the
roots of rock 'n roll as Bono strains to
sound like Elvis Presley. If music from
the heartland is what you seek, this
album is not for you. In my mind, it
sounds more like it's defacing rock 'n roll
than glorifying it.
A gospel version of "I Still Haven't
Found What I'm Looking For" succeeds, but only moderately. The gospel chorus fills
out the sound and makes the song more lively but it is still too often restrained. Just
when one would expect the gospel singers to push the "Wall of Sound" even further,
they are cut out entirely and substituted by Bono's voice. "Bullet the Blue Skv,"
another gem from The Joshua Tree, works quite well on
screen because the lighting design accents The Edge's
violent, cutting guitar chords. It's Bono who mars the song
with his opening line that sounds like a cross between Elvis
and Kermit the Frog. On screen, Joanou's editing wraps you
up in the power and adrenaline of the live concert. On
record, the performance falls flat.
Robert Brinkmann's black and white cinematography
(which comprises a majority of the film) is stunning.
Especially noteworthy is the footage of the band perferming
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" which Bono introduces with a
passionate speech about the terrible violence in the band's
native Northern Ireland.
Joanou chose to use color film only for the Sun Devil
Stadium footage. Working with cinematographer Jordan
Cronenweth, Joanou allows the stage and its lighting to
become intimate. Much of the footage resembles
Cronenweth's work on Jonathan Demme's concert film Stop
Making Sense. Unfortunately, the camera angles grow
tiresome because the setting of a stadium limits camera
access. There are closeups, crane shots and helicopter
shots of the band onstage which create a more theatrical
experience than is usually afforded in a stadium. The
opening shot of this sequence is of "Where The Streets
Have No Name," which sounds and looks spectacular. But
the only full stage shots we get look more like the stage of a
Broadway theater than of a stadium packed with tens of
thousands of people. It looks good, but was it necessary to
document a stadium conceit if the stadium feel was going
to be eliminated in the editing room or by the limitations of
camera accessibility?
The only documentary footage that seems to work in the
film is when Joanou follows the band through a tour of Elvis
Presley's estate, Graceland. It is a draining experience both
for the band and the audience. A brief
interview segment with Larry Mullen, Jr.
about Presley and the innapropriateness
of his estate burial site is quite moving.
We learn more about Mullen through this
brief segment than we do about any
other member of the band—least of all
Bono, who onstage comes across as a
true ham.
U2 Rattle and Hum is not the euphoric
experience that Talking Heads' Stop
Making Sense is. Where Jonathan
Demme had a specific direction in which
he took his film, Joanou does not. The
schizophrenia between concert, studio
and documentary footage becomes
annoying.
The film's saving grace is that it uses
concert footage for the vast majority of
its 100 minutes. The soundtrack serves
as a good companion to the film
because listening to it reminds one of
the striking images that were presented
on the screen. Yet without the support of
the film, the album falls flat, not able to
stand on its own. U2 Rattle and Hum
should be seen and heard, but if you
have blinders on. don't even bother.
BY LOUIS E. SPIEGLER
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McGarrity, Patrick & Sendek, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 11, 1988, newspaper, November 11, 1988; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245706/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.