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Chet Atkins: A Life in Music (TV)
R1 - America - MPI Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (5th February 2007). |
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The Show
 Even if you have a passing interest in music, you've probably heard of Chet Atkins. Even if you don't know much about him, you probably know he has something to do with country music. If you want to know more about him, I'm sure such stars as Steve Howe, Peter Frampton, Mark Knopfler, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings and Randy Bachman will be happy to educate you about his life. This is a bit short, produced by The Nashville Network (though I doubt its present incarnation, Spike, would ever do something similar) as a one-hour special, but it's quite thorough and gives a nice overview of the man's life. Through interviews with the people mentioned, and more, including Mr. Atkins himself, you learn about his upbringing in Tennessee. Mr. Atkins, in one scene, takes you to the bathroom in his school and tells you that he used to play all day in that room. His childhood is glossed over pretty quickly, and you don't get much of a sense of his younger years. They speed up to his start in show biz. It's a fairly simple and typical story, moving up in the ladder until the right person gave him the right chance, and the doc goes quickly to his producing career, and spends a lot of time there, telling you how many great musicians came from his producing their records. It's pretty interesting, though this part is kind of slow. The doc does move on to the latter part of Mr. Atkins career. It's a rather short doc, only about 43 minutes, but it gives a very good look at the life of the legend. It's a bit short, and the editing is kind of simple, being made up of talking heads. You do see some old clips and pictures here and there. The background music is very nice, as are Mr. Atkins' old performances. He's really impressive. It's lucky this doc was done the year it was, because one year later, Mr. Atkins passed away. The star power associated with this documentary is tremendous and it's a nice way to learn about Chet Akins' life. At least now you'll know the incredible amount of influence he had on music.
Video
1.33:1 full frame. The doc is brought to DVD in a transfer that befits its TV roots. It's not bad, and actually pretty good. The colours are clear and bright, and the contrast is okay. The level of detail is good. There are some problems when it comes to movements, but it's not generally a problem. The picture is pretty good and you don't really need a flawless picture for this doc, though, so there's nothing wrong with what's there.
Audio
The lone audio track is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. As long as you can hear the voices and the music clearly, there should be no problem. Luckily, that's what you get. There are no problems whatsoever here. All the interviews and all the performances are crystal clear and all the words and notes get you your ears without any muffling, hissing or screeching. There are also English subtitles provided
Extras
The one extra is pretty nice. Pickin' with Mr. Guitar (13:24) is a bunch of guys from the doc (Mark Knopfler, Tommy Emmanuel, Peter Frampton and Randy Bachman) telling stories about Chet Atkins. Most of the stories are about how Mr. Atkins influenced them, but Randy Bachman has a nice story about his own guitar. Nice little extra.
Overall
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