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End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones
R0 - United Kingdom - Tartan Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (9th August 2005). |
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The Film
 Name some of the most influential punk bands ever? Ask this question to anyone and I’ll bet The Ramones comes up on their list. The funny thing is that the band was never really that big in their own time, never had a top 40 hit, or a solid mainstream fan base to call their own, no, but they rocked hard at little clubs putting out record after record. They never really hit it big until the later years, when other bands started singing their praises, plus an entry into the Rock ‘n’ Roll hall of fame didn’t hurt either. In an era when disco and pop were hitting it big The Ramones were a stark contrast, you’d be subjected to songs of teenage frustration and angst played loud and fast that was their thing and they did it well. The Ramones were four kids from New York, all equally different in fact the term opposites attract has a whole lot more meaning here. They where bored and loved rocking out, what better excuse to start a band and over 30 years later they’d get the love, admiration and respect they deserved. End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones is the true story of this band, the story of how they came together, their struggles, fights, break-ups, reunions, more fights but at the centre was the ability to write songs that connect with people, that moved people, that got them out of their chairs up and freaking out, singing along to the catchy lyrics. Along this journey we also hear from other musicians that took inspiration from The Ramones and industry insiders who try to give reason why nothing really hit at home with these guys, but that they could sell out a stadium in England. This documentary feels like it was made by fans, filmmakers Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia pull the lid off the world of punk rock and The Ramones to the general public. The film is filled to the brim about interesting trivia, what it was like touring and playing gigs with these guys, writing music especially the recording of the Phil Spector produced End of the Century album, we also learn about what each member was up to post Ramones, following around the band from concert to radio station to one-one-one interview, archive footage and concert footage are also included for an all-access pass into the lives of the Ramones and their contribution to the genre and music in general. Every member of the band is featured in this film, their friends, collaborators and even fans that are in high profile musical groups now. This film is a definite must see and must own for any self confessed Ramones fan, and also a nice introduction to any newcomers. If you love Green Day, Blink 182 or any one of the current hit punk bands then do your homework and meet the godfathers of the genre, End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones is essential viewing, Gabba Gabba Hey!
Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, this anamorphic transfer’s quality varies throughout the film. The interview footage with the band that were shot in DV is consistently sharp, however there a few instances of digital compression artifacts as well as minor edge enhancement. The film also includes archive footage and rare concert footage that have been shot on varying formats over the years and in both black and white and colour. The quality here is really a mixed bag, most of the footage isn’t exactly top notch, sharpness and detail is sometimes limited, dirt and imperfection are also evident however considering the age of some of the footage used it’s as good as you’re going to get.
Audio
Tartan have included no loess than three soundtracks to choose from, all in English the first is a DTS 5.1 soundtrack, the other two varieties come in Dolby Digital 5.1 and a 2.0 Surround mix. For the purposes of the review I chose to view the film with its DTS track. As this film is a documentary the majority is dialogue heavy, however there are plenty of instances of music since, after all this is a film about The Ramones. I was a little disappointed with the soundtrack, the dialogue wasn’t always clear, while there wasn’t any distortion I found myself having to constantly tune the volume up and down throughout the film, an exercise I found rather annoying. This constant volume adjustment has led to me think that the sound wasn’t mixed well in the first place, the interviewers also didn’t have any direct microphones on themselves so on occasion the questions sounded muffled, aside from this minor inconvenience I found the rest of the track to be quite tolerable the music elements, archive and concert footage sound came out quite well for the most part generally making use of the front speakers. For a DTS 5.1 track there didn’t appear to be any serious use of the rear channels, but hey this is a documentary right, not an action film. There were a few moments during the archive footage were the sound was so bad (obviously a result of neglect of the original source footage and not a direct technical fault with the audio on this DVD), these instances included subtitles for the viewer to help make out what is being said. Overall it’s not exactly a strong DTS track, the nature of the film doesn’t really require one a simple 2.0 Surround mixed well would have done the job (Yes I realise that a 2.0 surround track is included on this DVD). Unfortunately aside from the subtitles provided during inaudible parts of the archive footage no optional subtitles are included.
Extras
The first extra we have is the feature-length audio commentary by Danny Baker and Charles Shaar Murray both journalists for NME back in the hey day of punk the 70’s. These men provide an insightful and fun track to the film, although not entirely scene-specific these two ramble on as if the official Ramones Encyclopedia, a treasure for fans the two discuss impact of the band both to them and to rock music in general, how they where truly ahead of their time and how the band was like "it was them against the world". Murray and Baker also take a poke at why elder rock stars always wear sunglasses indoors! The two are clearly fans first and foremost and the plethora of information they dish out is enough for long time Ramones fans to drool over, they keep an enthusiastic pace throughout the film’s runtime and leave hardly any silent gaps. This is an excellent track and a suitable companion to the film itself, it’s worth a listen many times over. 9 interview clips are also included on the disc, these are essentially unused interviews and are presented here individually the clips include: - Joey Ramone: runs for 2 minutes 56 seconds and is an interview from a radio promotional tour when the band released a cover of the 1963 Spider-man animated series theme song for the Saturday Morning CD compellation. Here Joey tells a story about how Bruce Springsteen wrote a song for them, that song was Hungry Heart which his manager told him to keep for himself - the song eventually became the Boss' first hit. - Marky Ramone: runs for 3 minutes 35 seconds, here Marky tells us why The Ramones were so great and how hard to was to actually play in their style, with a little drum demonstration as well. - Johnny Ramone: runs for 3 minutes 20 seconds, Johnny talks about their rock ‘n’ roll professionalism, stage set-ups, and the influence of Pin Head among other things. - Richie Ramone: reminisces about his relationship with Johnny, baseball and about getting milk and cookies with Johnny after every show. He also talks about how Johnny’s relationship with the band was strictly working and never really hung out with them and how Dee Dee would always use his life as a starting point to writing his songs. - Dee Dee Ramone: running for 4 minutes 1 second, Dee Dee mainly talked about the way Johnny dealt with anger, his concern for Joey not getting anything out of being in the band such as getting out of NY and actually doing stuff. He also mentioned how Joey was his drinking friend and touch briefly on his rap career. - Joe Strummer: runs for 4 minutes 4 seconds, talks about how he believes that god’s hand was responsible for these guys getting together and forming the Roamones. He discusses putting on a show, their visual style as part of the whole rock ‘n’ roll look as well as the appeal of rock groups. - Tommy Ramone: runs for 2 minutes 29 seconds and sees Tommy walking through the old neighbourhood talking about they type of people he wanted to hang out with and what the guys did when they got together. - Debbie Harry and Chris Stein: runs for 6 minutes 50 seconds and has the two reminiscing about their experiences and stories about the band when they hung out together, how Johnny was the boss of the band, his dream of being a baseball player and when Arturo first came to New York he would wear a wrestling mask to the gigs at the CBGB’s and no one would know who he was. They also talk about Johnny and Dee Dee’s falling out. - Richie Adler (Neighbourhood Friend): runs for 1 minute 56 seconds, here Adler talks about him Johnny and Tommy’s pre-Ramones band The Tangerine Puppets at a battle of the bands. Johnny’s amp caught fire so Tommy in an attempt to put it out puts his foot through the thing. Johnny unhappy stops playing and proceeds to beat up Johnny on stage! Now that’s rock ‘n’ roll baby! He also tells a story about a time they went to a Beatles concert that Johnny took a bag of stones into to throw at the stage throughout the concert. A Deleted Scene, this cut scene runs for 1 minute 32 seconds and highlights the period when Blondie drummer Clem Burke for a time replaced Richie Ramone. Clem’s Ramone name was to be Elvis Ramone. He was let go because he just couldn’t keep up with them. A featurette follows entitled Who Wrote What On The First 3 Albums and runs for 4 minutes 17 seconds. The piece features Tommy Ramone in his studio as the interviewer throw a list of songs at him as he tells who was responsible for them, that’s about it. A nice piece for newcomers to their music but hardcore fans should already know this information anyway. The film’s original theatrical trailer is also included and runs for 52 seconds. A series of bonus trailers are also included on the disc and they are: Mayor of the Sunset Strip that runs 2 minutes 12 seconds, Milwaukee Minnesota that runs for 2 minutes 8 seconds, Coffee and Cigarettes which runs for 2 minutes 11 seconds, Super Size Me for 1 minute 2 seconds and finally 2046 that runs for 2 minutes 29 seconds. Rounding out the extras is a booklet with an essay entitled We Are All Ramones by Pierre Perrone.
Packaging
Tartan Video have packaged End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones in a standard amaray case housed in a special cardboard zipper slip-case.
Overall
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones is an insightful and candid look at the seminal punk rock band of the 70’s and 80’s a band that’s influenced many of today’s top acts and copied and imitated by countless others. This film is a must see and must own by any self respecting Ramones fan and provides the viewer an inside look at their history. Tartan have included a average image and sound transfer and packed the DVD with a few nice extras primarily the excellent commentary.
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