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The Beach Boys - Endless Harmony
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0724349235397
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Live, NTSC
Label: Capitol
Languages: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Manufacturer: Capitol
MPN: 92353
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Capitol
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 14, 2000
Running Time: 141 minutes
Studio: Capitol
Theatrical Release Date: March 14, 2000
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Editorial Review:
This smartly produced, intelligently written documentary strikes a satisfying balance between thoughtful analysis, personal history, and sheer musical pleasure for a portrait of the seminal California pop band that will prove equally compelling to both knowledgeable fans and casual listeners. In the audiovisual equivalent of a loaves-and-fishes miracle, The Beach Boys: Endless Harmony weaves 45 of the group's songs through extended interview segments with all the original members, key musicians involved in their career-defining recordings, and astute peers and industry observers. Evocative period footage, including archival film and early, no-budget promotional videos, only add to the impact, but the real achievement is the clarity and candor of this authorized project, which might easily have lapsed into callow myth-making and media spin control given the involvement of the surviving Beach Boys and their record label, Capitol, which is releasing both the documentary and a companion hits compilation.
Instead, these archetypal Southern Californians, who transmuted their experiences growing up in suburban Hawthorne into a potent teen iconography orbiting surfing, cars, and girls, tackle the underlying personal and cultural upheavals beneath their discography. The central, dysfunctional drama of the Wilson family--brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl, the group's nucleus, and their manager-father, Murry--is addressed early on, and underlined with harrowing excerpts from session tapes capturing the hard-driving, abusive style of Wilson père. Composer and acknowledged group leader Brian Wilson, who long ago became a poster boy for "troubled genius," pop division, is likewise depicted without evasion or apology, as are the internal tensions between Wilson and other members including Wilson cousin Mike Love; it's a testament to the filmmakers' acuity and skill that Love depicts himself as a force of "positivity... and 'upbeatness'" that counterbalanced Brian's darker, more introverted style, then dismisses the elliptical poetry of Wilson's most artistically ambitious collaborations with Van Dyke Parks as lyrically opaque.
Originally aired on VH-1, Endless Harmony works as an apotheosis of the cable channel's Behind the Music concept, elevating the concept substantially and covering an enormous terrain in 105 minutes. For the Beach Boys fan, this will be an essential companion to their enduring music. --Sam Sutherland
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great movie and yet sad
This for me was a follow up to the Beach Boys movie back in 1983 (which I bought)released I believe right after Dennis Wilson died in drowning accident. Likewise the end of this dvd pays quick tribute to the loss of Carl Wilson to cancer just after this dvd was put out to public.
Without argument, the greatest all time American rock/pop band ever to have come out and the amount of literal songs written just by Brian Wilson alone when listened to today, it is hard to imagine the pure ... Read More
Rating:  - A good place to get started with the Beach Boys
When you consider this DVD for what it is--a broad overview of a band that's been kicking around for (at the time) nearly four decades (now almost 5), it's a good place to get acquainted with this band. I realize there is only so much you can cram into two hours, but I personally could have heard more about Dennis Wilson's artistic contributions to the band when Brian stepped back (and only now, 25 years after his death, is DW finally getting the hearing and reinstatement back to the BB canon) and ... Read More
Rating: - Best DVD Purchase I've Made
This DVD is an absolute essential for ANY Beach Boy fan or fans of amazing music in general. It touches on all the key aspects in the the childhood, rise, climax, and ultimate legendary status of the five middle class, southern California kids that brought unparalleled harmonies sent from heaven, rocking backing music, and insanely fantastic arrangments to America's youth in the form of surfin', cars, young love and later sophisticated ballads and rock masterpieces which are still capturing kid's ears ... Read More
Rating: - The Beach Boys- Endless Harmony
It was a gift for my husband. He said he was not knocked over by it. I watched it with him and I found some things out about the beach boys that I did not know. It was alright.
Rating: - Complex, and well done...
The Beach Boys created wonderful music and on a whole, this documentary tells that story quite well. The Brian Wilson story in itself is an integral part of American music history, which now has an inspirational uplifting conclusion thats ongoing with his spirited reinvention of himself. The only parts of this DVD that are hard to stomach are those of Mike Love's inflated, obnoxious ego has he tries to convince the audience of his own self importance. But I guess he's just doing his thing. Sad really. ... Read More
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