Mayor Of The Sunset Strip

The poor picture quality in some of the archive footage is forgivable. The graining in some of the original footage is not forgivable. Although the documentary is primarily interviews, both the stereo and surround mixes work well. My set-up isn't capable of playing DTS tracks.

For some ridiculous reason, the audio tracks and subtitling can only be selected from the menus and not from your DVD player's remote. What's worse is that there's no way to turn on subtitling whilst listening to the commentaries. If you want either of the surround mixes, don't forget to change the settings, as the stereo is the default option.

The two commentaries - one from director George Hickenlooper and editor Julie Janata, and one from Rodney Bingenheimer and producer Chris Carter - are excellent. They clear up a lot of the ambiguities and unanswered questions from the documentary. I'd almost be tempted to say that we learn more about who Rodney Bingenheimer is by listening to his commentary than we do in the course of a whole documentary.

The commentaries also attempt to address some of the criticisms of the film. In one scene, it appears as if the director is egging Rodney on to propose to a friend, who later reveals that she already has a boyfriend. It felt unpleasantly manipulative and going against the rules of the documentary. Janata reveals that it wasn't actually the director, but a colleague of Rodney's off camera who was responsible. To allow such confusion to arise is poor judgement, rather than manipulative filmmaking.

Although the interviews with David Bowie, Brian Wilson, et al, are rightly trimmed down for the film itself, they are a wonderful treat for owners of the DVD. The Bowie interview and the combined interview with Brian Wilson and Elvis Costello are far and away the most interesting and insightful. Even though the interview with Liam Gallagher consists of little more than him standing backstage with Rodney, wondering what to say to him, it manages to reinforce the paradox of Rodney being both shy and desperate to know and be known by famous, talented musicians.