Sun Ra - Space Is The Place
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Free Music Notes for Sun Ra - Space Is The Place
Free Music Review: If it ain't broke...
Hit: 3 Stars
I was very excited to finally be able to purchase this film on DVD. The VHS version has long been a favorite of mine. I bought this new Director's Cut DVD along with the new director's cut DVD of Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii. Boy, I sure do wish that the manufacturers of the Sun Ra DVD had employed Pink Floyd's tactic of including both the new director's cut and the original theatrical cut. Both director's cuts suffer from the same problem--the directors felt that they should mess around with the original releases and "improve" them according to their directorial visions. If you ask me, messing around with the vision of great musicians is not advisable unless you are an equally great director. A note to Space director John Coney: You are not even in the same universe as Sun Ra!
According to Coney, after showing the completed film to Sun Ra, Ra requested that several scenes be deleted. Coney explains this as a kind of prudishness on Ra's part because the scenes had some nudity and sexual content. True, the bulk of the cut scenes follow a pimp and hos story line that is rather racy, but more importantly, it is slow, boring and tangential to the plot. It features some crass humor, pointless nudity, and ugly violence. And, the worst of it all, these new scenes pretty much don't feature any new footage of Sun Ra. They take away from the cool mystery and cosmic themes of the movie and don't improve upon it at all. It is interesting to see these extra scenes, but couldn't they have been included as "deleted scenes"? I only hope that the original cut will make it to DVD some day.
Free Music Review: The Great Letdown
Hit: 3 Stars
The film is mysterious and colorful and I think thats its biggest strength. But you don't get a good handle on Sun Ra's own space philosophy other than "black people must free themselves". Overlong with good performances, but not enough musical performances. It finishes with the classic 70s ambiguous ending. In truth, not a very good music film or blaxploitation film or weirdo-art film. It has genius moments you would find in all three, but only remains infamous due to it being a weird mix of the great ingrediants.Free Music Review: pretty good
Hit: 3 Stars
this film is pretty nice but not nearly as great as the documentary A Joyful Noise. I highly recommend purchasing A Joyful Noise first because it provides a deeper look into Sun Ra.
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