1 Giant Leap (DVD)

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Palm Pictures recent release "1 Giant Leap" is one of those films that is quite difficult to review. On one hand, I found it worthwhile to watch and it did, at times, hold my interest. However, on the other hand, there were times when I wanted to simply remove the disc from my DVD player because my interest had been lost. My interest was not lost because of the content of the ´film,´ but because I was simply not interested in what I was witnessing. I see the benefits and the strengths of "1 Giant Leap" and I can certainly appreciate the work done by the filmmakers, but it was just simply not my cup of tea when it comes down to entertainment.

"1 Giant Leap" is a documentary of sorts directed by Duncan Bridgeman and Jamie Catto. It is not necessarily a film, but a collection of segments. Each individual segment handles a socially important topic and introduces world beats and music as a aural background to interviews and sound bits from various personalities around the world including Michael Franti, Dennis Hopper, REM´s Michael Stipe and Kurt Vonnuget Jr. Each person says what is on the minds in relation to the current topic of discussion.

The combination of the various musical selections and the interviewees is masterfully done, but as a whole, "1 Giant Leap" is best viewed in individual segments. My first hands-on with the DVD found myself using the "Jukebox" feature to show every segment of the film. After three segments, I had to stop the playback and switch to viewing one at a time. The problem with this was not in boredom, but the fact that I was not fully aware of the topic at hand and needed access to the menu to see what the various personalities were talking about. Most of the time, I could guess what they were talking about, but "1 Giant Leap" was more meaningful when I knew the topic beforehand. I had first thought the jukebox feature was extremely handy and would make for the best viewing, as I could just let the DVD play in one sitting without needing the remote, but quickly realized it was best to play "1 Giant Leap" one leap at a time.

When I was first approached about reviewing this title, the Public Relations people for the DVD put a 9-11 spin on the title. The concept of having various people around the world discuss many social topics does show a sense of world unity, but the relevance with the events of September 11th, 2001 is slim to none. "1 Giant Leap" is certainly a look at humanity. It does show a great deal of unity. The various musical selections provided for the documentary assembles a kaleidoscope of ethnical rhythms. In my mind, the music was the greatest asset of the documentary and the largest factor in keeping my interest for the dozen chapters the documentary is broken down into.

Did I like "1 Giant Leap?" Not entirely. I enjoyed much of what was being said, but at times felt it was being preachy and had to fight to keep myself from tuning out the words of those onscreen. The music was very good and if you interested in world-beat, then I would have no problem recommending the title to you. There were a few segments I enjoyed thoroughly, but a few segments that bored me quickly. In the long run, sitting down for nearly three hours and being subjected to opinionated social commentary is not something I particularly enjoy for entertainment. "1 Giant Leap" is a nicely done blend of music and discussion and I have no problem realizing it will appeal to the audience it was targeted towards. It just didn´t take long for me to realize I was not part of that audience.

Video :
Palm Pictures has done well in bringing "1 Giant Leap" to DVD in a solid 1.33:1 presentation. The picture quality is quite good and the majority of the film shows absolutely no flaws. There are a few minutes when a bit o pixelation comes into play, but the complete lack of film grain more than makes up for the very limited amount of digital err. Colors are quite stunning and exhibit perfect saturation and contrast. Detail is again, very solid and no evidence of edge enhancement faults are visible. Though I was not particularly entertained by the content of this lengthy documentary, the long running times does nothing to hamper the quality of the video transfer.