Review: The Love We Make Blu-Ray

The Film

No doubt that we all remember 9/11 and where we were that tragic day. I won't go through a sappy, drawn out explanation of my experience of that era and what I was doing that day, but Paul McCartney of The Beatles fame, will. Although his story and explanation is not drawn out and sappy rather subtle yet powerfully told. Although I consider myself a huge Beatles fan, I haven't really followed Paul or any of the other members of the band since their glory days. I am amazed at how kind and generous Paul is and it shows during this chronicle through the streets of NYC after 9/11. He was in the city at the time of the attacks and really tries to bring joy, happiness and music to the hurt citizens, fire fighters and police of the city. There are several appearances of celebrities, musicians and music clips from their practice sessions along with the 9/11 charity. This is a slow moving film but you can't help be touched by Paul's efforts and his still incredible music.

The Video

Filmed in a 4:3 aspect ratio in heavy grain black and white, this film looks like it was made 40 years ago at least. Mixed in with the documentary style footage is several interviews in color along with concert footage also in color. Now, let me be clear on the video:  It is not pretty. While I appreciate artistic license, there is no reason for this to look so poor. Why shoot in such a restricted format? Also, more puzzling is the archive color footage looks like it was all pulled from a VERY low quality standard def source. Was the 9/11 concert not available in HD? I could swear it was. Also, the video is so low quality, it has jagged edges on any of the archive footage. A sad presentation despite the powerful content.

The Audio

Thank goodness for a solid DTS-HD 5.1 audio track. Despite so many puzzling video issues, some potential, some not, the audio makes up for it. Most of the film is dialogue, it is clear and consistent, mostly focused on the center channel. The music portions are deep and high quality whether it is the documentary style practice sessions or the archive footage from the concert itself. I wish the same care was put into the video as the amazing audio. Regardless, this is more of an audio focused release so I am pleased it sounds so good.