Grateful Dawg

Starring:David Grisman, Ricky Jay, Jerry Garcia, Joe Craven, Jim Kerwin
Director: Gillian Grisman
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Jerry Garcia was famous as the visionary behind the Grateful Dead, but his musical tastes were broad, and he found a rewarding partnership with mandolinist David Grisman, whose distinctive "Dawg" style fused jazz with bluegrass. At its best, Grateful Dawg celebrates the easy friendship and truly inspired musicianship of Garcia and Grisman through grainy home-movie footage with surprisingly crisp sound. As one of the film's commentators says, Grisman made Garcia tighter as a musician, while Garcia made Grisman looser, and where they met they created an infectious, rootsy style they called Grateful Dawg. The film's many highlights include instrumental versions of "Dawg Waltz," "Shady Grove," and "Arabia," as well as splendid footage from Garcia and Grisman's days in Old & in the Way. The talking heads inserted ham-handedly between and over performances, unfortunately, become repetitious and, finally, downright annoying. But Garcia and Grisman fans will still enjoy the glimpse at a rare musical alchemy. --Anne Hurley

Customer Reviews:

"Documentary" little more than compiled performance footage.......2007-02-02

The music here is excellent. If that's the focus of your interest, then by all means get yourself the soundtrack recording, which certainly shows a range of Grisman/Garcia collaboration (from the jazz-exotica of Arabia to the children's music of Jenny Jenkins and Freight Train to the bluegrass of Sunny Sunny South, etc.).

But why make a movie of it? Grisman/Garcia, while virtuosic musicians with great blend, are stultifyingly dull to watch. They stand largely stock still while playing or leaning into the mic to sing, and the acoustic performances shown here (even the lame B&W video of the blues classic "The Thrill is Gone") are utterly devoid of pyrotechnic eye-candy, facial close-ups of performer/audience to offer a narrative/emotional frisson, or even the barest focus on finger-technique. This is music to listen to, not to watch, and even the dull concert footage is routinely interrupted by interview material that fails to illuminate the proceedings.

In fact, the interviews represent a staggering loss of opportunity, considering the insiders (members of the band and producers), intimates (family), and experts (influenced and influential musicians like Bela Fleck) presented. We get little information aside from bland, repetitive hype. "These guys were really great musicians and Jerry Garcia was much more famous than Dave Grisman yet still hung out with him in the early 1970s and again throughout the '90s," about covers it. Moviegoers curious about how the music was constructed, the virtuosic technique employed, the lives of these individuals, and visual examples of the meaning and impact they might have had on one another, art, fans, anything will find this documentary to be a frustrating, hollow shell... and boring to boot.

unsatisfying.......2006-04-30

I don't know much about David Grisman - he seems to be a talented and innovative musician. Plus, he was a friend of Jerry Garcia, which is always good. In fact, their musical talents combined are very exceptional. However, the great music was destroyed by the annoying interviews that permeated the whole footage. I would have enjoyed listening to a song all the way through without interruptions, but sadly, it was not to be. If you love music, skip this DVD, but if you love documentaries, this is the film for you.

Awful release. Grisman's daughter is an idiot........2005-08-22

Grisman's daughter was in charge of this train-wreck. She focused 70 percent of the video on that worthless has been david grisman, and very little on Garcia. There was an awesome beginning to "Sitting here in Limbo", only to be STOPPED, and interrupted by stupid interviews. As if anyone lays awake at night wondering about Bela Fleck's opinion of Garcia and Grisman's collaboration. Worthless, DO NOT BUY!

Grisman and Garcia - Beards of a Feather.......2003-07-15

Unlike most of the reviewers here I am more of a dawghead than a deadhead. David Grisman is my musical idol. The man is a creative genius. I bought the DVD because there's very little video available of David Grisman and I knew that this would be a video bonanza for Grisman fans. I'm not disappointed. The only drawback to this movie in my opinion is that it wasn't shot as a documentary but as Gillian Grisman says, it was a hodgepodge of home movies that were simply used to create a documentary a few years after Garcia's death. Still, there is a certain charm to the fact that it wasn't shot as a documentary. The subjects are free to be themselves, not realizing that anyone outside of their inner circle will ever view the footage. It's obvious that Gillian decided to study the art of movie making once she determined that she was going to create a documentary. She went to great lengths to tell the story of her dad and Garcia with an appropriate thread of performance, studio, and interview video. Sure, there are a lot of interview clips, but it is a documentary after all. Personally I didn't find them all that distracting. And for an added bonus, the DVD viewer has the option of viewing the movie with commentaries from David and Gillian. Several outtakes are also added, including Vassar Clements' embarrassing story of how he was playing with Garcia without really knowing who the Grateful Dead are. I'm sure most deadheads will love this flick. I know dawgheads like me will.

Nicely done.......2003-02-10

Check out this movie. If you're into bluegrass, you ought to pick this up. We all know the distinctive style of Jerry's guitar sounds with the Dead, but have you heard him on the banjo? The music that he played with Dave Grisman, Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan, and John Kahn is some of the best bluegrass you can get. There is a certain laid-back way about their sound. Some folks find bluegrass to be too shrill and hyperactive. You don't get that sense, even when they're frailing at top speeds. Which they can do with the best of em.

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

"Documentary" little more than compiled performance footage.......2007-02-02

unsatisfying.......2006-04-30

Awful release. Grisman's daughter is an idiot........2005-08-22

Grisman and Garcia - Beards of a Feather.......2003-07-15

Nicely done.......2003-02-10

Amazon.com

Dogtown and Z-Boys
In the early 1970s, a group of young surfers from a tough neighborhood south of Santa Monica took up skateboards and offhandedly changed the world. At least it appears so after watching Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary about how twelve "Z-Boys" (including one girl) resuscitated a dead sport and created a lifestyle that spread infectiously to become a worldwide counterculture phenomenon, namely high-flying "vert" (i.e. vertical) skateboarding and punk rock abandon. Director Stacy Peralta, one of the original Z-Boys, and Craig Steyck, the photographer whose publicity first made them famous, would have you believe that with empty pools as their springboard, the clan single-handedly carved a niche that grew into what is now referred to as "extreme sports" (snowboarding seems particularly implicated). Degrees of accuracy aside, the hoard of original footage Peralta and Steyck have access to makes for an engaging portrait of "accidental revolutionaries" whose mythology as expressed by themselves (all but one of the original crew give extensive interviews) and those they influenced (including Henry Rollins, Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, and Sean Penn, who narrates) is far more entertaining than any evenhanded version could ever hope to be. --Fionn Meade

Grateful Dawg
Jerry Garcia was famous as the visionary behind the Grateful Dead, but his musical tastes were broad, and he found a rewarding partnership with mandolinist David Grisman, whose distinctive "Dawg" style fused jazz with bluegrass. At its best, Grateful Dawg celebrates the easy friendship and truly inspired musicianship of Garcia and Grisman through grainy home-movie footage with surprisingly crisp sound. As one of the film's commentators says, Grisman made Garcia tighter as a musician, while Garcia made Grisman looser, and where they met they created an infectious, rootsy style they called Grateful Dawg. The film's many highlights include instrumental versions of "Dawg Waltz," "Shady Grove," and "Arabia," as well as splendid footage from Garcia and Grisman's days in Old & in the Way. The talking heads inserted ham-handedly between and over performances, unfortunately, become repetitious and, finally, downright annoying. But Garcia and Grisman fans will still enjoy the glimpse at a rare musical alchemy. --Anne Hurley

DVD:

DVD

Spanish Prisoner [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Darkroom

Die unendliche Geschichte 1: Die Spukstadt/Das Dorf der Winz