Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780794201685
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0794201687
Label: Wellspring
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Manufacturer: Wellspring
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Wellspring
Region Code: 1
Release Date: February 19, 2002
Running Time: 117 minutes
Studio: Wellspring
Theatrical Release Date: September 07, 2001

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
How did some of the most beautiful melodies of the 20th century come out of a man described as depressive, hypochondriacal, remote, and alcoholic? This stirring 2001 documentary cannot answer that question about Richard Rodgers, but it provides a near-perfect blend of biography, personal reminiscence, and music appreciation. The latter comes via experts sitting at their pianos: Richard Rodney Bennett, Barbara Carroll, Andrew Lloyd Webber. The composer himself gives a lucid explanation of his working method, as he demonstrates how the lyric of "It Might as Well Be Spring" inspired the melody. Interviewees include Rodgers's daughters, who provide suitably unsentimental memories of dad. At the heart of the story is Rodgers's brilliant collaborations with two great lyricists: mercurial Lorenz Hart, whose problems made Rodgers look non-neurotic, and steady Oscar Hammerstein II. Ample clips give the best evidence of all, from Frank Sinatra upper-cutting "The Lady Is a Tramp" to John Coltrane jazzily bending "My Favorite Things." --Robert Horton




Rating: - A complex, unhappy man...and probably the greatest theater composer America has produced
Compare the difference between the gorgeous, witty, romantic songs from a man who probably was America's most outstanding popular songwriter with these quotes about the man himself: "For somebody who gave such incredible pleasure to so many millions of people, not to have had the same kind of joy and contentment and comfort in his own life is just awful," says one of his daughters. She continues, "He was worried about all kinds of things, but he didn't talk about them." Says his other daughter, "He ... Read More

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Rating: - The Music of Richard Rodgers . . . The Sweetest Sounds
"The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears."
~ The Sound of Music ~
Words & Music by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II

One of my favorite composers, the brilliant Richard Rodgers, known as the "Broadway Baby" had been composing music since age nine and by eighteen had his first Broadway show. Having written 900 some ... Read More

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Rating: - A well done documentary about an insanely talented man
Featuring in depth interviews with friends, family and co-workers as well as rare film clips of Rodgers shows such as "No Strings", "Pal Joey" and "Babes and Arms", this is a very well done documentary.
Although it doesn not cover the era of Rodgers and Hammerstein as fully as it covers the era of Rodgers and Hart (perhaps because of Hart's horrific and awful fall into the world of alchohal and depression), it does give us information about the man. Besides being a musical genius, Richard Rodgers ... Read More

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Rating: - The man was a genius
The only way to describe the musical composition of Richard Rodgers is that he was a genius, it's just that simple. In every age is seems like we are visited by someone who just seems to have a certain gift, an ability to communicate in an artistic medium such as music, so that all can understand. As Mozart wrote popular music of his own time, (it is the ages that have determined this to be called the classics), it is Richard Rodgers music that the future ages will consider classics. This is not so hard ... Read More

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Rating: - Almost perfect
The few other "reviews" seem more paeans, eulogies to Rodgers, all deserved, but with little about the documentary, which I liked. Larry Hart was my first hero. Keats my second. But that's beside the point. I consider Richard Rodgers the finest composer (and he himself preferred the word "composer" to "songwriter") America has yet (and it seems, will ever) produced. After Hart died and Hammerstein took over, the life and lively interest seemed to go out of Rodgers' music, it seemed to become bland and ... Read More

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