Down from the Mountain (2001)

Good concept, poorly executed.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

To make a concert in addition of the usual soundtrack cd was a good idea. But this film doesn´t make it. It is a cheap, low quality attempt to squeeze more money out of "O Brother Where Art Thou".I like old time music and several of the artist in this concert are among my favorites. But the this concert on DVD is a big disappointment: - Picture: Hand-held cameras with a lot of camera shake and video-noise. And the cameramen doesn´t react to the music. For example when there is a solo by the great dobro-player Jerry Douglas, the camera is still focused on the singer for a while. - Sound: Sound is terrible. It is mostly done with two microphones on stage, which make the sound of many musicians disappear. The sound is harsh and sharp, and bass-notes cannot be heard. A year 2000 concert DVD with only 2 channel sound. - The music and the musicians: There are some great performances here, but mostly the concert is let down by the fact that the artists barely had any rehearsal.If you want to see what a good concert film should look and sound like, see James Taylor´s concert at the Beacon Theatre.

This is a concert film about musicians enjoying to make music. At last a concert film where a shot can be longer than 30 seconds. No special effects, dazling camera movements or superfast cutting here. But a crew of talented cameramen trying to capture the emotion of a concert by concentrating on the faces of the musicians. Take also notice of the incredible sound quality. The sound engineer took the risk of using only a few high quality microphones and let the musicians do most of the balancing. The clarity and transparency is remarkable.

Unfortunately, I missed the actual concert at the Ryman, despite the fact that I live in Nashville. My young son is a Coen Brothers fanatic, I always found their work to be slightly off target with respect to my own tastes.That was, until, I saw "O Brother..." which I saw several times. When "Down from the Mountain" was shown here in Nashville I also visited it several times.What music is shown is excellent, I'm a big fan of watching music being created-- I believe that seeing the performers interact adds a depth of understanding of the music. Unfortunately, not every song presented during the concert is in the film, but what's there was very satisfying.It looked like the film was shot on Digital Beta, or some video format and then transferred to film. As such, it looked a little flat, but the photography itself and the sound recording were both beyond reproach. I'm hoping when I get the DVD release of this film that they've skipped the film transfer and given me the pure video version.

Concert movie focussing on the `bluegrass' songs of the Coens film `O Brother Where Art Thou?' EmmyLou Harris and other perform in a feast of music that washes over you from start to finish. Sadly it doesn't include the main song that George Clooney lip-synched too. At the Edinburgh film festival, where the movie got its international premiere, legendary music documentary maker D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back) explained that they had tried to get the guy to sing it about six times but he always sang different words; as a `definitive' version had already been released on the `O Brother' soundtrack, they decided, after talking to the Coens, that the number should be dropped from `Down from the Mountain.'