The music of Queen and the Velvet Underground instilled a sense of destiny in 3 teenagers living in 1970s Norway. That dream led to A-ha: featuring keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, vocalist Morten Harket, and guitarist Pål Waktaar-Savoy. Take on Me was one of the biggest pop songs ever made and made these teens global superstars. 36 years and 50 million albums later, a-ha still sells out arenas worldwide – but can they mend broken friendships to get on stage and create new music still? Everybody remembers the iconic video, but most Americans don’t know that there have been 10 studio albums and 5 live albums since their debut. a-ha -The Movie follows the band over their entire career, telling the full story of how three young men followed their impossible dream of becoming worldwide pop stars and what happened after that. a-ha still creates magic on stage with their melancholic and timeless music. They tour the world but drive in separate cars and stay apart backstage. They only meet on stage, while doing the one thing they love. The film closely portrays the challenging creative and personal dynamics of a group of three strong individuals. A story of great music, big ambitions, broken friendship – and maybe forgiveness.
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Video Quality
a-ha: The Movie comes to Blu-Ray from Lightyear Entertainment with a very pleasing high definition master that suits the film as well as you could possibly hope. This is a film that features a lot of different material in varying degrees of quality due to its structure. Newer interview segments look incredibly sleek and clear with natural skin tones and some detailed facial features. These three men have maintained themselves well over the years, but you can still see some life lived on their face. The colors featured in the footage have an impressive sense of vibrancy to them. The archival footage used seems to be in the best shape possible given the variable quality of the source material. The transfer does not fall victim to any compression artifacts or digital nuisances of the sort. Lightyear Entertainment has delivered a solid presentation that should please any fan.
Audio Quality
This Blu-Ray disc comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track and a LPCM 2.0 track that perfectly suits the source material with the immersive quality you want from these tunes. While this primarily acts as an interview showcase with talking heads abound, the sound quality of the songs themselves is pristine and fills the room in a wonderful way that is the next best thing to attending a concert. The surround sound presentation makes these songs come alive in a way that gets you jazzed to delve into that catalog once the credits stop rolling. Dialogue is also a focus right up front in the center channel as you get stories in a mixture of English and Norwegian. The archival clips do not feature much in the way of age-related wear, thankfully, but you can tell there were some limitations to recording in certain situations. Overall, most should not have any complaints with this presentation. All subtitles are forced in English, but only for the non-English dialogue spoken.
Special Features
- Deleted Scenes: Three scenes totaling nearly seven minutes of unused footage is provided here featuring Magne giving the advice that this documentary cannot be made entertaining with all the members being pleased with it, the group trying to work through a rehearsal and the reunion of one of their early bands for an unreleased album. .
Final Thoughts
a-ha: The Movie is a very entertaining and enlightening documentary detailing the ups and downs of a band that many may not realize had a rich and storied life outside of a song that swept a generation by storm. Even if you happen to not be a fan of the music, there is a lot of juicy drama that comes from competing philosophies within the group, changing tastes in music and more that makes for a great examination of living life as a creative figure. The film does not attempt to brush over the bumps in the road, giving each member a chance to say their piece without needing to come to a consensus. Lightyear & MVD Entertainment have released a Blu-Ray featuring a strong A/V presentation and a few fun deleted scenes. If you are a music documentary fan, you are going to have a blast here. Recommended
a-ha: The Movie is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Lightyear & MVD Entertainment have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.