The Us Generation: The making of the 1982 Us Festival is an in-depth look at one of the most influential music festivals of all time. The Us Generation is from award-winning filmmaker and rockumentarian Glenn Aveni, who is also the film’s director. Co-Directed by Jay Cederholm and Produced by Bruce Gibb & Rich Schmig, the film blends rare concert footage and insightful interviews with both organizers and performers. The film tells the story of the groundbreaking 1982 Us Festival–an epic three-day event featuring an eclectic and unprecedented lineup boasting some of the biggest names in music, performing live in front of over one million people at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, CA. The Us Festival was the brainchild of Apple visionary Steve Wozniak, who wanted to create something that was a true celebration of Americana, cultivating positive vibes and building a deep sense of community through the power of technology and music.
The film is produced by Icon Television Music, Inc., Plum Media, and in association with Us Festival original founders Unuson Corporation. Highlights include performances by chart-topping superstars, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, alt-rock trio The Police, blues rock heroes Fleetwood Mac, guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana, retro-chic favorites The B-52s, and new wave icons The Cars; as well as archived appearances by Johnny & Joey Ramone, Carlos Santana, Sting, Ric Ocasek, Danny Elfman, and Fred Schneider; plus exclusive sit-downs with festival founder Steve Wozniak, Mick Fleetwood, Eddie Money, Marky Ramone, Kate Pierson, Stewart Copeland, and Mickey Hart, among others.
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Video Quality
The US Festival: 1982 The US Generation comes to Blu-Ray in its original aspect ratio from a decent high definition master. The film is a mixture of new interview footage with archival clips from the festival interspersed along with various on-screen graphics. All footage looks as pleasant as you would expect it to look in high definition considering certain limitations. There are no obvious issues with compression artifacts, banding or other digital nuisances. The concert footage seems to be the best version of it that would be possible, with most of it looking pretty strong. Interview segments look very sleek and clear in the stable filming conditions with natural skin tones and detailed facial features. The colors featured in the film are natural and vibrant as they provide a nice visual pop on screen. Black levels are strong and give way to a fine amount of detail in shadows. This delivers what you want from this experience.
Audio Quality
This Blu-Ray comes with an okay Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track that presents everything clearly, but given the fact that this is a film about music, it would benefit from a lossless track. Interviews are a large focus of the film, and information comes through in a crisp manner without being clipped by any competing elements. The filmmakers do a steady job of capturing their subjects and making sure all this information comes through with supreme clarity. The musical performances have some amount of power, but you are left wanting a bit more raw power from several key performances. The audio track could be better, but it does what it needs to at the end of the day. There are no subtitles provided.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Director Glenn Aveni provides a lacking commentary track which falls into the filmmaker falling a bit too much into simply watching his own work quietly. When he is speaking on his experience making the film, there are some decent insights, but nothing of too much consequence.
- Interviews: A collection of extended interviews are provided which gives you more details about the subject’s experiences with the Us Festival and other memories of that time.
- Steve Wozniak (16:29)
- Mick Fleetwood (6:22)
- Stewart Copeland (19:30)
Final Thoughts
The US Festival: 1982 The US Generation is a bit of a frustrating watch for fans of music documentaries. Without a doubt the subject of the festival is fascinating, but this particular approach to examining it feels misguided and more than a little bit safe. The big blunder is the presentation of the musical performances, as you only get a handful of extended numbers and a sprinkling of awkwardly cut songs elsewhere which leaves fans of those bands feeling underwhelmed. This could potentially be overlooked if the reflection part of the documentary was compelling, but the modern interviews are a bit toothless and repetitive since everyone seems to have nothing but positive things to say about the experience. This is not an unenjoyable watch, but you know there could be so much more to this in different hands under different circumstances. MVD Entertainment has provided a Blu-Ray that features a good A/V presentation and a couple of worthy special features. This is only for the hardcore fans who need every scrap of content from these bands.
The US Festival: 1982 The US Generation is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray + DVD Combo Pack.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: MVD Entertainment has 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.