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The Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon | 
| Director: Bruce Gowers
Actors: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Ron Wood, Keith Richards, Bobby Keys
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $18.99
You Save: $0.99 (5%)
Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 8877
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Live, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.7 x 0.5
MPN: WARD36440D
ISBN: 6305161925
UPC: 085393644024
EAN: 9786305161929
ASIN: 6305161925
Theatrical Release Date: December 12, 1997
Release Date: November 17, 1998
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
A video/audio spectacular capturing the 1997/98 tour of the rolling stones in all its grandeur and glory. Scorching performances of 19 great stones tunes from satisfaction to gimme shelter to you cant always get what you want. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/28/2005 Run time: 120 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
Like any good brand, the Rolling Stones know to preserve the formula even when updating the package, and this long-form concert video underscores that market strategy. As with each of their tours since the early '80s, the quartet, augmented by a discreet auxiliary of backup musicians, gives the fans new eye candy while dishing up a familiar set list spiked with Mick Jagger's lip-smacking vocals and Keith Richards's signature guitar riffs. The visual twists are at once spectacular and conservative: a cyclopean main stage design with massive pillars (presumably the Babylonian connection), a vast oval video screen (shades of Big Brother), and a hydraulic bridge enabling a midconcert sortie into the audience, with the Stones playing a more stripped-down, intimate set on a small satellite stage. That huge physical setting doubtless made the live shows eye-filling rock spectacles, but the video crew necessarily accepts the limitations of the small screen, focusing more on close-ups of the band, rapid cuts, and racing, hand-held tracking shots to convey excitement while keeping the viewer close to the action. The evening's repertoire sticks to the band's most familiar hits, and if the Glimmer Twins occasionally slip their masks to let the routine show, the real wonder is how effectively they keep the playing focused. During the first half of the program, the band's newest songs (especially "Saint of Me" and "Out of Control") elicit conspicuously higher energy from the band, if not the audience. But just as the show seems doomed to a certain anomie, the escape onto the smaller, no-frills stage pumps up players and crowd alike, particularly when they launch into "Like a Rolling Stone," a cover that winds up sounding like a great idea too long deferred. --Sam Sutherland
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| Customer Reviews: Read 55 more reviews...
 Music DVD's December 12, 2008
Ronald L. Putnam
From the very first song to the end - this is the "Stones" at their very best! They leave no doubt why they've long been introduced at their concerts as "The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World - The Rolling Stones!"
 Disappointing Audio December 2, 2008
W. P. Perry (a country road, WV, USA)
The AUDIO SUCKS. Zero star rating. Sounds like a mediocre audience bootleg that was done in the rear of the venue. The performances and videography are 5 star which averages out to 3 stars. It's so sad considering the effort that went into the production that the sound was not commensurate with everything else. I'm sure glad I didn't pay good money to buy the DVD (rented from Netflix--writing this review to warn potential buyers). Still worth watching so long as you imagine yourself in last row of the nose-bleed section farthest from the stage.
The Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon October 31, 2008
Robbie E. Davis (Maine)
I am a rolling stones fan, as such it would have to be really bad for me not to like it. It is really good though/
 Not the Worst Nor the Best as Stones Shows Go April 23, 2008
Doug Anderson (Miami Beach, Florida United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I love the Stones but this show doesn't excite me as much as other Stones' shows have.
I think there are basically three reasons for this:
1)The show is over-conceptualized. This is a Stones show with a theme, ie Babylon (don't ask for an explanantion on the exact connection between the Stones & Babylon, there isn't one, and would it matter if there were?). I love Pink Floyd and I love the Rolling Stones and I love the approach that each band takes to music. Pink Floyd's approach to music making and performance is conceptual but the Stones have always been appealing because they keep things simple. Pink Floyd's music is about alienation and living in a universe hostile to artistic production and authentic being and their conceptual shows convey these themes very well but Stones-style down and dirty rhythm & blues do not need anything but players and listeners. The Pink Floyd theatrics employed on the Bridges to Babylon tour just seem out of place at a Stones show. Unfortunatley, the Bridges to Babylon tour is full of stage theatrics and gimmickry. Authentic rhythm & blues do not need a specially built theatre w/ mobile bridges and video feeds, but thats what you get with this show. The bit where Mick stops performing in order to scroll a web page of fan favorites was not a good idea. Web surfing does not add excitement to a live Stones show. These kind of misjudgements hamper this entire set. Scrolling the web page where Stones fans choose what the next song will be is supposed to create a sense of spontaneity, and the bridge that leads to an island in the audience where the band plays two numbers is supposed to create a sense of intimacy. Neither gimmick achieves the desired effect. Few bands have ever appeared so disconnected from their audience and each other as this band at this St. Louis engagement. Bridges to Babylon is the least attractive album both graphically and sonically of the entire Stones catalogue (with the exception of Dirty Work). It makes sense that this album and tour were the beginning of another dry spell.
2)The band looks way too vegas. I respect the fact that some of them (Keith) do not try to hide their gray hair. The fact that some of them do obviously dye their bristled mops is not a big deal but the fashion is way too vegas and showy and it distracts from the music. All the guys except Charlie look a bit Queeny in this show. Thats fine for Mick & Woody who have always been a bit foppish anyway. But with Keith I don't want vegas. Even though I have ceased taking Mick seriously as a singer/songwriter/talent (I do still like him as a charismatic performer) I still buy Stones albums for the Keith songs: Slipping Away (Steel Wheels), The Worst, Thru & Thru (Voodoo Longe), Thief in the Night (Bridge to Babylon)....but, c'mon, Keith looks best in his old street clothes, and here he looks as if he has been dressed by a stylist.
3) Musically, too much flash and not enough grit. Even when they play a crowd and critic pleaser like Gimme Shelter the focus is on the outfits and how they look in motion. Same goes for Sympathy, in that song Mick's painted overcoat seems to be doing the performing and not Mick (who seems like his main interest is in fashion these days and not in music).
These complaints lodged, its still the Stones. But I would go elsewhere (especially the recent Shine a Light DVD) for better glimpses of this band.
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