Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting, Entertaining & Personable!
Review: The best Rock documentary I've seen. The documentary really gives you a close hand experience of how the hit songs like "still haven't found what I'm looking for" developed from a single riff or fragment of lyrics to the hit it is today. Watching this DVD gives you a more personal sense of each band member's personality..at least in the studio. If you really get into the "nuts n' bolts" of song creation, well this one is for you. You'll like the sessions with the producer on the sound board with Bono or the Edge mixing different variations of his guitar sequences... If you are a true diehard U2 fan this DVD is a "must-have" in your collection!!!
Rating: 
Summary: more joshua less sweetest
Review: The best thing about this video is seeing band members honest reactions to the genesis of the album that they quite evidently haven't heard since they made it. I wish there had been more archival footage (there is some super 8 here that I wish there was more of), it would have been better to see this than the god awful video of "Sweetest Thing"-a weak song made even weaker with re-treatment.
Rating: 
Summary: A Legend of Its Time
Review: The documentary opens with Elvis Costello (a legend himself) recalling the excitement of purchasing "Joshua Tree" for the first time. That excitement hasn't been recaptured since by any other band or by U2 themselves. As Bono relates, the sound of the "Joshua Tree" songs ("Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "With or Without You") have become so familiar after constant rotation on the radio. But in its time, each song was an unheard-of soundscape. Nothing else in pop music had that intensity, depth, and confidence.The "Making Of" documentary is a decent one. Not stunning with revelation, but interesting to reflect on U2's signature days in light of the band's resurgence with the latest album "All That You Can't Leave Behind." It's also an opportunity to see behind-the-scenes gurus like Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillywhite, Brian Eno, and the Flood who would otherwise remain just names on the album liner notes for we non-industry folks. You start to realize that the band is a collaborative act. Like the Beatles, it's not just the four guys up front.The DVD isn't as slickly produced as "Rattle And Hum" (a post-"Joshua Tree" examination of U2). However, if you enjoy looking at scratch notes to an album that's become a legend, this does the trick.
Rating:
Summary: A Legend of Its Time
Review: The documentary opens with Elvis Costello (a legend himself) recalling the excitement of purchasing "Joshua Tree" for the first time. That excitement hasn't been recaptured since by any other band or by U2 themselves. As Bono relates, the sound of the "Joshua Tree" songs ("Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "With or Without You") have become so familiar after constant rotation on the radio. But in its time, each song was an unheard-of soundscape. Nothing else in pop music had that intensity, depth, and confidence.The "Making Of" documentary is a decent one. Not stunning with revelation, but interesting to reflect on U2's signature days in light of the band's resurgence with the latest album "All That You Can't Leave Behind." It's also an opportunity to see behind-the-scenes gurus like Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillywhite, Brian Eno, and the Flood who would otherwise remain just names on the album liner notes for we non-industry folks. You start to realize that the band is a collaborative act. Like the Beatles, it's not just the four guys up front.The DVD isn't as slickly produced as "Rattle And Hum" (a post-"Joshua Tree" examination of U2). However, if you enjoy looking at scratch notes to an album that's become a legend, this does the trick.
Rating:
Summary: Only for the die-hard U2 fan
Review: This addition to the "Classic Albums" series is much like all of the others included in this series--you'll appreciate it much more if you're a fan of the album and the band in the first place. I happen to be a huge U2 fan, so I enjoyed this DVD, but it would probably bore the non-fan to tears. "U2: The Joshua Tree" breaks down several of the songs from U2's monumental album of the same name, displaying the drum loops, vocals, and guitar tracks that were used to create this fantastic album. Band members discuss the ways they experimented with different sounds and technology to put the songs together, and much of the DVD consists of Bono, Daniel Lanois, and the Edge playing with dials on a sound board. Anecdotes of recording sessions, of course, are related, including a mildly amusing and disputed story about the time when Brian Eno almost erased the entire track of "Where the Streets Have No Name." Some concert and video footage also accompanies each song. All of this is interesting, if not slightly tedious, especially for a U2 fan, but others might start yawning at the midpoint. I was somewhat disappointed to find that not every song on the album was included on this DVD. "In God's Country," "Red Hill Mining Town," "Trip Through Your Wires," and the glorious "One Tree Hill" didn't make the cut, while "The Sweetest Thing," a song that wasn't on the original album, did. It is a great song, nonetheless, but the attention devoted to it didn't really shed any new light on how it was created. For the most part, however, this DVD is definitely worth a look, especially by fans of music, but particularly for fans of U2.
Rating:
Summary: Only for the die-hard U2 fan
Review: This addition to the "Classic Albums" series is much like all of the others included in this series--you'll appreciate it much more if you're a fan of the album and the band in the first place. I happen to be a huge U2 fan, so I enjoyed this DVD, but it would probably bore the non-fan to tears. "U2: The Joshua Tree" breaks down several of the songs from U2's monumental album of the same name, displaying the drum loops, vocals, and guitar tracks that were used to create this fantastic album. Band members discuss the ways they experimented with different sounds and technology to put the songs together, and much of the DVD consists of Bono, Daniel Lanois, and the Edge playing with dials on a sound board. Anecdotes of recording sessions, of course, are related, including a mildly amusing and disputed story about the time when Brian Eno almost erased the entire track of "Where the Streets Have No Name." Some concert and video footage also accompanies each song. All of this is interesting, if not slightly tedious, especially for a U2 fan, but others might start yawning at the midpoint. I was somewhat disappointed to find that not every song on the album was included on this DVD. "In God's Country," "Red Hill Mining Town," "Trip Through Your Wires," and the glorious "One Tree Hill" didn't make the cut, while "The Sweetest Thing," a song that wasn't on the original album, did. It is a great song, nonetheless, but the attention devoted to it didn't really shed any new light on how it was created. For the most part, however, this DVD is definitely worth a look, especially by fans of music, but particularly for fans of U2.
Rating:
Summary: Joshua Tree fans must have this.
Review: This documentary style movie about the songs on Joshua Tree is enchanting. It is a great idea to give the bands views on the album. Why this DVD is not better advertised is beyond me. The bottom line is that if you are a fan of Joshua Tree or an avid fan of U2 you will enjoy this insightful video journal.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been better
Review: This DVD offers interesting insight into the music construction process. Your guide for a substantial part of the tour is producer Daniel Lanois, whose influence on Joshua Tree clearly helped make the album possibly the best rock and roll album ever. But the overall review is not comprehensive, focusing on three songs and neglecting in-depth discussion of the rest. While the band features prominently in the beginning of the movie, towards the end it appears as if they drifted off, and the album is not sufficiently dissected to allow insight into the thought processes behind the music. That of course may be intentional, or it may be that there wasn't much thought behind the music, but the overall effect of the film's short length and awkward ending is to remind us of the need to balance the creativity of the band with the discipline of a good producer.
Rating:
Summary: "U2-- The Joshua Tree"
Review: This hour-long video depicts the creative process behind U2's 1987 landmark album, "The Joshua Tree," but comes up short in the "Best Editing" category. A hodgepodge of recent interviews with the band, the album's producers, engineers and sleeve designers are all compelling, but the overall collection is oblique and arbitrary. For example, some segments show producers using a 24-track board and master tapes to play various unused guitar, vocal and keyboard tracks from a few of the songs. This is very interesting to the musician viewers, but a lack of description of what they are doing leaves everyone else in the dark. Additionally, there is live footage from 1992's "Zoo-TV tour" of "Running to Stand Still," as well as the entire video of "Sweetest Thing," made in 1999. I'm still wondering why 1/4th of this supposedly behind-the-scenes video is devoted to performances that viewers could just watch on MTV, instead of showing more unreleased interviews. Unfortunately, this video will have to do, because similar items on this classic album don't exist.
Rating:
Summary: "U2-- The Joshua Tree"
Review: This hour-long video depicts the creative process behind U2's 1987 landmark album, "The Joshua Tree," but comes up short in the "Best Editing" category. A hodgepodge of recent interviews with the band, the album's producers, engineers and sleeve designers are all compelling, but the overall collection is oblique and arbitrary. For example, some segments show producers using a 24-track board and master tapes to play various unused guitar, vocal and keyboard tracks from a few of the songs. This is very interesting to the musician viewers, but a lack of description of what they are doing leaves everyone else in the dark. Additionally, there is live footage from 1992's "Zoo-TV tour" of "Running to Stand Still," as well as the entire video of "Sweetest Thing," made in 1999. I'm still wondering why 1/4th of this supposedly behind-the-scenes video is devoted to performances that viewers could just watch on MTV, instead of showing more unreleased interviews. Unfortunately, this video will have to do, because similar items on this classic album don't exist.
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