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Rage Against the Machine: The Battle of Mexico City

Rage Against the Machine: The Battle of Mexico City

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: Rage Against The Machine is the best band, probably ever, they have so much talent. If you've never seen them live, then you owe it to yourself to, even if its just with this dvd. People have mentioned the documentary foorage being unnecesary, but its so great to see what they;re doing this concert for. Its worth at least this proce just to see Tom Morellow play though. And teh censorship can be turned off if you turn on the closed captioning, at least that swhat worked for me. Any rage fan must have this dvd.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Outstanding live DVD
Review: At a time where more and more bands are releasing and overwhelming amount of live DVDs and videos of particularly awful quality, both of Rage Against the Machine's live releases stand out in the crowd as two of the best band DVDs money can buy. Although I prefer their first, self-titled video to The Battle of Mexico City, this is still an excellent purchase, and any hardcore Rage fan would be hard-pressed NOT to enjoy this peice of work.

First off, the songlist is outstanding...Rage was a band never really known to waver much from a classic live setlist, and this show is no exception, but none of the songs could be considered 'throwaways', either. The songs span the most-loved and best-known tracks from their first three albums, paying special attention to the Battle of Los Angeles record, since this show was recorded just after its release. For me, personally, the stand-out tracks are "Know Your Enemy", "No Shelter", "Bulls on Parade", "Calm Like a Bomb", "War Within a Breath", and, of course, the closing "Freedom". I heard somewhere that Timmy C is playing 128th notes on his little bass solo on "Know Your Enemy", which I must say, is pretty damned amazing. This performance had a wholly energetic crowd completely mesmerized by Rage's performance. I think the show, in its entirety, is just over an hour long...not bad at all. With fourteen songs in all, there is nothing to get upset over here.

Here are the only gripes I have with this DVD. While outstanding, it certainly isn't perfect:

1. The sound quality. While not bad, and still better than the majority of live DVDs out there, sometimes the balance of the sound just isn't up to par. There are some songs where Timmy C is practically inaudiable, or where Zack's lyrics seem to be muted out...I usually have to turn my stereo up to a pretty high level to enjoy listening to their performance.

2. Camera work. Again, this isn't a terrible quality, some of the directing just could've been done better. Especially when compared to the cinematography of the first video, the camera on this one just doesn't measure up. Not awful, but not great, either.

3. Censoring. This actually isn't a complaint, but a lot of other reviewers might've mentioned how Zack's 'offensive' lyrics are intentionally muted out from the soundtrack...turn the settings of the DVD onto Dolby Digital 5.1, and this is no longer a problem. Now you can hear Rage in all their vulgar, 'damn the man' glory.

4. Subtitles. Although this is a rather pointless downside to the DVD, whoever typed up the subtitles to each song must have never listened to Rage before, much less actually consulted the lyrics to each song before transcribing them. Not recommended for the deaf or hearing-impaired...or anyone who assumes the subtitles are even remotely correct.

5. Extra feature footage. Although I'm definitely glad that the additional documentary footage was included, did it have to be inserted in between songs on the live performance? I would've watched them anyway, just not in the middle of the live show, preferrably. This can be a minor irritation while attempting to watch the show all the way through, but anyone inclined to push the 'Next Chapter' button on their remote won't have any worries.

Overall, this is one of the best live DVDs I've ever seen a band release, and like I said earlier, if you're a Rage fan, it's extremely unlikely that you'd be disappointed in buying this peice of work. While it doesn't capture the band at their prime, it really is one of the best shows they've probably ever done, and from a band that will go down as one of the best live acts in rock history, that's really saying something. If you are new to Rage, or simply want to get deeper into their music, picking up this video would be a great way to explore them further. Unforunately, though Rage is one of my all-time favorite bands, I was never fortunate enough to see them live (it seems that this affliction holds true with many of their newer fans, as well). However, this DVD is about as close as you can get to actually being in the pit, mere yards away from the band members themselves. Pick up a copy of this DVD as soon as possible, you won't regret it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Would have been better to see live
Review: The back cover of this DVD doesnt lie when it says Rage is in their best form in this DVD. They play with amazing energy, and give one of the best performances of their careers. However, the way this DVD was edited REALLY takes away from the music. All swear words are edited out, and every so often there is a weird slow motion deal. Swearing is part of the Rage expirence, and they should have put the Parental Advisory sticker on and kept the swearing. Once again, the music is fantastic, but unless you are a die hard Rage fan, stick to the albums.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If you are a Rage fan....you'll wish you were there.
Review: The Battle of Mexico City gives you a full-length concert performed my Rage Against the Machine and intermission footage about the followers of Zapata (Which is interesting at some points). The DVD is pretty good. It gives you dolby digital 5.1 but at some points the sound gets really low. The crowd is loud, Zach's vocals are loud, and intro's to some songs are are loud, but the rest of it gets pretty low. If this is a concert, then they should have recorded this properly. Pretty good DVD for any Rage fan though. Buy this one and enjoy yourself into a full length concert.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst music DVD I have ever seen
Review: Please do not waste your money on this [item]. The fact that every swear word is censored makes the gig unlistenable. Imagine listening to Killing in the name with someone turning the volume down every 5 seconds and you get the picture.

Deeply disappointing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Its good
Review: but not great. The live show is excellent, and you get to see how crazy their fans get. But the slow-mo is just horrible, it really makes the DVD look bad. But besides this, you also get some information as far as where they are coming from politically, and some documentary footage with the band. Overall its good, but there are some things you will find annoying.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Cameras and Editing Miss Rage, Focus on Crowd
Review: It's really too bad that the editors of this viedo were more interested in the crowd and circa 1990 Bon Jovi camera angle changes every 2 seconds then they were the guys. No, it's not bad, but it fails to convey the energy like the previous DVD did.

If you had to buy only one Rage DVD, buy the one before this one. It illustrated the energy as well as the crowd far better.

This DVD is so polished it's uncharacteristically synthetic for Rage.

That said, the sound is outstanding and they're still angry. And they use the media mogules against themselves which I respect.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You gotta see this!!
Review: I bought this dvd just to see Testify live (my favorite song at the time), but performances like Bulls On Parade, Sleep Now In The Fire, Freedom, and Know Your Enemy, make you really notice what a talented group they really are. Just when you think Tom's at the top, you hear something even more challenging. This dvd documents Rage at their finest. Just the political message in No Shelter makes you think about if we really need those 'dope nikes'. Every Rage fan NEEDS to see this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Greatest Bands Ever
Review: This DVD is Great...And if you are a fan of RATM then this is a must buy!!! [....] The Music is as good as ever. Rage is bye far one of the great live acts and this proves it. Its just sad that Zach left. But not to worry Rage Fans there is still one more CD and DVD left to be released... The Live From the Olympic Auditorium CD (which is a Live Best of) turned out to be there last consert. I know that we will all be waiting.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Quality Rage
Review: This DVD really is Rage's best work besides their stuff from Renegades. It takes the best songs from Battle of LA, self-titled, and Evil Empire and puts them all in one concert. Here are the songs on it (in order): Testify, Guerrilla Radio, People of the Sun, Calm Like A Bomb, Sleep Now In The Fire, Born of A Broken Man, Bombtrack, Know Your Enemy, No Shelter, War Within A Breath, Bulls On Parade, Killing In The Name, Zapata's Blood, and Freedom. Before you buy this DVD though you should definetly buy the self-titled Rage CD because of Killing In The Name and Know Your Enemy. Killing In The Name's classic verse: "F**K you I won't do what ya tell me" is said by the audience instead of Zack and is barely audible. Then the part where Tool sings in Know Your Enemy is instead sung by Zack who isn't a bad singer but the part was meant for Tool. I also think they should of played Wake Up on it, but oh well, it's still an excellent DVD so get it.


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