The Young and the Dead

Rating:
Summary: The Life in Death
Review: "The Young and the Dead", part of the HBO series "america undercover", shows a twist to a side of life all of us have yet to deal with. Very reminiscent of the quirky "Six Feet Under" which would follow a year or so after,

Once in disrepair, forgotten, and ready for the scrap heap, Hollywood Memorial Park gets a wonderful chance at life again with the resurrection powers of Tyler Cassity, wunderkind of the funeral business. Bringing on a team of visionaries, they not only save the cemetery, but create new ways for loved ones to remember their dearly departed.

You get from watching this DVD the sense of honor and pride that the staff at the cemetery has at their missions in life. It honors the history of the place, while helping to bring it into the twenty-first century. Featuring people's stories brings to life the video, especially the internment of Hattie McDaniel,who was denied a spot their fifty years ago because of the color of her skin.

I wouldn't recommend purchasing this DVD. It wouldn't be something I'd watch again and again. But I would recommend a viewing of this simple, kind documentary.

Rating:
Summary: A LITTLE TOO CAMPY AT TIMES
Review: The plot (if there is one) involves a young man named Tyler Cassity and his attempt to transform an overgrown, sorry excuse for a cemetery into the now beautiful Hollywood Forever. Mr. Cassity moves in a crack group of media savy professionals as his management team and they merge business savy, public relations expertise, and a hefty tranfusion of $$$$ to turn this cemetery around and make it a viable financial venture. They brainstorm new ideas and implement them and you realize that this business is like any other except it is very well run and the management team appears to have a better grasp on the situation at hand then most large corporations these days. The
whole story sounds remarkably hokey at times and is reminiscent of a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney 'let's put on a show' flick on a
certain level. However, this is all for real and in spite of
some too cutesy interviews and a couple of oddball participants, the viewer really starts buying into this cemetery of the future
concept where memorials are stored in video kiosks and the
cemetery becomes the backdrop for a variety of activities that include not only funerals, but other activities such as concerts, parties, and picnics as well.
I'm not certain if I would have bought into this as readily if I had not visited Hollywood Forever before and after its transformation, however I was extremely impressed with the changes I saw. None of the concepts implemented seemed weird when you experience them firsthand.
The entire dvd was engrossing and contained all the essential elements: humor, pathos, romance, tragedy, comic relief, and even some subtle fun poking.
The end result is that dying doesn't seem so bad if you're guaranteed a nice resting place at HF with the stars.