Rating: 
Summary: There Is No Dark Side Of The DVD, Really...
Review: Everybody knows Pink Floyd's 1973 "Dark Side Of The Moon" album. 35 million people own it. Many love it. It's made many a "favorite albums" list. Everybody has at least HEARD about how it synchs up to "The Wizard Of Oz". But how many people know the story? That's where this DVD comes in...
What this DVD is, is a documentary about the making of Dark Side Of The Moon, as told by all four band members, Alan Parsons, and a few others. It's a great DVD for Floyd fans. It's interesting to hear the stories from Dave Gilmour, Roger Waters, etc. themselves, and for them to provide old demos from '72, and to do acoustic performances of the familiar songs. Not to mention it includes interesting visuals to go with the songs themselves (like the end of "On The Run" is a plane flying just over a canyon, and "Eclipse" is a giant eyeball looking at an... eclipse). And we even get a picture of the Irish guy who says "There's no dark side of the moon, really... matter of fact, it's all dark". (His name was Gerry O'Driscoll).
A couple of questions go unanswered, though... such as, was the synching of Wizard Of Oz intentional or just a weird coincidence? And what was that faint, mysterious organ music playing at the very end of "Eclipse"? Oh well, if they go answered, it could take away some of the album's mystique.
Anyway, a great, recommended DVD for fans.
And even Dave Gilmour can't help but mention how he wishes he could've been someone listening to the album with headphones in the dark for the first time...
Rating:
Summary: MUCH better than others in this series
Review: I've now seen 4 of the titles in this series -- this one and Aja (Steely Dan), Joshua Tree (U2) and Face Value (Phil Collins) -- and while I wouldn't give any of the others more than a couple of stars and wouldn't recommend them for anyone except basically hard core fans of the artists in question, this one is a very different story. Of course, the subject matter in this case is a good deal weightier and more interesting to talk about, given the subject matter taken up in the record. That may have been one advantage the makers of this film had as opposed to those other cases. It's simply very interesting to hear Roger Waters and sometimes other members of the band (always shown separately) discussing the ideas and emotions they were trying to express, and just as interesting to hear the other members and those like Alan Parsons, also involved with the project, and occasionally Waters, discuss the musical process, as well.
But those responsible for this film just did a lot more with what they had, as well, covering every track on the record and doing so in keeping with the sequencing it came with (both unlike the other titles in the series mentioned above), seamlessly editing together current playing by any member of the group and the original recordings (done only very occasionally on the other titles), and also providing a lot more -- another 30-40 minutes of bonus material, including full solo acoustic versions of multiple songs and all of it very worthwhile -- where none of the others provided any. The quality of the film is even better, and instead of the cheap-o digipack case, you get a regular plastic version.
Indeed, the extra material is so good that one of the only questionable aspects of the work is why more of it wasn't included in the original film in the first place, or, if the makers were facing time constraints, why the DVD does not come with an option to play the film with the extra parts automatically included. But this is indeed being picky and in fact would not work in the case of the full song versions, given the other commentary going on and the editing done.
In short, venture into the others at your own risk, but don't worry about plunking down the cost for this one, even if you're not a hard-core Floyd fan, as the results are well worth your money and time.
Rating: 
Summary: Great if you are a Hardcore pink floyd fan
Review: Hey, let me level with you guys. This DVD is a little over priced for what you get. The running lenght of the main feature is only 45 minutes and there are a couple of specail features that were not even worth remembering.
However, the little bit of documentry you get is very intresting and well worth watching but once you've seen it once you won't want to watch it again. Use your money for "live at pompee" because that can be watched over and over and over.
Rating:
Summary: Breathe in the DVD!!!
Review: If you are a fan of Dark Side of the Moon (DSotM) then you will love this disc. The feature runs as long as the actual album and gives insight into the development of each song. It's amazing to see the Floyd seperately playing bit pieces of each song. What is amazing on this DVD is Alan Parsons and his explanations and demonstrations of all the details we have grown to love on this disk. The bonus material rocks just as hard. Over 10 bonus tracks including additional interviews, insight and music. Pink Floyd is the best!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: The workings of the Floyd and more...
Review: This is one of the best "Classic Albums" series on video. I think for people just discovering the band and picking up the SACD CD, it's a nice way to see how they made the album and what it took (lots of teamwork behind the console as well as in the studio). The video has the original made for TV part, but the best parts are in the extras, which are about as long. It's unfortunate that the band never filmed the "Dark Side" tour, and resorted to using a "Set the Controls" promo from the same time period, even though there is 8MM footage out there. Thankfully, some of the "Live at Pompeii" film showed the making of at the time, which they used to great effect, and then showed them in the present day. It's too bad PF neglected to film any of their shows from DSOTM to Animals... there's probably some "lost" footage floating around somewhere that they never knew about. But a lot of the "video" footage they used for the screen during the shows is also shown throughout the show, hopefully one day can be used as part of a video collection (supposedly, Nick Mason is putting one together). It's too bad they weren't willing to be in the same room with each other during the filming of the show though. A lot of it is really interesting to see Roger, Rick, and Dave break down their songs. But I did think that Dave's voice is starting to show wear, which may be why he is reluctant to do a full Floyd tour and is doing the acoustic shows. Hopefully they can do one show together for posterity at least, covering all eras. Overall, I don't know if this is something that will be played on the DVD player that often, but it's definitely worth watching at least once.
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