Kurt Cobain - About a Son
by AJ Schnack
List Price:
Our Price: $9.99
You Save: $9.96 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.94 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, Michael AzerradDirector: AJ Schnack
Brand: Uni
Producer: Michael Azerrad
Cinematographer: Wyatt Troll
Editor: AJ Schnack
Producer: Chris Green
Producer: Jared Moshe
Producer: Matthew Shattuck
Producer: Noah Khoshbin
Producer: Ravi Anne
Producer: Richard Lim
Producer: Shirley Moyers
Producer: Stephanie Meurer
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-02-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: SF10719
Studio: Shout Factory Theatr
Product features:
- Original music from Death Cab for Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard and Nirvana producer Steve Fisk anchors this documentary about the late grunge rocker. KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON closely examines the life of the musician from his childhood to his tragic death. Format: DVD AUDIO Genre: MUSIC DVD Artist: COBAIN, KURT Rating: NR Age: 826663107197 UPC: 826663107197 M
DVD Reviews of Kurt Cobain - About a Son
DVD Review: Disappointing... Very Disappointing.
Summary: 2 Stars
I had actually been really excited about seeing this film. I was 18 in 1992 and just idolized Nirvana. Sixteen years later I still have a soft spot in my heart for Kurt Cobain.
This film was ridiculously terrible! In my opinion, it had no business being a film. The substance of the movie comes from taped conversations between Michael Azerrad and Kurt Cobain that Azerrad used for his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. With the prodding of Azerrad's interview questions, Cobain reveals facets of his personality, interesting anecdotes about his life, and insight into the person he was.
However, AJ Schnack adds NOTHING to the story by turning this material into a film. Sure, there are a few generic shots of the neighborhood where Cobain grew up, where his father worked, and other places Cobain frequented, but this could easily be shown as photographs. In my opinion, Azerrad himself should have released the tapes and included a booklet of photographs of Cobain's haunts, of Cobain himself, as this is all this film really is.
But the rest of the fluff Schnack added, in my opinion, was plain stupid and annoying! For example, when Cobain would be telling a story that happened in a library, you would be listening to his voice, but then looking at the inside of a library. I know what a library looks like, I don't feel like I need such obvious visual cues! The same thing would occur when Cobain would be telling a story that happened in school, a lumberyard... wherever. I didn't feel like looking at the halls of a high school or a bunch of logs being moved really added anything to the story.
What I found the most irritating, though, was the way Schnack would take have these random people look, with forced sad and empty expressions on their faces, at the camera and just stand there. I felt this was Schnack's sorry attempt to be artistic. I felt like he was trying really hard to make an artistic statement with these people (who I guess were supposed to represent "everyday Americans", "alienated youth", and the like), but it really just didn't seem to have anything to do with Kurt Cobain and the story he was revealing. Perhaps if these shots had been of kids in the 90s, dressed the way we did those days, like the kids in the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", it would have seemed relevant. But they were just people living and looking like they do in the first decade of the 21st century, and I have no idea what this was supposed to do with Kurt Cobain.
Of course, there is no music by Nirvana in the entire film; I believe I heard he couldn't get the rights to the music from the people who now own it. Sure, it was interesting to hear the music that influenced Cobain, but what a movie about him with none of his actual work just seems empty.
My last complaint about the film has to do with the printed words at the end of the film that claim Cobain committed suicide a year later. From my understanding, Cobain only allegedly committed suicide. There is a lot of evidence that suggests a certain person had Cobain murdered. A film about Kurt Cobain, I would think, should at least set forward truthful, verifiable information about him.
This film is worth renting (don't make the mistake of buying it, like I did) just to hear Cobain's stories in his own voice. But don't expect to gain much from the visual content from the film. In fact, I feel it may have been more enjoyable to simply have listened to it with the screen turned off.
Description of Kurt Cobain - About a Son
Kurt Cobain was deeply suspicious of journalists, but he trusted Rolling Stone's Michael Azerrad enough to give him unprecedented access during the writing of the book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Consisting entirely of Cobain's never-before-heard musings and recollections recorded by Azerrad and laid on top of newly shot footage of the places that he lived, Kurt Cobain: About A Son offers an intimate portrait of the rocker's troubled formative years and meteoric rise to stardom. The result is the story of one of rock's greatest icons as it's never been told before. DVD Bonus Features:
Additional audio from the Kurt Cobain interviews
Behind-the-scenes featurette
Following in the deeply idiosyncratic footsteps of Last Days, About a Son plays more like autobiography than documentary. Gus Van Sant's feature extrapolates moments from the life of Kurt Cobain (with Michael Pitt as a musician named Blake), while A.J. Schnack?s non-fiction film adheres closer to the facts, but advances a more radical Koyaanisqatsi-like approach. First off, Cobain supplies the narration, but the filmmaker avoids pictures of the alternative icon until the end. (He culled the voice-over from interviews conducted by author Michael Azerrad for Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana.) Beyond-the-grave narration isn't a new concept--see Tupac: Resurrection--but Schnack (Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns) ups the ante by excluding talking heads, concert footage, and other staples of the genre. Instead, he uses still and time-lapse photography to explore Cobain's Northwest, i.e. Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle. The artist's unguarded reflections create a sense of intimacy as specific locations illustrate his words. Conversely, the lack of portraiture and self-penned music generates a feeling of absence. The soundtrack combines an ambient score from producer Steve Fisk and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard with Cobain favorites, like David Bowie, Cheap Trick, and the Vaselines (available on a separate CD). For more specifics, interested parties can always turn to tomes by Azerrad, Gina Arnold, Charles R. Cross, and Everett True. About a Son doesn't presume to provide a definitive portrait, but Schnack's rigorous avoidance of convention results in an experience far more dream-like than depressing. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Kurt Cobain (Smoking) Music Poster Print - 22x34Poster Revolution; Poster Revolution; Poster Revolution; Home
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Kurt and CourtneyRelease date: 1999-09-28; DVD
Best price: $8.96
Price in other shops:
Nirvana - Live! Tonight! Sold Out!Uni; Release date: 2006-11-07; DVD
Best price: $8.29
Price in other shops:
Nirvana: Live at the ParamountUni; Release date: 2011-09-27; Published: 2011-09-27; DVD
Best price: $10.40
Price in other shops:
Nirvana: Unplugged In New YorkUni; Release date: 2007-11-20; DVD
Best price: $8.10
Price in other shops:
Gus Van Sant's Last DaysHBO HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-04-28; DVD
Best price: $2.08
Price in other shops:
Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobainby Charles R. Cross
Hyperion; Published: 2002-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.75
Price in other shops:
Nirvana - Nirvana: Live at ReadingUni; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvanaby Michael Azerrad
Three Rivers Press; Published: 1993-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Journalsby Kurt Cobain
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2003-11-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.85
Price in other shops: