Brian Wilson Presents Smile [2 Discs]

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The remarkable story of how rock's greatest "lost album" finally emerged nearly four decades after it was scrapped has been writ large in this special DVD set from Rhino Records. Brian Wilson Presents Smile features a full-length concert performance of Wilson's masterwork, Smile, the "pop symphony" he created in 1967 with lyricist and arranger Van Dyke Parks for Wilson's group the Beach Boys, but which went uncompleted until 2003, when Wilson and Parks resurrected it in a series of live concerts. The show featured here, recorded in Los Angeles, has been mastered in letterboxed format at the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and looks crisp and colorful throughout. The audio is presented in two formats, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and uncompressed PCM Stereo, and is beautifully detailed and musical in both mixes. The most remarkable bonus item here is Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile, a superb documentary by Beach Boys biographer David Leaf on the rise, fall, and rebirth of this fabled song cycle, which is worth the purchase price all by itself. Also included are interview outtakes from the documentary, a look at the making of the new Smile album in 2004, interviews with fans and musicians after the live debut of Smile, solo piano performances by Brian Wilson, a trailer for the Beautiful Dreamer documentary, and a fan-made animated music video for the song "Heroes and Villains." Anyone with more than a passing interest in pop music of the 1960s will want to see both the concert film and the powerful and moving documentary, and this package presents both with the love and care they deserve. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide