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The Search for Robert Johnson 
Actors : John Hammond, Son House, Keith Richards (II), Wink Clark, Honeyboy Edwards
Director : Chris Hunt
Studio : Sony
by Sony
Release Date : 2000-10-31
Publisher : Sony
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780738900797
UPC : 007464491139
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 15 reviews)
List Price : $9.98
Our Price : $5.73
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The Search for Robert Johnson |
This is one of the best documentaries on Robert Johnson ever made. John Hammond Jr. also performs some of Johnson's songs which is an added treat. Very informative and as factual as can be expected, considering that we know so little about many of the details of Johnson's life. I would highly recommend this documentary for any serious Robert Johnson fan.
John Cole |
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The search for Robert Johnson |
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This video was great, if you are a fan of blues music and of history and especially of Robert Johnson who "sold his soul to the devil" you will love it. It is well worth the money. |
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Good Information |
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This documentary would have been much better, and shorter without the film maker inserting himself into the film with his singing and playing guitar. I like Robert Johnson, but the documentary maker is just not talented in those fields. |
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All you need to know about Robert Johnson |
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Great coverage of the man and his music. Enjoy it very much. |
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A wonderful DVD bringing together many people who at least tangentially, knew Robert Johnson. |
This DVD offers a wealth of information about the life of Robert Johnson. We meet a girlfriend of Robert Johnson, who claims she knows where his actual burial ground is, and another girlfriend who had a song written about her by Robert (and who hears it for the first time on the DVD). A man is interviewed who claims to be Robert Johnson's son, along with a birth certificate showing that in fact this may be the case. Johnny Shines talks about how they would play the game of "cutting heads" in Helena, with Robert stealing away the audience every time. We get the insight that the person who poisoned Robert Johnson's drink admitted as such to one interviewer, after first presenting an alibi for a question which was never asked. We are also presented with three possible grave sites of Robert Johnson, though none of them can proven to be incontrovertible as such. In short, there is a lot of good information on this DVD about the enigmatic bluesman known as Robert Johnson (and pseudonyms in various other places). This DVD is clearly a window into the past which will slowly disappear as the years go on......Hammond does us all a great service by documenting Robert Johnson's life and that of his contemporaries.
The one complaint I would have is that at times Hammond (an excellent blues singer in his own right) himself is singing RJ's songs, and at the bottom of the screen it will have the name of Robert Johnson along with the songs title. This may leave those with little knowledge of the blues to conclude it is actually Robert Johnson who is singing, when in fact it is not. Also, there are montages throughout the film when they will be talking about Robert Johnson while at the same time showing pictures of blacks in bars and juke joints, without saying that in fact Robert Johnson is not in the photograph, as there are only two known photographs of him, and each one of these show him alone in the picture. To the novice blues fan, they may not know this and think they are actually seeing Robert Johnson, and I think this fact should have been made clear in the film.
Even with the above provisos, this was an excellent documentary on Robert Johnson's life....Hammond clearly has a deep love for the blues and the early musicians of the delta.
**** 1/2 stars. |
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