Los Angeles: The Grateful Dead Movie will see its first-ever Blu-ray release on November 1, when Shout! Factory releases a deluxe 2-disc version, with the feature film on Blu-ray and a DVD loaded with an extensive slate of bonus features.
Co-directed by Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead Movie was originally released in 1977, and captures performances from five October 1974 shows at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom. In an essay accompanying the Blu-ray, Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead biographer and the former publicist for the band, writes “when the Dead concluded that their epic achievement in sound design, the Wall of Sound, was a fabulous albatross threatening to destroy them, and that a substantial break would follow five mid-October 1974 shows at Winterland, and Who Knew?—maybe these really were The Last Shows—it was the most logical thing in the world for Jerry to hire a film crew and have a movie to make during the hiatus in Dead touring. Like most Dead projects, The Grateful Dead Movie was substantially improvised and required massive amounts of really peculiar synchronicity to work—and somehow came out great in the end.”
Disc 1 of The Grateful Dead Movie features the film in its entirety on Blu-ray, transferred from the original 35mm film negative in High Definition and presented in 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio. The performances include Dead classics such as “Truckin’,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Casey Jones.”
Disc 2 is a DVD containing more than 95 minutes of bonus concert footage, including “Uncle John’s Band,” “Sugaree,” “The Other One‚” “Spanish Jam‚” “Mind Left Body Jam‚” “Scarlet Begonias,” “China Cat Sunflower‚” “I Know You Rider,” “Dark Star,” and “Weather Report Suite.” Also included in the bonus features are the option for visible lyrics, a feature-length commentary with supervising editor Susan Crutcher and film editor John Nutt, the documentary films “A Look Back,” “Making of the Animated Sequence,” and “Making of the DVD,” the television commercial for the Mars Hotel album from 1974, multicamera and multitrack audio demonstrations, and an extensive photo gallery of production notes, photos, film stills and other historical items from the Movie’s production.
Additionally, viewers can choose which sound mix they want, including a 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio presentation of the original theatrical audio mix, a DTS 5.1 audio mix, mixed from the master multitrack tapes, or the PCM 2.0 audio mix, all from the master multitrack tapes. The bonus songs were transferred from the 16mm camera-original film negative, with audio from the master multitrack tapes offered in both a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix or Dolby Digital 2.0 audio mix.
The legendary Grateful Dead Movie is known for its remarkably intimate look at the band and the Deadhead scene of the time. Now fans can enjoy the film in high definition as never before.
Fans who preorder The Grateful Dead Movie directly from Shout! Factory will receive an exclusive bumper sticker with their order, while supplies last. Additionally, it will ship on October 18, two weeks before being available in stores. For more info, visit: www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5257509
The Grateful Dead Movie is the first in a line of Grateful Dead films slated for release by Shout! Factory in collaboration with Rhino Entertainment. Future releases will include The Closing Of Winterland, Dead Ahead, Truckin’ Up To Buffalo, Ticket To New Year’s, Downhill From Here, View From The Vault, View From The Vault Vol. 2, View From The Vault Vol. 3, View From The Vault Vol. 4 and So Far, a 1987 film that has previously only been available on VHS and laserdisc.
Chapter Indexes
1. Animation
2. U.S. Blues
3. One More Saturday Night
4. Bill Graham’s Crew Introduction
5. Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad
6. Soundcheck
7. Truckin’
8. Eyes Of The World
9. Ripped Off Fan
10. Sugar Magnolia
11. It’s Like A Continuous Trip
12. Intermission
13. Playing In The Band
14. Levy Gets In
15. Stella Blue
16. Casey Jones
17. The Om People
18. Weirdness From He’s Gone
19. Morning Dew
20. Encore Break
21. Johnny B. Goode
22. It Must Have Been The Roses/End Credits
Bonus Songs
Uncle John’s Band
Sugaree
The Other One
Spanish Jam
Mind Left Body Jam
The Other One
Scarlet Begonias
China Cat Sunflower
I Know You Rider
Dark Star
Weather Report Suite
