Paul McCartney Album: “In Red Square [DVD]”

If you want to be treated to some excellent music performed live and enjoy equally excellent footage, then this is for you. Paul McCartney is not only a class act, but a veteran entertainer who appears to be happy with himself and at home in his profession. Both speak to the good.

I like the way documenatary footage was added which for me made for a bonus part of the show. Although it was not a "true live experience," it was indeed a delightful performance and the contrast between documentary and concert footage helped strengthen the film. Viewers got an even deeper sense of the concert and what took place in making it possible.

I LOVED the inclusion of several of my favorite Beatle songs!

This DVD is more than just a great concert, it is an historical look at how the Soviet Union and its citizens responded to the Beatles and their music in the 60's up until the fall of Communism in the late 80's early 90's.

Intermittent between each of the songs is a story from McCartney, or a Russian individual. Certain Russian audience members who grew up in the 60's describe how the Beatles's music was banned in their country and how they took painstaking risks to buy their music and memorabilia (at the risk of being thrown in jail by the Soviet KGB). The DVD contains segments of interviews with former soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev describing how important Beatles music was to the Soviet people in a time of oppression. President Putin confirms these remarks by Gorbachev by describing how the Beatles were banned from the U.S.S.R. when he was younger and how he had an opportunity to hear several of their songs as a child (Putin shows up to the Moscow show in a very moving moment during the show).

The DVD is very moving. In fact, during the Moscow concert many members of the audience are in tears as Paul plays the older Beatles's tunes. Several Soviet musicians from the 60's who are interviewed throughout the video describe how they had secret concerts, and secret gatherings to buy on the black market the Beatles's music. Many of these musicians describe how they were unable to obtain any Beatles music and had only one or two photo's of the band and would try to guess who was Paul or who was John, etc. in the photo (having not found out who each Beatles member was until much later).

Aside from the history, the two concerts (one in Moscow and one in St. Petersburg) are fantastic. Paul plays many of the Beatles music intermittent with his own solo work. Some of the Beatles' tunes covered are, of course, 'Back in the U.S.S.R,' 'Fool on the Hill,' 'Birthday,''Helter Skelter,' 'We Can Work it Out,' 'She's Leaving Home,'I Saw Her Standing There,' 'Got to get You Into My Life,' 'Get Back,' 'Can't Buy Me Love,' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,' 'Drive My Car,' and many more.

This is a fantastic DVD with all the essential 'Paul tunes' spanning his entire career. The added interviews, history, and shows simply make this one of the best DVD McCartney has ever released. I highly recommend this DVD.

I welcomed this DVD greatly and purchased it, but when I saw it oh my God ! A single word described it: unwatchable.

Why ? Because you cannot hold more than 3 seconds in each scene. Example: Macca shot, Moscow shot, Band shot, crowd shot, panning shot, Macca smiling shot, and so on. There is not a straight line where you can enjoy both concerts. I first saw the Moscow concert, and then to my dismay realized that the San Petersburg's had the same "dynamic" effect.

It is a pity, as the tour and the songs promised a great and memorable DVD. I just got tired on not being able to "focus" and enjoy the concerts. I am not saying that the production should hold boring stills of the concert, but that continuing changes of takes makes it -in my personal, humble opinion- very difficult to enjoy.

In addition to this, there are mixes of uncompleted songs, interviews, etcetera. Don't think me wrong, I am an optimistic hardcore collector, but this concert(s) could have been far better.

Paul McCartney and his band look and sound fabulous on stage during both the Moscow and St. Petersburg sets. However, what puts a damper on this DVD are the constant interruptions between songs. Each song is followed by up to 5 minutes of documentary footage, mostly related to the Beatles impact on the nation during communist rule. They make it sound as though the Beatles were responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union. Needless to say, it is a bit overdone. This documentary footage should have been condensed and positioned on the DVD as an extra. As is, it really deters from the concert's flow. There are also way too many camera changes during the show. Every few seconds the view changes from Paul to somebody in the audience, to the stadium from afar, etc. This also gets a bit annoying. And, as another reviewer noted, for some strange reason the songs are not played in order. It's dark out for one song, daylight for the next, and back to dark again.

But this disc does have some great music. Just be sure to have your remote handy. Fortunately, each track begins at the start of a song, so you can easily fast forward through documentary footage.

I do not believe there is a single video shot of Paul McCartney in this entire video that lasts for more than four seconds before it switches to some other band member, or more so, to the audience. This film is clearly more focused on the crowd and merely blends in extremely erratic video of Paul McCartney and his band. Also, although interesting, the commentary between each song does not allow the viewer to get into any kind of flow with the concert. This really feels more like a documentary than a concert film.

However, the music/audio aspect of the film is outstanding. Paul and his band perform the tunes to perfection. Again, unfortunately, the video editing of this film is (in my opinion) ineffective and not well-done. It would have been nice to have had a DVD option to view the film without the commentary between songs, but even more so, to have been able to view Paul's performance without the camera constantly switching angles and to different band members and the crowd.

I had the priveledge of seeing Paul McCartney live in Dallas, TX in November 2005 and it was truly one of the best concert performances I have ever seen. It is so disappointing that the "Paul McCartney in Red Square" film missed the mark in presenting Paul's performance in a cohesive and flowing way.

I am a huge, huge Beatles and Paul McCartney fan, but was truly disappointed in the video aspect of this concert film.