EASTWOOD AFTER HOURS: LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL

Warner Home Video
Special Features DVD, $19.98

Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall is a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of jazz greats to salute film legend Clint Eastwood.  Eastwood is a jazz lover who has uniquely integrated that musical form into many of his film's scores.  In appreciation, on October 17, 1996, veteran and contemporary jazz musicians honored Eastwood with performances of various musical numbers.  The performance of these numbers includes intermixed clips from the Eastwood movies from whence they were taken.  Among the performers featured in this celebration of jazz music are Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Flip Phillips, Charles McPherson, James Rivers, Slide Hampton, Hank Jones, Thelonious Monk Jr., the Kyle Eastwood Quartet, and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.

Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall was written by Richard B. Woodward and Bruce Ricker, and produced and directed by Bruce Ricker.  It is not rated and has a feature running time of 106 minutes.           

The DVD is presented in a fullscreen version (1.33:1) that is not enhanced for widescreen monitors.  The overall quality of the transfer is excellent.  Images appear crisp and colors are rich with fully saturated hues.  There is solid contrast and black levels are very dark.  Picture defect mastering is perfect with no major flaws or digital compression artifacts.

Video Rating: 9 out of 10

The following spoken language option is available for this DVD: English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround.  The following subtitle tracks are available: English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, along with English closed captions.  The English Dolby Digital 2.0 track is the basis for this review.  The soundtrack sports a mix that heavily favors the forward channels.  The small segments of dialogue are clean and intelligible.  The surround channels are active, but not aggressive, and exclusively used for music and audience applause.  The LFE channel is deep, tight and provides good depth to the music soundtrack.

Audio Rating: 7 out of 10

The tactile sound effects are above average and are present in all 27 of the DVD's chapters.  Subtle to moderate impacts are the type of tactile effect that can be experienced on this disc.  These tactile effects occur exclusively with the music segments.

Tactile Sound Effects Rating: 7 out of 10

Bonus features include a 10-minute, behind-the-scenes documentary entitled Eastwood After Dark; production notes; crew biographies; interactive menus and scene access.

Bonus Features Rating: 6 out of 10