2 OF ONE

When I first saw One I was amazed at the way black and white footage of Metallica playing in a warehouse was merged with disturbing black and white footage of an old war film that nobody cares about. Remarkably it works and we all have seen the images of the man lying in hospital covered in bandages and moaning about his misofrtune with war injuries. The horror of this is matched with the lyrics of One that every Metallicfan can recite at will "landmines, taking my sight, etc etc etc, left me with life in hell". Indeed the phrase adorned the back of Metallica T-shirts and has become part of Metallica history. the problem is after seeing this about 6 times the whole clip becomes dreary and one just wants the film footage to go so we can enjoy the performance of the band and not listen to those mournful complaints of the war victim. It is a powerful statement on the horror and senselessness of war but one viewing is enough. So this video does not stand up to multiple viewings. The jammin' session which excises all film footage is far better and very entertaining. I think I spent some time trying to work out the riffs by studying the finger work of Hetfield and Ulrich. In any case the vid is 20 minutes of a Metallica classic and was an important part of their success. I can award it 2 stars for the initial experience, but it does not stand up to multiple viewings, and it features on other DVDs with way more material on offer so this is an obsolete release these days.