BRAVE - THE FILM

I bought this DVD when I went to Singapore 5 months ago. I bought it at Tower Records. I was surprised when the cashier asked me for my passport. I newly realized that the DVD is for adult. Luckily, the cashier understood about my problem so finally she sold the DVD. That's about my experience. For the DVD, I was dissapointed when I watched it. I thought that it was a concert but it was a film. So, I was wrong. The film tells about the girl that lost her world and become a bad girl. She always make a bad decision until she kills herself by jumping to the bridge. My favourite song from this "bad" DVD is The Great Escape. Finally, I can guaranty althought your favourite band was Marillion, perhaps you won't like this DVD. Sorry if my English is bad, I just 16 years old.

THE VISITOR

I always read bad reviews of this DVD, so I decided to bought it. I must say is an excellent visual companion for one of best conceptual discs of Marillion. It is a history simple and easy to understand, with enough touching and dramatic moments. If you like the band you must have this. Attention with "the making of "documentary of the film and the CD... very interesting!!!

I knew that I was going to love the movie simply because Marillion always does great things. Sure, the acting isn't fabulous (especially the boyfriend and all the retarded faces he makes in the sex scene. it's hilarious to watch, though!) but it doesn't really take away from the feel of the concept. And, guaranteed, this movie alone wouldn't be anything without Marillion's music to tell the story. If you're hesitant about buying this, then you're probably not that big into Marillion. Nuff said. :)

Harrowing

Care should be taken when approaching this release. This is not a concert video, indeed the band only appear from time to time on it. This is effectively an elongated video intended to complement and illustrate the story of the album.

The original studio version of "Brave" forms the soundtrack to this hour long film. Some brief dialogue in the form of a doctor's questions and findings has been added to embellish the story, but none of the characters actually speak to camera as such. The story is the harrowing tale of the life of a young girl growing up and slipping into the seedy world of sex and drugs. She is rapidly driven to attempt suicide by jumping from the Severn Bridge, which links Wales to England. There are graphic representations of sexual assault and the devastating side effects of drug taking, with the disturbing nature of the story-line being ever present.

On occasions, the band make ill advised but thankfully fleeting appearances miming to the soundtrack. Steve Hogarth looks particularly uncomfortable attempting to lip sync his vocals.

Whether or not the film adds anything to the music is questionable. For me, the "Brave" album is already over-laden with gloom, and is not among my favourites by the band. While the cinematography is artistic, using both black and white and colour segments to paint the picture, the story is rather weak and unoriginal.

Quite who Marillion thought would be attracted to a film of this nature is something of an enigma. Even if it had enjoyed a wide release, I cannot envisage many being converted to the band's music after being thoroughly depressed by this turgid affair.

The DVD comes complete with a "Making of" section, which seeks to explain the logic behind the film. It includes band rehearsals plus a brief letting their hair down jam at the end. The members talk about the history of the band, touring, and of course the "Brave" album. They are very keen to show that they do have a sense of humour, but they are clearly deadly serious when it comes to the music.

One for committed Marillion fans, and manic depressives only.

Ayers and Marillion deserved much better

This is really one of the most uncomfortable video watching experiences I've had in some time. Not because of the thematic elements of the storyline but because I was embarrassed for the band that they were talked into this. Understand that this rating is not about the music, much of which I find pretty good actually. But this video is incredibly corny, simplistic, poorly acted, and serves only to undermine the successful album. I can't believe they released this. You have something similar in style to Kate Bush's "The Red Shoes" mixing the storyline with fantasy, narrative, and band. But Bush was more successful because the concept video was more convincing (slightly), her full presence inside the story rather than this where Marillion "pops in" every so often to mime words and look completely out of place. The young actress (Josie Ayers) playing the lead is the one bright spot as she is really giving it her all, but she can't save this from the rest of the cast or the predictable, poorly conceived disaster. There are some nice moments here and there when Ayers is alone with the camera and the music but they are too few and far between. The visual effects are of course dated now but I don't hold that against it at all, that happens. But the fact is that this was dead on arrival from the time of release. And judging from the looks on some of the actors and band members faces throughout you can almost feel them thinking the same thing. Sad really, because such interesting material should have been given much more. There was a great visual document to be made with this album-and this was not it.

My two-star rating is in line with two preceding collab reviews. When it comes to the live material, I strongly prefer to have a DVD, ie. the live albums have always been of minor importance to me. But I also enjoy having non-live music DVD's that concentrate on the video stuff. However, this attempt at a coherent film approach on MARILLION's excellent concept album Brave (1994) is a notable disappointment. In advance I had three extracts of it on the EMI Singles Collection DVD, and I had no serious reason to think the whole movie wouldn't offer me an interesting, or maybe even - at least to some degree - impressive viewing experience. Now having seen the film just once, I bet it'll take a loooong time before I have any interest to return to it.

Easy Livin hits the nail by saying "Whether or not the film adds anything to the music is questionable". Opposite to him, I do appreciate the album quite a lot. At least I used to. Frankly I haven't listened to it that much in the last ten years. With this background, I lit several candles and prepared to return to my old favourite with the additional visual level. So wrong, so wrong. Instead I should have listened to the CD and let my inner visions pass by in the candle-lit room. (The story itself isn't that complicated that anyone couldn't form his/her own images.) First, I was painfully aware how this film is inferior sonically, compared to the original album. Second, the artistic level of the visual story-telling was pretty poor.

The DVD's back cover says "Brave - The Movie is a fifty-minute concept film directed by cult movie director Richard Stanley. It is Stanley's stark vision of a young life in the 90's inspired by Marillion's album of the same name, which centres around a teenage girl who is found wandering in a state of amnesia on the Severn Bridge, and her consequent search for her past." With such bold words, it's strange that not even the extras lay any light on Stanley. (His filmography includes music videos and horror films, nothing very well-known, I guess.) Seemingly he was just as uninspired as the band in making the film. The main chatracter is fairly well played by Josie Ayers, and it's really her dedicated presence that brings any life to the film.

The clumsy cut-and-paste sections that feature Marillion are luckily brief. At times the black & white cinematography looks good with all the symbolic elements (e.g. 'Hollow Man'), but most of the time the semi-coloured film looks rather dated and over- depressing. Here and there we hear the calm voice of the doctor who encourages the girl to remember what has happened. Even that totally unnecessary feature makes the film inferior to the album. Actually it was more interesting to see the band members chatting -- and in the end, jamming together -- in the 30-minute "Making of" documentary which isn't very suitable for repeated viewings either.