For the U2 fan, a self-indulgent movie, for the rest, a chance to see what it's like to be the biggest band in the world. From the grainy opening credits sequence containing shots of dockland Dublin, to the vertigo-inducing first splash of colour with the aerial shot of the huge Sun Devil stadium, black-and-white/colour mixing has only ever been used to better effect once in the movies (stand up, Mr. Spielberg). Of course, this was U2 pre-irony, so it's back to monochrome for Bono's rant against the IRA and their famous eulogy to Martin Luther King to close the film, as if the director knew that this was the closing chapter on the 'preacher' band before they went for the visual overload of their 1990s music.
Whether you like U2 or not, Rattle & Hum is a superbly crafted documovie, so much so that the music is often fighting with the direction for the attention of the viewer.
Whether you like U2 or not, Rattle & Hum is a superbly crafted documovie, so much so that the music is often fighting with the direction for the attention of the viewer.