[Editors Note: The following review has been revised and corrected. The previously published version incorrectly stated that Rewind This! was not available on VHS. This was in error. Our apologies.]
It’s been a while since I was really excited about bonus features on DVDs. Probably 2-3 years into DVD, which could still be the last century, I realized that deleted scenes weren’t the good stuff they were hiding from me, and that all visual effects are created the exact same way. Because of my obsession with video formats, I cannot get enough so I could not wait to explore the bonus features on Rewind This!
I don’t really have any more to say about Rewind This! since I reviewed it at SXSW. It gave a complete yet easily digestible overview of the VHS format wars, the rise of home video and the fall of tape to digital formats. It also contained plenty of easter eggs like clips of rare VHS videos (Corey Haim’s personal puff piece tape!) and stories of video store history.
The bonus features give me more areas of obsession that didn’t make it into the movie, although I mean it as a compliment to the feature when I say they really covered the important stuff already. Most significant in the bonus features may be an in-depth address of laserdisc as an intermediary format between VHS and DVD, but it still doesn’t add anything thematic that is not covered in the feature. There is still no coverage of Selectavision. I guess I will have to get on Kickstarter to crowd source the Selectavision documentary myself.
Fun extra stuff includes a loving analysis of the stickers rental stores put on their tapes to categorize them, and some discussions on the value of VHS nostalgia, film ownership and the waning of the rental industry. These are all touched on concisely in the film, as are VHS hunts and streaming. I did like the animated interstitials. Johnson was wise to omit them because the film’s content was clear enough without getting cute, but these are really fun comedy shorts that probably only VHS fans will get.
A few of the bonus interviews repeat soundbites. I imagine these are culled from early cuts of the film, and Johnson tried incorporating these juicy soundbites in different ways. I could swear that some of the soundbites did end up in different sections of the film, but I did not do a soundbite breakdown. I know, I’m obsessive about expired videos on dead formats but I won’t check the documentary against the bonus features. I am an enigma.
Commentary runs through how interviews were done, and some interesting technical factors for degrading new footage to match old VHS. This is the only spot where the filmmakers give their take on interview subjects, VHS hunters and experts alike. That is interesting and the perfect place for commentary, as it were. They are objective filmmakers, but clearly relate to their subjects’ passion. Johnson also laments the lack of minority and few female subjects in Rewind This!, as the video industry itself was unfortunately a boys’ club. I don’t think I listen to commentary on most documentaries. I figure the documentary is the exploration of the subject, so this illustrated to me there is still a lot of filmmaking to discuss on a documentary audio commentary.
There is actually a VHS release of Rewind This! if you order the Amazon.com bundle, but I only got the straight DVD to review which is fine for my purposes. The VHS would be kitschy and fun, but really I wanted to see bonus features. Even if the bonus features are on the tape also, I’d still have to hook up my VHS player to review it and that delay might have made me miss my deadline, so really it’s for the best that I stuck to the awesome Rewind This! DVD. I’m giving it a slightly higher rating than I gave the film itself because of the thorough and insightful extras.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
