The Ramones: Raw
January 2005 Reviewed by: Eric Hetherington Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 thereby cementing the place of these punk rockers in the cultural mainstream. This new disc allows us to see the band at its best and worst.

The main program on this DVD is a documentary about the Ramones that splices together short interviews and behind-the-scenes segments with concert footage and music videos. A great deal of the behind-the-scenes material is uninformative, standard rock band footage of groupies and life on the road. (I could live without seeing any of the Ramones at the toilet, for example.) The Ramones are not very forthcoming with real information about the history of their band, and no one comes off as anything more than a caricature of a real person. The real value is the concert footage that shows the band in its element playing for the thousands of fans that love it. The members play hard and fast, and I would not have thought the Ramones got the size of crowds that this video shows. All of the well-known songs are here. I would have preferred a straightforward concert film to the documentary style presented here. There is always the chance that a rock star will just seem silly when he is serious or reflective, but at least some serious commentary on influences, approach to composition, or how the band stayed together for so long would have been appreciated.

The packaged extras on this disc should keep the viewer busy for a while. They include, but are not limited to, a 27-minute program of the Ramones live in Italy in 1980, Ramones television appearances (including Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, The Howard Stern Show, and 120 Minutes), and 18 deleted scenes. There is also a commentary track for the main program by Johnny Ramone, Marky Ramone and the director, John Cafiero. There are also 12 hidden Easter eggs, which is my one complaint about this disc. Someone might think that it is fun to hunt around DVD menus to activate Easter eggs, but I'm not that someone. If there is something you want me to see, add it to the menu. If it isn't that important, just leave it off the disc.

The packaging proclaims that this is the definitive Ramones disc and that it contains over five hours of material. I'm not sure that anyone needs over five hours of the Ramones on DVD, but this disc is fun for the viewer even if he or she watches only a couple of hours. The untimely deaths of Joey, Johnny, and Dee Dee have signaled the end of the Ramones, but, thanks to Image Entertainment, we can now always return to CBGB's circa 1979. Hey, ho, let's go! 

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