Welcome to Death Row (2001)

Forget what you think you know about Death Row Records, Tupac, even N.W.A. This is the definitive documentary (It could be the only one actually) about the notorious West Coast record company, the people that made it what it was, and the people that tore it down.

One thing that I really appreiciate about this documentary is that it is told by those that were actually there, not a bunch of "experts" that spent years looking at pictures and reading documents. This is a documentary about a certain era in music done by the people that created the myths and lived the life; Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog to lesser known figures such as criminal investor David "Harry-O" Higgins and co-owner of the label Jerry Heller amongst many others.

From the rise of Suge Knight from being more than bodyguard for Bobby Brown to having Vanilla Ice peer over the balcony, to where he would be landing if he didn'y pay up ownership and royalties of "Ice Ice Baby" among other songs (actually told by Rip Van Winkle himself), To the dissapation of N.W.A. and the crafting of classics such as The Chronic and Doggystyle (and all the controversy that came with these albums), The East Coast-West Coast fued, and finally the untimely death of one of the most influential people to ever pick up a microphone; Tupac.

The rise of Death Row Records is truly a tragic tale, and it is told by the people that were there and it is all there, there are no bars hold and no pages left unturned.

A must see for any music aficionado or curious fan alike. This is everything that one would need to know about a time in music when the musicians made the rules and enforced them in anyway they wanted.

A "Wild West" tale just a much as it is a documentary, but to be more frank, a true chronicalling of a prosperous, but dark, time in the history of music.

Nuit Et Brouillard (Night and Fog) (1955)

"Anyone interested in civics must see Night and Fog and Salo."

- Jean-Claude Biette

Upon hearing this bold statement made by the French director on a documentary about the making of Salo I decided, without any concern of civics, see what this other movie was all about. The simple fact it was being mentioned with something like Salo had to account for something (we are talking about the most controversial film ever) and this was either a feather in its hat or a nail in its coffin, in my book at least.

Needless to say, I have seen the film, and clocking in at only 31 minutes long, it is both bold and controversial in its own right (Bulldozers plowing piles of bodies into holes in preperation for burial and such atrocities). Having seen many things on the Holocaust, from either side of the equation - the oppressor or the oppressed - this happens to be the only one that blends the two into something that rests on a different kind of pedestal. It does not damn the Nazi party for what they did or even offer an outright reason to feel and sympathy for the victims (although one will already do these things reguardless of any overtly given reason to), what it does is show the impact that such a monsterous thing has left, like an unfading scar on the face of society.

This is what seperates this from most documentaries about the Holocaust, in that it is showing it to you as if you were to go there today and see the fences, walk through the gates, and stand in a place where thousands never returned from. While doing this it does cut to actual footage of the camps in several different occurances, from the loading of the trains and the fear in these peoples eyes as they are unloaded like cattle to their untimely death at the hands of the Nazis (some of which I have never seen before, like the men drinking soup).

None of this is overdone to the point of making the realization of responsiblity for done actions anymore obvious than it already is, as I've said, this is a study of both sides of the spectrum, an overall showing of what happened all those years ago and what it left for all of us that weren't behind the barbed wire.

Truly a masterpiece of a documentary about events that will then, now, and forever be remembered.