Disco de Metallica: “Cliff 'Em All!”

This DVD is RAW but this is definitely REAL! I was a senior at Castro Valley High in 1977. There was this shy, Quiet, long haired, red headed kid named Cliff Burton. He carried a Guitar case everywhere he went. I had no idea what an innovative musical bass master he was to become! His amazing talents are shown on this DVD, along with a personal side thats very cool! Dave Mustane also appears on some of the early show footage. We will never know what Cliff could have accomplished, due to his untimely and tragic passing. This DVD captures his and Metallica's early greatness! I for one miss Cliff Burton! This is your chance to see a truely great Bassist and Metal Band live and behind the scenes.

Some people have been complaining about the quality of this video. Something to keep in mind is that it's got "Home Vid" in the title. The most recent of the footage was shot in 1987 with camcorders. Nearly all of the footage is from bootleg videos. Don't expect a pristine, dolby surround sound experience. This is a video for true fans of Cliff Burton. Some of us didn't get to see him while he was alive, so this is the next best thing we have. It's just being released on DVD for people who have DVD players, not to show off the capabilities of the DVD format. For people who might just now be buying this video for the first time and not rebuying it (like myself), you might want to keep that in mind.

In regards to the 1-star review obviously didn't bother to read anything about this DVD before purchasing it. It clearly states in "EVERY" critical review that this is "NOT" a professional recording; it's a compilation of bootleg footage shot by Metallica fans during Cliff's 3 1/2 years with the band. Bootleg footage, almost by definition, is guaranteed to be sub-par quality at best. After everything I've heard about the crappy video quality, I have to say this DVD looks a helluva lot better than I was expecting, and it deserves nothing less that 5 stars!

But be warned: anyone expecting quality on par with Cunning Stunts or the S&M show should not buy this DVD. Anyone who loved the Cliff Burton era of Metallica, or just wants to check out Metallica in the old days, pouring their heart, and soul into every show should pick this up in a heartbeat.

To quote Jaymz: "The quality in some places ain't that happening, but the feeling is there and that's what matters!

I saw Metallica open for Ozzy in '86 at the UIC Pavillion in Chicago and will never forget that they all piled into a beater car they dubbed the "Metallica Mobile" and headed to the local metal radio station in Highland Park for an impromptu interview and phone calls. What set this band completely apart from their competition was how in touch they seemed with their fan base, who were growing increasingly tired of the hairspray, spandex and special effects taking over once decent metal bands. Instead, Metallica seemed much like thier fans themselves. Seeing this video always brings back memories of that concert, for the footage of their opener, "Creeping Death", shows a view that almost appears to have been shot in the exact seat I was sitting in! It also reminds me of how powerful & raw these guys were, as opposed to the horrendous performance by Ozzy, who not only cut his encore because "Jake is sick", but looked like a bloated, Bea Arthur clone with his big hair and glittery Muumuu. Such a disappointment. The Ultimate Sin indeed. And who knew this would be my last chance to see Cliff Burton? He died a month or two later.

This enormously popular video, released two years after Burton died, was watched endlessly by Metal Heads at the time. It may be hard for younger viewers used to such high standards in DVD to adjust to the poor quality contained here. Part of the reasons for this are likely because Metallica was initially fervant opponents to video and any other type of "sell out" publicity. This, of course, made them heroes to their fans, but ultimately presented very difficult business compromises for them further down the road. At any rate, this ethic of theirs - while well-intentioned - turns out to be a real shame in hindsight; there may not be any professionally shot footage of them in their younger days.

What is here is largely fan-shot (i.e., illegally taped initially, but later released officially by the band) with some television stuff from overseas. Some of the earlier club stuff may have been shot by the band's management so the members could critique their own perfomance. The best quality comes from "Day on the Green" in their homebase of Oakland (For Whom the Bell Tolls) which alone makes this worth picking up.

Still, this release obviously hasn't been touched in all its 18 years. I'm sure the sound, for one, could be cleaned up considerably with better source material surely in existence someplace, and some original video masters (esp. of the TV stuff) could be tracked down and spruced up. It would be nice for Metallica to take a lesson from the recent Led Zeppelin & Kiss 2-dvd packages and root through their archives to see what would be suitable for a more comprehensive release. I'd hate to think that this is it for the Cliff Burton era.

When I was teenager and watched this video over and over and over again it would have been completely unfathomable to me or any of my friends that were also huge Metallica fans that they would have ever turned into the complete and the totally pathetic jokes that they have become. Both as artists and human beings. Not that they didn't do some good stuff after Cliff died but the only absolute essential Metallica to own are the first three albums and the Cliff'em All video. They really were a truly great and innovative band at one time.

Here you get lots of live footage. Mostly done from the crowd by fans with hand held cameras. Also interviews and footage of them just hanging out. As low tech as it is it works not just well, but great. You feel like your standing in the crowd watching the show sometimes.

Besides the music one of the things that appealed to Metallica fans back then was that they looked, acted, dressed like any other metal kid. Which makes it all the more horrible that they have turned into poofy, arrogant, money grubbing, out of touch jerks. Watch this and compare it with the Some Kind of Monster documentary if you want a good example of how money and fame can completely ruin people. Both as artists and as human beings.