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12/4/05 - Bullet in a Bible: Too Much or Not Enough?
During the production of their past several albums, Green Day has been all talk and no action about releasing a movie to go along with the music. Finally, with American Idiot, the guys got their shit together and produced the Bullet in a Bible DVD, a 67-minute documentary of one of the biggest shows in punk-rock history, the band's totally lickable performance to a house of over 65,000 screaming fans at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England.
The DVD covers most of the songs Green Day performed that night, from "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Holiday" to "Longview" and "Basketcase," cut up with interviews from the band members explaining the meanings of song lyrics and the process that got them to the massive success of American Idiot.
For a concert video the sound quality on this DVD is amazing. With most stuff like this, the roar of the crowd is so loud that you can barely hear the band, like what happened with Green Day's Woodstock 1994 appearance. It was supposed to be the greatest show of the festival, but the recordings were terrible, and a big disappointment for everyone who wasn't there but wanted to feel like they might have been. No worries about that for watchers of this DVD, however. With a big screen and a big stereo, you might find yourself years from now, a senile old burnout, claiming you were there that night, and it rocked. Do the kids still say 'rocked' nowadays?
One aspect of this DVD that is majorly contentious amongst fans is the way it's directed and edited. Director Samuel Bayer, who did videos for bands like Nirvana and Blind Melon, cuts rapidly from scene to scene, sometimes flipping suddenly to an interview just when you're getting really in to the music. Critics say the DVD is flashy, over-commercial, and distracting. Truth is, some people are uncomfortable with Bayer's style, and find innovative work like this makes them feel all funny inside.
From a different perspective, you could say that Bullet in a Bible captures the gritty, disorienting style of underground punk music videos, which have been around for years but have never gotten super mainstream. The anarchistic nature of the music is heightened by the rebellious directorial style, which simultaneously showcases the larger-than-life power of Green Day's performance while cutting to the bone of what the songs are actually trying to say by interspersing commentary from the band.
For all it's rapid-fire content, the DVD is disappointingly short, clocking in at just over an hour. Several songs performed at the live concert are not included, and the fast cutting creates a pace that makes it seem even shorter than it is. On the other hand, a lot of critics seem to be simultaneously complaining that they didn't like the style AND that it was too short, leading to some speculation as to why people who didn't like the video wanted it to go on and on.
One thing's for sure about Bullet in a Bible. You're either going to love or hate it, but you won't feel indifferent, and that's what Green Day is good at, making you care passionately even if that just means being pissed-off because suddenly everybody loves punk and you're not an ostracized loner any more and anything that popular is so totally not punk, right? And you're the only one that's been there since Kerplunk AND appreciated the politics on Warning and now everybody's just jumping on the band wagon, but oh no, not you, there's no way your going to cave in and watch that stupid DVD, except of course that you already have, which is why you got pissed off in the first place, because despite all your misgivings, watching Green Day do their thing up on stage, and talk to you behind the scenes about what it takes to do that thing, just makes you love them, and you're right, it's all true, it's hard as hell to be a punk when you love something and everybody else loves it too.
 For a totally ass-kissing review of Bullet in a Bible, click here
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