Seen this before
Devon Miles is a talented drummer, who has been given a gift that leads him straight to a Southern University in Georgia. Knowing of his own talent, Miles’ ego gets the best of him and makes it difficult for him through his first year of college. So much so, that he even gets kicked out at one point. The question is, can he get it together not only to help himself ultimately, but also to help his fellow band members, the instructor and the school? Only his ego will tell.
Drumline is one of those films where you know what’s going to happen, it’s very predictable, but you can’t seem to turn away from it. The spectacle of a marching band up close and personal is really impressive. The part where the movie sort of fades comes in two waves. The first wave is that the idea of a drama based around a marching band brings limited interest to an audience. I’m a band geek and found the movie entertaining. People who have never been in a marching band might find it a bit drab in some areas. The reason why people may not rate this well is because they don’t truly understand the actual passion that goes into it. I understand that notion completely. Now, the second wave of problems comes with the fact that: A. Devon Miles is not a likable hero. B. Too many stereotypes.
First things first, Miles isn’t likable until near the end of the film. It takes way too long to build his flaws up and show his falling from grace and not enough time to pick him back up and rebuild him. You can’t have him as an ass for most of the movie and yell towards the end, “He’s okay!” You must give a character almost an equal amount of time to win you over, Miles isn’t given this time. Now, the stereotype that comes with Miles is horribly obvious. Miles is a young black man who just graduated from high school and is on his way to college, but takes a detour to tell his father (who left him at a young age) that he did all of this without him. Why bring that element into this film? It doesn’t fit correctly and even when you revisit his father briefly towards the story’s turnaround, it still doesn’t fit. His hate for his father is intense, his forgiveness is nothing short of instantaneous later on. The only reason I can see this fitting into the film is if the filmmaker wanted to point out that there are quite a few young black kids who don’t have fathers. This is a common stereotype, and personally I’ve never met a family (who happened to be Black) who was missing their father. It’s part of the story that didn’t need to be included, Miles’ ego was quite enough to cause the disruption for his character.
Overall, the movie isn’t terrible by any means, but it does have some flaws. It’s uneven, but it’s dedicated to what it’s drawn up. At the end, you do feel a little bit of empathy for Miles, but not enough to want to give this character a hug. The actors involved in this film obviously took their roles seriously and it shows. Cannon and Bloom really made it work as student and instructor. They brought the passion and you could see it onscreen. I just wish there was a bit more to the story.
Drum until you’re Blu in the face
This is one of those movies that really improves with an HD upgrade, especially during the competition sequences. The colors of the uniforms, the lighting, the green fields, all of these things are so visually stunning on Blu-ray. There are some movies that belong on HD and some that are questionable, this is certainly not a questionable movie. The audio is even sweeter, especially since the focus of the film is on the musical selection anyway. Coming to you in DTS-HD 5.1, you’ll be nothing short of impressed with the audio.
As for the features, here’s what you get:
– Half-Time Heroes Featurette
– Anatomy of a Drumline Featurette
– The Real Battle of the Bands Featurette
– Four Deleted Scenes
– Commentary by director Charles Stone III
The features are good, nothing to shout out loud about. I think, again, you might appreciate them more if you’re a band geek, but for the common folk it may not be enough to entertain. I do think the best feature on here is the ‘Real battle of the Bands’, which is a fantastic look regarding the actual competition.