Blu-ray Review: Stars and Stripes Forever

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews

The normal bio-pic about a musician is a portrait of a tortured artist with a tune stuck in their soul. The audience witnesses how the performer gives into their vices whether it be drink, drugs or carnal pleasures. The film usually end with a comeback or a funeral. The musician cleans themselves up and recaptures their glory to give an inspirational message like Ray or Walk the Line. The second type has the musician die a horrible death to warn the audience of the dangers of unchecked excess as witnessed in The Doors and Amadeus. What can be done to a musician who wasn’t close to being tortured? Stars and Stripes Forever presents the curious case of John Philip Sousa.

Sousa’s not a wild child with a tawdry secret life. He’s a clean living guy. He led the U.S. Marine Band while composing his own marches including “The Washington Post” march. He left the military and started his own successful band. It was during this time that he wrote “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Even if you’re not a fan of marching band music, you’ll instantly recognize his “The Liberty Bell” as the theme to Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He rejoined the military during World War I to keep up patriotic spirits. His success earned him the title of The March King. While his clean life is fine for a documentary, it does lack the drama necessary for a major Hollywood movie. There was no need to scrub away his vices since there weren’t any. How did he end up at the center of Stars and Stripes Forever with Clifton Webb as The March King?

The screenwriters sexed up the story by creating the fictional Willie Little (Hart to Hart‘s Robert Wagner). The bad boy Marine is rough stud that isn’t cut from the same cloth as Sousa. He’s likes to drink, fight and love. He’s a bad boy with a beat. Sousa sees talent in the troublemaker. Willie invents the Sousaphone, the tuba made for marching bands. Trouble is that Sousa was really behind the creation of the instrument. But who is going to argue since Willie brings romance to the story. He flirts with the equally fictional Lily Becker (Love Me Tender‘s Debra Paget). The duo bring heat to the story that’s lacking in the sensible relationship between Sousa and his wife (The Philadelphia Story‘s Ruth Hussey). Willie gets to see action during World War I. He receives a bigger injury than a split lip on the Sousaphone. Sousa is there to help Willie recover internally. Willie makes Stars and Stripes Forever a musical date movie and not merely an educational flick aimed at marching band geeks. An audience can enjoy fine musical performances and a scrappy musical hero who turns his life around before its too late. It’s a win-win for the March King and his fictional ward.



The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The Technicolor transfer is dazzling. The colors of the grass, band uniforms and instruments have a warmth. The audio is Mono DTS-HD Master. They’ve done a good job tweaking things so the musical moments sound full and rich. There’s a Spanish dub track. The subtitles are English, French and Spanish.

From Our National March to the Silver Screen (16:38) has various people giving biographical facts about John Philip Sousa and how he ended up in a movie. Turns out a lot of the film are based on real moments from Sousa’s autobiography. The writers brought in the young lovers to spice up the story with romance.

John Philip Sousa’s Contribution to American Music (6:39) lets the experts discuss the March King’s legacy. They discuss how the film isn’t accurate on the creation of the Sousaphone. There’s a demo with the USC marching band.

U.K. Alternate Main Title Sequence (1:30) is a black and white version for when the film was called Marching Along.

Theatrical Trailer (3:11) is nearly as long as the movie. It starts with the rehearsals of the band.

U.K. Trailer with Alternate Main Title (2:57) has the folks come running to see Marching Along.

Galleries contains an interactive pressbook, advertising and stills. You can click on the pressbook to get details of the articles.

DVD that contains the remastered film and all the bonus features.

Stars and Stripes Forever combines the true story of John Philip Sousa with the fake adventures of his fictional protege. It’s an interesting mix that always comes back to Sousa’s march music. The bonus features do a fine job at splitting the reality from the fantasy. The restoration of the Technicolor image is glorious. This is a movie that should appeal to the band geeks and the classic Hollywood bio-pic fan.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents Stars and Stripes Forever. Directed by: Henry Koster. Starring: Clifton Webb, Debra Paget, Rogert Wagner and Ruth Hussey. Running Time: 89 minutes. Released on Blu-ray: December 13, 2011. Available at Amazon.com.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.