Customer Rating:  
Summary: Finally available
Comment: I waited many years to see this movie as I was a kid when it came out and no one would take me to it. Watch it with an open mind and gain some spirituality. The music is excellent and the message is as good for today as it was then. In a time when special effects rule our movies, this one is all natural.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Movie, Crappy conversion to DVD
Comment: I read the book and I loved it. Then I heard there was a movie about this, so I did some research and found the movie here at amazon. Reading other reviews, it was clear that the conversion to DVD was poorly done.
Well, the reviews are right. The movie is stunning, the story is beautiful, the photography is spectacular, the Soundtrack great, and the sound... Well, the sound is what took two stars away from my review.
Paramount should be ashamed of letting such a wonderful movie, where the soundtrack is basically half of everything, being release with no work at all at the sound quality. Zero, zero. The sound is MONO, and looks like somebody took an old voice recorder into the movie theater hidden in his pocket and recorded the whole thing.
I think this movie deserved a little more time and money dedicated to create a better package.
But still, the movie is worth it. I will complain at Paramount's site about this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Etherial!
Comment: The soundtrack from Johnathan Livingston Seagull is one of the most beautiful, relaxing celebratory of life CDs I have ever heard. I took my brother's record album when we were young, and I have missed the music since my record collection was ruined in the rain. I would have paid more for this beautiful music.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Needs more Neil, fewer birds
Comment: This was Neil's first project for Columbia Records, following up his glorious "Moods" album on the MCA label, the one that opens with what would become his signature tune, "Song Sung Blue," and closes out with several songs that seem to hint he was already in "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" mode: "Walk On Water," "Theme," "Prelude in E Major" and "Morningside." Having just listened again to the JLS soundtrack for the umpteenth time, and then having watched the movie for the first time, I would suggest that any ND fans out there who, like me, went decades without seeing JLS should continue avoiding that movie at all costs, and give another listen to "Moods" again.
The main problem with the movie is that Neil ran out of songs about halfway through the film, at which point either there's no sound at all for many long minutes at a time (I exaggerate slightly -- there's the occasional sound of ocean waves crashing into shore), or you get to hear James Franciscus' voiceover as Jonathan. Now, Franciscus was a fine actor in his day, in projects as diverse as "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" and the underrated TV show "Longstreet," but his was not the voice of JLS. Neil should've written another half-dozen songs and they could've had a better movie just with the seagulls flying around and letting Neil narrate/sing the whole thing, kind of like "Tommy" but as a bird opera.
Instead, we get one really good song on the soundtrack, "Be," which you'll notice appears four times out of 12 tracks, so clearly Neil recognized he had a dearth of good material so he had to stretch out the good stuff as far as it would go. "Dear Father" is okay, but feels like it's half-finished, and it appears three times. "Skybird" starts out great, but also feels unfinished, and it appears twice on the soundtrack. See the pattern here? The rest of the songs aren't really even songs -- just snippets of songs. If you want to listen to a well-thought-out spiritual odyssey, then listen to "The African Trilogy" songs on the "Taproot Manuscript" album. Much better stuff.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Comment: It's been many years since I've watched Jonathan Livingston Seagull. To now be able to view it on HD video with surround sound brings back the wonderful memories of taking my daughter to see it, and to once again experience the incredible photography and the powerful music, in the comfort of our own living room means so much to my family. This DVD is worth every cent, and will be a treasured addition to our growing video library.
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