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STUDIO: Warner Bros.
MSRP: $19.98
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 155 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• "In Their Own Words" interview featurette
• "Road to Super Bowl XL" ad campagn
The Pitch
"On my mark, flood the market with promotional material for Super Bowl XL. Mark!"
The Humans
Just about everyone in the history of professional football. If you can think of a name of a player or coach, chances are they feature on this disc for at least five seconds.
The Nutshell
This comprehensive highlights disc comes just in time for the run-up to Super Bowl XL (forty, for those, like me, who never quite got into Roman numerals.)
"Lebensraum!"
The Package
The lengthy clip show has a segment for every single Super Bowl from I through XXXIX. These segments are a few minutes each, covering the key plays, the audience mood, and the high drama of team cooperation. The segments are presented in the best possible quality, which understandably improves as time increases. It’s all in fullscreen and in plain old stereo, so you’ll have to provide your own sound effects.
In addition to the main feature, there is also a lengthy interview featurette from the NFL network. A number of Super Bowl heroes and losers are interviewed for their reactions to several prompts. Make sure to watch for the "Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat" segment, in which one player says that losing the Super Bowl is the worst possible feeling, ever.
There’s also a bit of advertising for Super Bowl XL; you can watch a pair of TV spots hyping the broadcast, or watch behind-the-scenes as those ads are recorded. Can I get a hurrah?
With a blink of His eye, God cleansed the world of Oilers.
The Lowdown
The recent team-specific discs from the NFL and Warner Bros. have been mediocre at best, with little to involve the fans and nothing to draw casual viewers. Greatest Super Bowl Moments, at least, does service to both of those groups. The disc has a healthy amount of content that does a good job covering the best and the brightest plays, players, and coaches in the history of the championship. It’s certainly interesting to have had a sporting event develop, as the Super Bowl did, entirely during the time of televised entertainment.
The main feature is certainly worth picking up for fans of football who want to relive a portion of history, or to learn a bit about the earliest Super Bowls. The nature of the highlights — being the displays of highest prowess and athleticism — even has the potential to appeal to non-football fans in the same way the Olympic events do.
6.5 out of 10