As long as you're not a fan of Paul McCartney.

For some reason, there's no complete concert film of McCartney that includes his complete set list, from beginning to end, with the moments between songs and everything else intact. That streak remains unbroken with Paul McCartney in Red Square, which is a chopped-up edition of his historic 2003 concert in Moscow, the first time he ever played in Russia. Instead of being able to watch his show from beginning to end, the songs are mixed with archival footage and interviews with various Russians and scholars who discuss the historical implications of The Beatles. These history lessons may be interesting and appropriate considering how huge the concert was, but they kill the cohesiveness of the live music. Considering the concert was three and a half hours long, it's obvious we're missing something. Why the history and music couldn't be in two separate films is a decision I would like to have explained to me.

One of my main sticking points with this disc will always be the order of the songs, which doesn't match the original show until the end of the set. The feel simply cannot be the same when the set list is not the one chosen by the artist. Energy is so huge when it comes to live music, and when you watch one song from the nighttime, with a jacked-up audience, followed by a daytime song and a crowd just getting started, it just seems disjointed.

As far as the music is concerned, there's nothing to complain about. The set list covers the length of McCartney's careers, making good choices to reflect the stages of his music, including his work with The Beatles, Wings and his solo career. Of course, "Back in the U.S.S.R." gets into the line-up twice, in a fine example of playing to the crowd. Despite being 61, his voice remains as good as it ever has sounded in his post-Wings years, even on the scream on "Hey Jude." That's a good thing, because once you get past his amazing song library and voice, there's not much to stay for. He is, and has never really been a hugely energetic stage performer, a fact this disc attests to.

As a film, the movie does a decent job of integrating the documentary testimonials with the concert footage, while the concert suffers a bit from MTV syndrome, with editing that could bring on an epileptic attack during his faster songs. The 26 cameras used during the concert gave the production crew plenty of material, and they made sure to use it, creating a whirlwind of camera movement and not enough of a feel for just being at the show. It does do a good job of illustrating just how huge this concert was though, not just in terms of the size, but also just what it meant to the more than 100,000 people in Red Square.

The Set List
Getting Better
Band on the Run
Can't Buy Me Love
Two of Us
I Saw Her Standing There
We Can Work It Out
I've Just Seen a Face
Live and Let Die
Let 'Em In
Fool on the Hill
The Things We Said Today
Birthday
Maybe I'm Amazed
Back in the USSR
Calico Skies
Hey Jude
She's Leaving Home
Yesterday
Let It Be
Back in the USSR (reprise)

The DVD
Paul McCartney in Red Square is presented on one DVD, in a standard black keepcase with a slipcover that repeats the art of the interior cover. In the package is an 8-page booklet with photos, historical and contemporary quotes, and track listings for the two included concerts.

The disc features static full-frame menus, which offer options to view the concert, watch a bonus concert, check out special features, set-up the audio and adjust the subtitles. The two concerts are broken down with a text set list, while language options include English 2.0 Stereo, Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1., and English subtitles. The disc doesn't feature closed captioning.

The Quality
Presented in disappointing full-screen video, the movie looks a tad soft, with dull colors and not much razor-sharp detail. The smoke around the stage certainly doesn't help, but even when allowing for that, much of the video looks like it has a light film over it. The colors aren't overtly vibrant either. Some pixilation is evident in places, such as hard edges. On the plus side, the transfer is clean, without dirt or damage.

Three audio tracks are included for the DVD: English 2.0 Stereo, Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1. Unless you have no choice, the 2.0 track is an insult. The Dolby and DTS 5.1 tracks are lush, with nice separation between the surround speakers and the center channel. Audience noise is pushed to the exteriors, along with some of the band and vocals, while Paul is dead center, with some bleed to the surrounds. The DTS track has a slight lead in terms of the depth of sound, but it's not as dramatic a difference as it can be on other DVDs.

The Extras
The big extra on this DVD is another concert documentary, "Paul McCartney: Live in St. Petersburg." At just 60 minutes, yet packed with off-stage moments similar to those seen in the main feature, this concert is edited, sadly removing several songs. Just one song is repeated from the main feature, the uber-appropriate "Back in the U.S.S.R.", which makes me think the songs from the Moscow concert were removed from this one. 12 more songs, including "Penny Lane," "Get Back" and "Helter Skelter," are a nice bonus.

St. Petersburg Set List
Jet
Got to Get You Into My Life
Flaming Pie
Let Me Roll It
Drive My Car
Penny Lane
Get Back
Back in the USSR
I've Got a Feeling
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/The End
Helter Skelter

A six-minute featurette, "Behind the Curtain: Memories from Red Square," includes plenty of footage of Paul, mostly away from the stage, with his thoughts about playing in Russia playing over the film. It's a bit more McCartney for his fans, though much of it is repeated from the feature.

It's joined by another featurette, this one from The History Channel. "Russia and The Beatles: A Brief Journey" parallels the career of the band with the history of Russia, going year by year, until the last Beatles album. At under five minutes, it's certainly brief, but interesting as well.

The final extra is a list of links with information about Russian history and world music.

The Bottom Line
I certainly enjoy Paul, and appreciate the historic nature of the event, but this concert film really was not my kind of concert film. In fact, I don't think concert film really fits as a label. It's really more of a musical documentary, as the historical segments and a lack of stage patter remove a majority of the live feel. The DVD presentation is decent, with a light mix of extras, but in the end, only big McCartney fans will need to own this movie. Re-edited, or better off, unedited, and it would fare a bit better.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.