Video:

Clearly shot with a prosumer digital video camera, Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? looks like a collection of home videos. Most of the time that is acceptable, considering that documentary filmmaking does not rely on depth of field or color spectrum, but it makes for some very shadowy concert footage.

Audio:

The 2.0 stereo track is acceptable for the documentary format, though the filmmakers would have been greatly helped by using a microphone other than the one onboard the camera. It is surprisingly distortion-free, though, and does not jump wildly in volume at any point.

Extras:

There is a feature-length commentary track with Hunter and Whinna. There are large gaps in the track, and many/most of the observations are of the "I really liked her" sort. But when the two start talking about their own personal experiences making the film and their reactions to, as they put it, "the heathens arriving," the commentary picks up.

The rest of the special features are extended interview clips left out of the film. The extra clips add up to more than an hour of additional footage, and considering the tightening needed in the full feature, this seems like incredible overkill.

There is one interesting clip at the end of the set worth mentioning. The final of the nine additional segments is an interview with a Cornerstone attendee in regards to his struggle with homosexual urges. It's one of the few moments showcasing the struggle between cultures – the permissive, anything-goes world of rock music and the black-and-white morality of Christianity.

Final Thoughts

The back cover of the case for Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? says that the filmmakers "[maintain] an impartial eye." It's certainly true that Hunter and Whinna do not make any judgments about punk and indie Christian music. But without much background on the Christian music scene or many facts, the feature devolves into extended interview clips without context. It's a noble failure, but a failure nonetheless.