U2 3D

The U2 Vertigo tour that went worldwide in 2005 and graced Australian shores in November 2006 is the second biggest selling concert tour of all time.

It was also a record-breaker for another reason.

During the South American leg of the tour the largest collection of 3-D camera technology ever used on a single project captured over 100 hours of footage from nine concerts to create the first ever concert film in digital 3-D.

The new film U2 3D brings the 85-minute, 14-song performance to the big screen in 3D, giving cinemagoers an immersive experience that could only be beaten by attending the show itself.

The filmmakers have been so successful in making U2 3D just like the concert experience that as I sat in the IMAX cinema at Darling Harbour, people were whistling, clapping and singing along. In fact, the 3D technology is so convincing that there were times where I was about to ask the person in front of me to put their arms down when I realised that it was actually the waving arm of a concert goer in the film. It is just that realistic.

U2 3D stands alone in the well-developed concert movie genre in a number of other ways. It has higher production values, far more advance technology and a greater number of creative choices than a typical straight to DVD concert. But U2 3D also lacks the back stage interviews and on-the-road travelling footage of many cinematic concerts used great effect in many productions, like Martin Scorsese’s recent Rolling Stones concert-documentary Shine a Light.

Co-directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington have succeeded in letting the brilliance of U2’s music, lyrics and visually stunning stage show speak for itself. Despite the awesome technology they had at their disposal in bringing U2 3D to the big screen, the filmmakers have not let it overshadow the U2 concert.

When a performer or band understands the unique dynamic and potential power of a live performance, it can be a very moving experience. In fact, a number of my friends who attended the Sydney leg of the Vertigo Tour tell me it was a concert experience like no other and not just because of U2’s great songs and special effects. It is because there is something special about the message and presence of U2 lead singer Bono.

Bono’s relentless campaigning in recent years for third-world debt relief has been well documented in the media, as has Bono’s increasingly apparent professed Christian faith.

There are two parts of U2 3D where Bono very effectively communicates a potentially life- and world-changing Christian message to a very broad, secular audience.

Firstly, during a sequence of three politically-based songs: Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bullet the Blue Sky, Bono dons a headband with ‘Coexist’ written on it in black marker. The word contains a Muslim crescent moon, a Jewish Star of David and a Christian crucifix. Bono sings, “Jesus, Jew, Mohammed. It’s true. Jesus, Jew, Mohammed. It’s true. Oh father Abraham, what have we done? Oh father Abraham speak to your sons”.

The Rev Stephen Shearsby, assistant minister as St Paul’s, Menai, who attended all seven concerts of the Australian leg of the Vertigo tour says, “Is this pluralism? No. Bono is urging us to love one another by compromising based on our commonality, in this case our common ancestor, Abraham. Like two goats facing each other on a narrow mountain track we can either stick to the path, lock horns and hurt each other or one of us can lie down in the dirt to let the other pass over us before we go on our way.  Ultimately, its a gospel-centered message; God’s love, demonstrated to us in Christ, now requires us to humble ourselves and absorb loss as Christ did for the sake of his brothers and sisters.”

Secondly, the song Yahweh, which closes out U2’s latest album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and was often played in the final encore of the Vertigo tour concerts, accompanies the film’s closing credits. It is about Bono’s devotion to Christianity and refers to the differences in power between God and mankind. That is a worthwhile message to leave with any packed stadium or packed cinema.

U2 3D proves that a gifted communicator with a worthwhile message can use music to share a message with many, many people all at once.