Madonna’s MDNA tour hits DVD and Blu-ray, but is it as good as being there?
EXPRESSING HERSELF | Madonna has long been a master of the provocative video, as the Blu-ray of her ‘MDNA World Tour’ concert proves.
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
Does everyone else remember seeing Madonna last year at the American Airlines Center for her MDNA Tour?
Yeah, me neither.
I was one of the unlucky suckers who had tickets for Saturday night’s two-show stint — the one she canceled. Half of us were gravely disappointed. It was armagaydon.
I convinced myself I wasn’t missing much. Despite a few good tracks, MDNA was hardly classic Madge — a few good tracks, sure, but the album felt rushed in post with a hodgepodge of styles. Not seeing the tour of that CD wasn’t a tragedy.
Oh, how could I have ever doubted her?
MDNA World Tour, the concert DVD and Blu-ray edition of that show, has all of the Material Girl’s majesty and fetishistic eroticism, merged with lots of disturbing, violent imagery and a huge catalogue of songs. How could we have expected less?
From the opening backstage images of her heroin-chic-thin muscle-twinks (I know!) in Spandex to the militaristic bandoliers and freaky headgear to the elaborate set pieces and blood-spattering projections during “Bang Bang,” Madonna reminds us why we’ve followed her machinations for nearly 30 years.
Yeah, 30: Madge is 55 now, and in her cat-suit while doing gymnastic stage antics, she’s as provocative and exciting as ever. And as if to prove it, well more than half of the two-dozen numbers she performs during this two-hour extravaganza are her raciest hits: “Papa Don’t Preach” (tame today, but a hot-button song in the ‘80s), “Express Yourself” (which she cleverly mashes up with Gaga’s clearly derivative “Born This Way”), “Justify My Love” and “Like a Virgin.” (With so many oldies, clearly she recognizes than MDNA wasn’t her best work.)
Perhaps the most unexpected twist is that she sings most of the songs into a hand mike — isn’t she the popularizer of the headset? Has she betrayed her roots?
Of course not. But it’s her constant self-reinvention that has kept us intrigued over the years … that, and her embrace of hot male backup dancers with homoerotic gyrations.
The video’s director, Danny Tull, trained as a film editor, and he seems preoccupied with fast cutting, flashy effects instead of lingering close-ups or allowing the action to play out in front of our eyes. A little luxuriating in the queen herself would make more sense.
Yes, Madonna’s voice sounds especially Autotuned here, but her live audience of gay boys and pudgy girls don’t seem to mind. You won’t either.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 13, 2013.