"Rewind This!" is a documentary about VCRs, VHS tapes and the people who collect them. The story begins with the war between the Betamax and VCR formats, which of course the latter won despite the fact that Betamax was a far superior technology – but it could only play tapes of an hour or less, so any movie would need to be on more than one tape, a design flaw that killed it fairly quickly. Once VCR had won, people started discovering the joys of being able to watch movies at home, at the time of one's choosing – or at least they did once the price of the machine and the tapes (originally priced at $99!) came down. The film interviews a plethora of modern-day fans of the format (my personal favourite was a woman who organizes her tapes by the dominant colour of the box) as they describe falling in love with video, making home movies themselves and searching for old tapes at flea markets and the like – some collectors have over 100,000 of the clunky boxes! And, of course, the film includes a variety of scenes from videotapes, especially that genre of straight-to-video creations, which are a hoot to see. Definitely made me want to hunt up our old VHS tapes that are slowly rotting somewhere in the basement!
Plot summary
Home video changed the world. The cultural and historical impact of the VHS tape was enormous. This film traces the ripples of that impact by examining the myriad aspects of society that were altered by the creation of videotape.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
February 18, 2021 at 07:15 PM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
The History of Videotapes, Entertainingly Told
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Oh the age of VHS. My earliest movie memories are of dubbed movies on VHS. There was "Super Fuzz," "The Last Dragon," "The Incredible Shrinking Woman," and so many more. I got to know the movies intimately because I watched them over and over. And as fond as those memories are, I would never go back to VHS. Ever. It was a cumbersome process and the quality was terrible, and it only got worse the more you watched.
"Rewind This!" is both a history lesson and a trip down memory lane. There are interviews with collectors, retailers, and movie makers. You will learn something and be embarrassed for some of the movies at the same time (they were that bad).
"Rewind This!" isn't a great documentary, but it serves a great purpose.