Product: Return to Waterloo [VHS] (1985)
Rating: 4.0
Davies & company 80s music videos
"Return to Waterloo" is an hour-long music video featuring a number of Kinks songs and a storyline about an average, well-off Englishman. A feeling of possible impending horror is created by repeated newspaper images of a rapist on the loose, a man who closely resembles the hero of the story. However, the story never really pulls together. We follow our alienated hero is he ponders a young love and thinks about his wife back home. He boards a London commuter train and finds himself next to a group of people who represent different social tendencies in 1980s Britain - some business types, some old folks reminiscing, and some hooliganish young punks, one of whom is played by Tim Roth. The characters prance around, and sometimes it makes for very enjoyable viewing, but what is it really all about?In part 2, "Come Dancing with the Kinks", you can watch several music videos of Kinks Klassiks or kontemporary 80s songs. Some of these make for good viewing, such as the funny "Predictable", or "Come Dancing", a story-song in the Davies tradition. There is also a nice live version of "Lola" which has R.D. all hyped up and running around the stage.Take a look if you like. If you are new to Kinksdom, check out some of their 60s classics first, like the albums "Face to Face" or "Something Else". If you are already a fan (like me) you will probably get something out of this, and you may even want to forge ahead and read Ray Davies's "unauthorized autobiography" titled "X-Ray".