The Video:

Volume Two ...

Volume Two of Just for the Record began with a BBC interview in which Barbra said "change is good." Then, to the rock sounds of "Stoney End", the video presented a montage of Owl and the Pussycat clips.

Next, Barbra and Burt Bacharach harmonized on "Close to You". Following that, Barbra answered David Frost's question "What have you learned so far" by speaking about her son, Jason. Then Barbra sang "Didn't We. JFTR continued with a What's Up Doc? film montage to the tune of "You're the Top". The featurette recently included on the DVD was shown.

Using a 1975 interview with Barbara Walters as a unifying thread, JFTR then presented clips from Up the Sandbox, The Way We Were, and "Crying Time" from Other Musical Instruments.

"Hatikvah" and the Golda Meir conversation from The Stars Salute Israel were included. Following that, JFTR concentrated on Yentl. Barbra's comments on City Lights introduced footage that included more interviews (including excerpts from the Geraldo Rivera one) as well as home video of Barbra and the Bergmans staging "Tomorrow Night". Then, topping Barbra's film accomplishment, video of her accepting the Golden Globe for "Best Director" was poignant.

The era which included The Broadway Album was explored with Barbara Walters interview excerpts, scenes from "Putting It Together", the "Somewhere" music video and Barbra's Grammy Award win.

Next, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Guilty" from One Voice. At this point, JFTR broke its chronological order and flashed backward to Barbra and Barry Gibb's appearance at the 1981 Grammys.

After Barbra was shown accepting the 1988 People's Choice Award (and was weirdly congratulated by octogenarians Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.), Just for the Record came to an unfinished end.

The video makers saved the best for last, though. As "You'll Never Know", the duet between young and older Barbra, was cued up, viewers were shown a short but amazing home movie of baby Barbra!

Following that was another incredible home movie of teenage Streisand and her female friend acting out a "scene" in which they shh the camera and place a "Please Do Not Disturb" sign on a sleeping boy. Then, Barbra bends over and kisses the sleeping boy — a Sleeping Beauty role-reversal!

As "You'll Never Know" plays on the video soundtrack, photos from Barbra's personal album appear on the screen. Some amazing photos! Almost every famous person you could think of that Barbra has worked with are displayed. This was almost a visual version of the "special thanks" section of the JFTR booklet.

Finally, the editors used video of Barbra in the recording booth singing "Warm All Over" as the final credits rolled.

As of 2007, it's been 16 years since JFTR (the CD) was released and the video was worked on. Barbra has told her fans that she still planned to release JFTR on home video. She told All About Barbra magazine that she hoped to get back to working on it in 2000.

There are probably many reasons why it remains unreleased. The main problem, after watching the video again, is that Barbra's career is over 40 years long! The narrative is almost too sprawling. Volume One, which concentrated on the 60's, was the most successful at trying to tell a story and using audio and video to tell it. By Volume Two, the story became too fractured. Much like Barbra's career, as she branched out and tried different aspects of Show Business, it was sometimes difficult to follow any of her various careers. Film? Recording? Directing? Where does one concentrate if trying to tell the Streisand story?

Another reason that the video may have stalled was because of rights and permissions. The video utilized television, film, photographic and audio excerpts from over 40 years of sources. It was reported that even longtime Streisand fans gave the video producers troubles when they arranged to borrow or use private material (photos, recordings, etc.) Karen Swenson said, "During the course of gathering material for JFTR, I came across several collectors who did not want to share copies of tapes they had with Barbra. It's a strange way of thinking. Sure a recording has value keeping it to yourself, but imagine the gratification of being able to share it with the very person whose performance gives it value in the first place!"

That said, many fans did contribute to the video as evidenced in the rare news clippings, photos, and collectibles that are shown.

The format may have ultimately killed the Just for the Record video. Now that DVD albums and interactive DVD's are more commonplace, perhaps Sony and Streisand can reexamine the JFTR product and re imagine it for the digital age. For instance, instead of incorporating footage into a chronological documentary, perhaps Sony could simply feature clickable sections. Imagine being able to put the JFTR disk in your DVD player and going to The Burt Bacharach Show or selecting the Emotion video. Or, if you wanted to experience it seemlessly and in order, being able to click "show all".

Another aspect of Barbra's career that was virtually ignored in the original JFTR edit was her record albums! In my opinion, it'd be very effective to show album covers and perhaps outtakes from the photo sessions to illustrate Barbra's recording career.

One last gripe: JFTR, the video, suffered the same problem that JFTR, the CD did: too much talking! Award show acceptance speeches tend to be boring. Only a handful of Barbra's acceptance speeches were "historical" enough to show in full. The editors could have gotten more mileage out of the rest by showing only a sound bite rather than the whole speech.

There's some rare footage that's materialized since the video was worked on that could be incorporated today. A precursory search of some of the online stock footage sites has turned up footage of Barbra singing for Israel at the Hollywood Bowl, Barbra's concert for Senator McCarthy, and PSA's for George McGovern and NARC. Even David Frost's old shows are being licensed — it'd be amazing to see the entire Frost interview and the two songs Barbra sang on that unreleased show. Inexplicably, Funny Lady was ignored on JFTR, especially the footage from the Kennedy Center concert in which Barbra was really spectacular.

Maybe a video about Barbra's career needs an objective view, too. JFTR was put together by her team. Perhaps the Streisand legend would be better served by an artistic documentarian. For example, Clint Eastwood put together a 90-minute film on Tony Bennett's career. (Granted, Bennett is 80 years old and has entered into the "honored septuagenarian" phase of his career.)

Finally, one would hope that if JFTR finally makes its video debut, that the producers would consider using less footage from Barbra's commercially available specials and more footage of the rarer stuff. For instance, Central Park and Barbra's early TV shows are available in full on DVD. It'd be much more interesting to see Dinah Shore footage, the unreleased Central Park songs, cut scenes from movies, and behind-the-scenes film. More attention to Barbra's political concerts of the 80's and 90's, as well as some of that 1994 "Concert" documentary footage would be more welcome.

As there is no definite release date for Just for the Record, we can only hope that one day we will see it ... in some form. Barbra's career contains so many amazing milestones. It would be great to have a video keepsake from the lady herself.

copyright © 2003-2007 Matt Howe