Review for WWE: Hart & Soul - The Hart Family Anthology

Introduction:
There may be a lot of families associated with the wrestling business, with many great stories to tell, but there is no family that can boast more connections to the business, nor more great tales, than Canada's Hart Family.

A large part of that fact, of course, is that aside from Stu and Helen Hart themselves, there are 12 Hart children, several grand-children, and even in-laws to take into account. But the grand total of their achievements should not diminish the individual achievements of the family's top stars; Bret Hart, for example, was among the greatest wrestling performers on the planet in the period 1992-1997, while Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart also had moments, often with Bret, when they were truly exceptional.

"Hart and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology", then, is a look back at the history of the Hart Family, including both a documentary and the greatest matches the family members ever had.

Video:
Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. I imagine that the image is 4:3 due to the use of archive footage, which would not be in widescreen format. In any case, the newly-recorded interview footage for the documentary looks very nice indeed, as does almost everything from the WWE archive. The only thing that looks a little below par is the Stampede Wrestling footage, though that makes up only a small fraction of play-time.

Audio:
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is also very good. All interviews can be heard clearly alongside other parts of the audio, and the generic background music generally works well with the subject matter.

Extras:
Unlike previous WWE releases, for "Hart and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology", the best matches from the involved family members have been selected, as opposed to avoiding matches already used on different DVD releases. That's a treat for those who want all of the matches in one place, because you will not find a family of more skilled performers anywhere in wrestling.

The highlights of the DVD extras are Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) vs The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid), Bret Hart vs Davey Boy Smith (held at Wembley Stadium in August 1992), Bret & Owen Hart vs The Steiner Brothers, Bret Hart vs Owen Hart (a cage match from Summerslam 1994), Owen Hart vs Davey Boy Smith (Germany, 1997), Bret Hart, Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart & Brian Pillman vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust & Legion of Doom (held in Calgary in 1997), and Bret "Hit Man" Hart, Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Undertaker & Dude Love (July 1997). As you can see, that's a lot of highlights, and several of the matches above are among the best WWF/WWE bouts ever captured on video.

There are also out-takes from the documentary, often featuring interesting stories that didn't just quite fit the mood of the main feature, including that of Stu wrestling a tiger.

Main feature:
It is certainly some task to tell the story of three generations of Hart family members in one documentary, but this is as good an attempt as you can imagine, especially considering the slant of the piece towards the sport of wrestling.

All the main topics seem to be covered, from Stu Hart's youth and beginnings in wrestling, to his romance with Helen, and how the family came to be as large as it was. Once those foundations are laid, we get to know a little more about the characters of the grown-up Hart kids, including the somewhat tragic Dean, who died of kidney failure in 1990.

There's a look into the peak of the fame of the family, from 1991 to 1997, some of the family troubles that that caused, which exploded when Owen Hart was tragically killed during a stunt on a live WWE television broadcast (fortunately the cameras had cut backstage).

After that, we get a look at Bret's high-profile move to the WCW promotion (known as the Montreal Screwjob), his long-standing feud with McMahon, the eventual reconciliation following Bret's stroke, and his return to the WWE for a feud with McMahon as the third generation of the Hart family (Harry "David Hart" Smith, TJ "Tyson Kidd" Wilson, and Natalya Neidhart) become active WWE competitors.

Overall, the main feature is interesting for new fans of the Hart Family, who won't have heard all of their stories down the years. For long-time fans, it's nice to put faces to names, as the likes of Smith Hart and Ellie Hart haven't featured prominently on television or video for many years. It's also quite an honest portrayal of the family - which hasn't always been the case with WWE DVD releases.

Overall:
If you are a fan of old-school (read: 1980s and early 1990s) wrestling, you are going to want to own this DVD. The documentary is good, and the extras are excellent, even if several of the matches have previously featured on DVD.