My wife likes to call me a musical snob. I like to thing that I'm simply choosy. This disagreement stems from the fact that there are many bands whose later music doesn't appeal to me. I prefer their early work when they were still raw and hungry. (I don't think I'm alone in feeling this. Most any rock fan has that band which they feel lost their edge.) There are several groups which fall under this umbrella, but the one which is dear to my wife is U2. I loved their early work and I can remember being the only person at my school who liked War and knew who U2 was. But, after The Joshua Tree, their music lost me. Ironically, this period is the subject of the new documentary U2: From the Sky Down.

In June, 2011 U2 was scheduled to play Glastonbury Festival. Their plan was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their album Achtung Baby and play songs from the award-winning release. To prepare for this, the band -- Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. -- returned to Hansa Studios in Berlin, where the album was conceived and recorded. Once there, the group plays songs, listens to early demos of songs like Mysterious Ways and One, and reminisces about the song-writing process. They also talk about the years leading up to the creation of Achtung Baby and how the sudden pressure of world-wide success changed the dynamic and expectations of the band.

I recently watched both Pearl Jam: Twenty and Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, documentaries which explore the entire history of the bands in questions. In contrast, U2: From the Sky Down focuses on only a specific part of the bands history. It dabbles some in their early days, but for the most part, it tackles the years between 1987 and 1991. Through interviews, archive footage, and classic photos, Director Davis Guggenheim explores the days between The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. The band talks about how moderate success suddenly turned into world-wide fame with the release of The Joshua Tree. This lead to the band attempting to come to grips with this and find a new identity. U2 then made a feature film about their tour of the United States. But Rattle & Hum (which I remember seeing on opening night at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill) was met with derision and confusion. The band then felt lost and unsure of what to do next. These feelings lead the band to leave Dublin and head for Berlin, where they hope the exotic nature of the city will inspire them.

If you've been anywhere in the past 20 years, you've no doubt been exposed to U2, both their music and the band themselves, especially Bono. Their fame, and Bono's seeming inability to stop talking about himself, makes it easy to assume that we already know everything about the band. But, U2: From the Sky Down offers a unique glimpse inside the band's camp. Through the comments from the group, along with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, we learn about the trouble which plagued the band during this time. It appears that they were never in danger of breaking up, but there was certainly turmoil (both in the band and in their personal lives) and U2 is pretty honest about this. Again, Guggenheim has made a wise move by narrowing the focus of the movie on the time surrounding Achtung Baby. Paying some attention to the band's early days helps to set the stage for some of the stories, but by looking at the recording of one album, the movie never spreads itself thin. We also get an intimate look at how the band interacts, and even after all these years, they still work well together. (Although, I personally find it odd, that they call Bono and The Edge by their stage names. They would be Paul and Dave to me.)

In our post-Behind the Music world, a documentary about a band has to work hard to be intriguing and impressive. Having the director of An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman behind the camera certainly gives U2: From the Sky Down an edge (no pun intended). The movie contains a great amount of archival footage combined with modern day interviews. While I still have no interest in the music from Achtung Baby and I still think that Bono is pretentious, this look inside the inner-workings of one of the world's biggest bands is undeniably interesting.

U2: From the Sky Down made me wish that there had been a chapter about The Edge's hats on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Universal Music. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1. The documentary contains various kinds of footage. The modern stuff shot in Berlin looks good, as the image is sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain and no defects from the source material. Along with this, we have the various kinds of archive footage and still photos. The quality of this material varies greatly (and shows different aspect ratios), but for the most part, everything looks good. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.2 Mbps. This is an impressive track. The interviews are clear and audible. (Although with the accents, the subtitles don't hurt.) The important thing here is the music and it sounds very good. Several concert scenes provide music which comes from every channel, with the subwoofer providing excellent bass effects. The audio is detailed and we can pick out individual instruments.

The U2: From the Sky Down Blu-ray Disc contains a handful of extras. We get MUSIC VIDEOS for the songs "So Cruel", "Love is Blindness", and "The Fly", all taken from the 2011 rehearsal sessions in Germany. We get snippets of these in the movie, but they are presented in full here. "Online Press Conference: Toronto International Film Festival" (45 minutes) has an interview and Q&A session with The Edge, Bono, and Davis Guggenheim, who discuss the making of the documentary and their reaction to it. The final extra is a PHOTO GALLERY.