This Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl XL highlight package is very nicely done and should be a real keepsake for Steelers fans. In fact, it may be the most well done highlights package I’ve seen among this video series. It even evoked emotions in this viewer – and I am a New England Patriots fan. The biggest disappointment in this DVD however, is that the bonus features are awful. There really is only one good segment and the rest is just terrible. And, worst of all, unlike the past two years, it does not include the entire Super Bowl game! Steelers’ fans should be quite disappointed with the bonus features given what was included in the last two Super Bowl videos for the New England Patriots. More on that later.
The feature of this DVD is about an hour long highlights reel of the Pittsburgh Steelers 2005 season. It includes highlights of every regular season and playoff game. The highlights for the playoffs and Super Bowl are quite extensive. It closely breaks down the crazy, topsy-turvy Pittsburgh victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the divisional round of the playoffs, which featured a dramatic Jerome Bettis fumble at the end of regulation that could have cost the Steelers the game. The video also contains sound bites from coaches, players, and from the locker room during the course of the season.
Overall this highlights package is very well done. I especially liked the opening montage showing Pittsburgh Steelers’ mistakes and losses in several AFC Championship games (some of which they were heavily favored in) and Super Bowl XXX against Dallas – reminding us just how close this team has come to winning it all the past ten years but fallen just short. It ends with Hines Ward weeping in front of the camera after last year’s loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, setting the stage for a season that saw them win it all in tough circumstances. As noted, special attention is given the Steelers’ victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the Divisional Playoff Game, which was quite well done. I also liked many of the close-up on the field shots that bring that action right into your lap.
The drawbacks to the highlights package, to me, is that for individual games often the drama and key important plays are just not quite brought out enough. I felt they did a better job with the playoff games than the regular season games, at least better than most previous additions. Also, a lot, maybe too much, attention is given to Jerome Bettis, who really becomes the central focus and story of the video at times. I am not sure how Steelers fans will feel about this but I thought it might have been a tad overdone at the expense of other players. And finally, and this should not surprise anyone given this is an NFL product, there was not much talk about the poor officiating in the playoff games, which was a very large part of the overall tenor of this year’s post season play and the Super Bowl. It is unfortunate that officiating was such as issue, but it was, and that this video mostly ignores the issue makes this an incomplete, maybe even inaccurate, historical record.
Now for the big letdown, the Bonus Features. The Bonus Features, frankly, are just not very good. If I weren’t spoiled by the Bonus Features of the past two Super Bowls I probably wouldn’t have that much of a reaction to them because they are, after all, add-ons. But I am spoiled. It does not contain the entire Super Bowl game and it does not contain post game analysis or interviews. It mostly contains a lot of tripe.
The best, and actually very well done bonus feature, is an even more detailed highlights reel of the Pittsburgh victory over the favored Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs. It goes through all the drama – to the erroneously overturned interception by Troy Polamalu, Bettis’s goal line fumble, and the big choke by kicker Mike Vanderjagt who badly missed a makeable field goal that would have tied the game on the last play or regulation. It’s quite a well done piece.
You also get little snippets of video about Bill Cowher, Jerome Bettis, Willie Parker, and Steelers’ history that are very short, and frankly not very good. There are media day player interviews on the DVD, as well as the entire half time show, which for me I could care less about. And finally there are Super Bowl promo videos. Who cares about that!!!
Despite my disappointment in the Bonus Features, overall I give this video a high recommendation for the highlights reel. If you look at the Bonus Features as freebies, then it’s hard to complain too much about it. But compared to last year’s DVD, some will be disappointed. Congratulations to the Steelers for a great season.
Other NFL Films For Super Bowl Championships:
NFL Super Bowl XXXVI Champions - The New England Patriots
NFL Super Bowl XXXVIII Champions - The New England Patriots
NFL Super Bowl XXXIX Champions - New England Patriots
Other New England Patriots Films:
3 Games to Glory
3 Games to Glory II
3 Games to Glory III
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