So Wrong They're Right

This is a terrific little independent film that explores the world of a small group of very likeable eccentrics that prefer the dead recording format of 8 track tapes. I enjoyed the movie so much that I became a convert and picked up an 8 track myself.

"So Wrong They're Right (1999) delivers fascinating tales about 8-track tapes by the most die-hard collectors, including folks like Abigail Levine, James "Big Bucks" Burnette, and the nappy-haired Phil Millstein, who appears to have pulled off some sort of Frankenberry slurpin' hibernation feat in his parent's basement.

The highlight of this gem is its' raw, amateurish footage, and its' candid commentary, complete with titillating insights from some very offbeat collectors. Some of the bands and/or artists mentioned are Lou Reed, the Stooges, Roxy Music, Johns Children, the Sex Pistols, Yoko Ono, Mingus and many others. The film's rough & worn, homemade quality only adds to its brilliance, prompting some to think it was made in the 1970's and not the 1990's.

I loved this documentary. I think that a person has to have one of two qualities to really like this film: (a) be sick of a society and marketplace that tells us what to consume, (b) really love music and especially music that came out before the mid-80s.

If you fit both (a) and (b) this movie just may leave you hankering to get your own 8-track and panting to start up your own 8-track tape collection. It sure did that to me! Last and only 8-track I had was something I waved goodbye to when I sold my car in 1985 (it went with the car, along with my 8-track tape collection). Looking back now, I realize that was the LAST year I REALLY enjoying listening to music in my car or at home with full enjoyable abandon.

Music on the radio took a nosedive about the same time the marketing powers-that-be deigned that all consumers must send their 8-tracks to the landfills and buy something new and digital. That may be just a coincidence, I don't know, but it just makes me hanker for 8-tracks again all the more. As several who were interviewed in this documentary said, I'm looking forward to hearing that "kah-chunk!" I shall be forever grateful to the director and producers and participants who made this film.

Pretty good doc about those who enjoy the collection of this obsolete technology, that enjoyment having to do with who they are more than the technology itself. There's nothing wrong with collecting obsolete tech, but it's not a conspiracy by corporations that caused the 8-track to pass. It was merely another in the long line of media technologies that was replaced by advanced and better types. The only corporate logic in practice here is that of making profit by producing a format that's better in quality and/or easier to handle and/or less expensive to produce. In the case of 8-track tapes, it was the cassette tape that fostered the 8-track's demise, and that same cassette tape better, easier, and cheaper. For those of you who bemoan the loss of a media format or technology, and are angry at the supplanting technology, then just be patient. The technology you hate will be supplanted by another eventually. So Betamax fans who hate VHS, you must now be able to appreciate the DVD. And all you CED and Laserdisc fans are now able to buy your discs at sweet prices.

When I was a kid, growing up in the 70s, my parents had a stereo unit with an 8track player. It was so much fun pushing in the tape and pressing the track buttons. Unfortunately, the player eventually broke and my parents decided to buy a new stereo unit, without an 8track player, much to my dismay. The 8-track tapes that we had made their way to the trash bin soon afterward. It wasn't until 1997, in Philadelphia, when I attended a screening of the film "So Wrong They're Right", that I remembered the 8-track tape. Watching these people speak about their 8 track collections was fascinating, and made me want to go out and start my own collection...which I did!

The people interviewed in the film were not nostalgic, or trying to re-live their youth, but rebelling against the culture of forced consumerism that is still very prevalent today (think VHS tapes vs DVD's). I truly enjoy listening to the music on an 8track as opposed to a CD. One thing I noticed was that if I set the volume on my stereo...play a CD, and then play an 8-track tape...the volume when the 8-track played would be much louder than the CD, all without adjusting the volume. Just one of the many things to love about 8-tracks! Long live the 8-track!