On June 29, a special Japanese edition of 'The Police Inside Out' will be released to commemorate the band's 30th anniversary. The special version will probably include a bonus disc with unreleased scenes, unreleased live footage, an interview with Stewart Copeland and footage of Stewart Copeland in Tokyo (subject to change).

Check out the following two UK reviews for a sample of how the release is being received (these reviews relate to the original release).

From "Uncut" Magazine:

Bleached Trio's wild rise comes to life in unique rock doc

Stewart Copeland's recounting of The Police's glory years follows the familiar trajectory of most conventional rock docs: some guys decide to put a group together, catch a wave and ride it out to its inevitable wipeout. But this is where the similarity to other rock docs ends; it's safe to say that no previous film has shown with such off handed immediacy what it looks and feels like to actually be a participant in this wild ride. Everyone Stares gives viewers something unprecedented: a visceral and fascinating view from the catbird seat - in this case, Copeland's drum stool - as the trio explodes from obscurity to stardom during a particularly heady period in musical and pop-cultural history.

Everyone Stares had its genesis when Copeland started looking through the 50-plus hours of Super 8 film he'd shot between 1978, during the hand's first tour of the US by car, and 1982, when things began to unravel. His original plan was to edit it into a home movie for his ex-band mates and members of the road crew, just a bit of fun. After shaping it into a fast-paced 90-minute thrill ride. Copeland now a film and TV composer by trade - created the score by dumping all manner of archival live and studio snippets into Pro Tools and fashioning a frenetic sound collage that evoked numerous familiar Police songs without directly referencing any of them, thus providing adept wordless commentary on the visuals ("I love to edit!" Copeland says of his intricate A/V juxtapositions). On a whim, he submitted the doc to the Sundance film festival, where he was stunned by its success and, after adding his own wry, sardonic voiceover, decided to give it a wider release.

As narrative, the film isn't especially compelling; we know the story well, few character nuances are revealed beyond the pervasive bonhomie of the principals and the scope is myopic by its very nature. Experientially, though, Everyone Stares succeeds far beyond its modest components, establishing and maintaining a breathless pace that's underscored by Copeland's droll voiceover.
Ultimately, his film seems less like art than a view of life itself (albeit a highly unusual form of existence), careening madly past the curious, often bewildered young man behind the lens. For an hour and half, we get an intimate sense of what it was like to he in this band at this time but, as the film-maker points out. Everyone Stares could be about any band that has been through this sort of experience and, more fundamentally, about any individual who finds himself in a situation that is no longer in his control. And that's a crucial function of art, right? To find the universal in the particular

EXTRAS: Copeland and Andy Summers' quip-lit led commentary gives the footage the feel of a different movie altogether, suffused with the tart flavours of affectionate, brotherly banter. Copeland describes it as "Movie Two, in which you get the two old roués reminiscing," adding that his only disappointment was in not managing to get Sting to join in (perhaps he'll turn up for the second edition). Three montages are included: quick-cut 'shards' from concerts and soundchecks, candids of the band in repose and, most intriguingly, Koyanisqaacsi-like footage (liberated from the end credits) edited together from scenes shot in fast-motion from hotel windows around the globe, reinforcing the film's boy-in-a-bubble POV. Also coming this autumn is a textual companion piece: Andy Summers' memoir. One Train Later. ****

UNCUT: I can honestly say I've never seen a rock doc quite like yours, Stewart.
COPELAND: This is a film that arises from found footage shot by a 25-year-old rock star and edited by a fifty-something-year-old father of many. It's not like a VH1 documentary where the hand passes in front of the camera; the band is the camera in this film, and that's what makes it unique. After it was shown at Sundance, one or two of the reviews said. This film doesn't tell us anything about the band's creative process or give us any useful information about what the hand accomplished." And I would have to agree with this criticism. It could, in fact, be about any band; it's about the experience of riding that rocket ship.

UNCUT: You handled the band's unravelling in a candid way without being melodramatic.

COPELAND: The film is about the joyride, but it wouldn't have been right for me to totally ignore the fact that the band broke up. And also, the band had this reputation for a lot of hostility. Well, I think that I dealt with that reputation by showing that, infact, that just wasn't true. In all of the 50 hours of shots, it's the same thing: there's no grumping; its all of us just smiling goofily and generally having a good time. We actually liked each other a lot. There's one shot where Sting is frustrated with himself - he's standing at the mic trying to get the song and looking intense. That's all I had. So I distilled it down so that it wasn't melodramatic but still made the point.

From "WORD" Magazine:

Stewart Copeland gets his Super 8 footage from the attic so we can share the view from the drum-stool as The Police took on the world - by Paul Du Noyer

As the drummer in The Police it was Stewart Copeland's job to batter away while Sting's arse bobbed before his gaze. That may be someone's idea of the dream job but Copeland tired of it. I once heard that he wrote Sting's name on his drum-skin, for the sheer pleasure of hitting it. But what he actually wrote, as we learn from Copeland's own documentary Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out (Universal), was "Fuck off" on one drum and "You cunt" on the other. It's hardly Marcel Proust, but as Copeland notes, "Because I'm a product of youth culture, part of my job is irrational behaviour".

Compiled from the sticksman's Super 8 footage (he took a camera everywhere with The Police), the film has all the gawkiness of anyone's home movies. People gurn and thrust their noses to the lens, simply because they don't know what else to do. Nobody says anything much, and Copeland's voiceover tries to bring the perspectives of hindsight. Not all of what he says is fascinating (As a rising rock band our status in America had to be earned show by show, city by city", etc) and there is a total absence of rock-tour debauchery on display.

But you do get a glimpse of a top band's career arc: laddish and eager in the early gigs, tense and focused when there are hits to be followed up, weary and bickering when the adventure fades, the travelling gets oppressive and the lead singer wants to record everything his own way.

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For more information on Stewart Copeland check out his website at www.stewartcopeland.net

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