Background
Instead of releasing a straight concert video, Duran Duran and director Russell Mulcahy thought it might be fun to play around with the origins of the band's name (the 1968 film Barbarella), and added a storyline and some surreal elements that are woven around and through the footage of the band playing on stage.
The film's villain, the evil Dr. Durand Durand (played by Milo O'Shea, reprising his role from Barbarella) has crash landed on Earth and is surprised and confused to find teenagers chanting his name. When he discovers that they are not chanting for him, but for an upstart pop group, he sets up shop beneath the concert arena and attempts to wreak havoc on the band that stole his name. Of course, he and his henchmen fail at every turn and Duran Duran continue to perform, seemingly unaware of the evil doctor's plans.
The video also included Russell Mulcahy's long-form video for "The Wild Boys". It was meant to be a teaser for a full-length feature film of the same name, based on the 1971 novel The Wild Boys: A Book Of The Dead by William S. Burroughs. However, that film was never made.
The expensive sets for the conceptual portions of Arena and "The Wild Boys" were built in the massive 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios. some were also filmed at the nec, Birmingham where free tickets were given to fans. Young actress Jennifer Connelly appears, walking across an empty stage, in one segment of the video.
A picture book of the movie, Arena: The Book (ISBN 0-9510118-1-2), was released in 1985.
A live album, also called Arena, was released in late 1984. It featured the two singles "The Wild Boys" and "Save a Prayer (Live)". The video for "Save a Prayer (Live)" is included as a DVD extra on the 2004 Arena DVD release.
The DVD for Arena was released in April 2004 and includes as an extra The Making of Arena behind the scenes documentary that was originally released as a separate videotape.
A 2-in-1 DVD set with both Arena and Sing Blue Silver has also been released by EMI.
Read more about this topic: Arena (An Absurd Notion)
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