Kind of Blu: Best hi-def reissues of 2010 (so far)
By Dennis Hartley
“I don’t like color television. Don’t like that color for nothin’. Saw ‘Bonanza’ at my in-laws (…) The Ponderosa looked fake. Hardly recognized Little Joe.” -from Diner
I fought it. How I fought it. For the first 3 years of its existence, I tried to pretend that the Blu-ray format didn’t exist. Oh, I knew it was there, all right. Teasing me with its crisp 1,080 lines of vertical resolution and beckoning me with the siren call of lossless audio codec. But I refused to be swayed. I didn’t even want to look. Because I knew what would happen. There had been precedents. Previously, I had willfully ignored the “standard” DVD format for a spell, as I loathed the idea of replacing the 3,000 VHS titles in my collection. Although I had successfully battled the onslaught of Beta, and then Laserdisc, I finally caved on that newfangled DVD format, circa 2003. And then, once I had built a substantial library of DVDs, Blu-ray appeared. Little. Blue. Pretty. And pretty goddamned expensive. $30-$40 a pop? Not to mention the players-$600-$1,000. Are you kidding me? Hah! You’ll never see me falling for this latest ruse by the studios to con me into “upgrading” my entire collection, yet again. I’m too smart for…ooh, look! So shiny!!
Well, I think you can guess the rest. Although I have kept mum on this dirty little secret, I will now confess to you, gentle reader, that I have been a “user” since this past December, when I found a Blu-ray player on sale for $129. Some friends did attempt an intervention, but to no avail. Once you’ve had Blu, it’s hard to go back. Prices have dropped to a reasonable level, and an ever-expanding number of deep catalog reissues was the closer for me. Yes, I’m aware that I could rent, but you have to understand the curse of the obsessive-compulsive film collector. Must own. Must lovingly annotate in my special Excel file. Must arrange by genre and subgenre (alphabetized!) on the shelves.
So now that I’ve had time to sift, I thought I would share my picks for the top ten Blu-ray reissues (so far) for 2010, and take a sneak peek at upcoming releases through the end of the year. Most titles have a concurrent standard DVD edition, so if you don’t have a Blu-ray player, don’t despair. As per usual, my list is in alphabetical, not preferential, order…
The African Queen-I think it’s safe to say that this is a bona fide classic. What’s not to love about Bogie (as a coarse, drunken steamboat pilot) and Kate Hepburn (as an uptight missionary), thrown together in the heart of the Congo, fighting the river wild, jungle rot and Germans in a colorful WW I-era adventure-comedy-romance? Sure, it’s a total Hollywood fantasy, but with two charismatic performances, John Huston directing, and outstanding location photography by DP Jack Cardiff, who cares? Huston co-adapted the screenplay with James Agee from the C.M. Forester novel. Paramount has done a nice job with their Blu-ray; it is certainly the best the film has ever looked on the home screen.
Black Narcissus-From a strictly narrative standpoint, The Archers (co-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) arguably made more cohesive films during their illustrious career; but in purely visual terms, few as artfully directed, beautifully composed and gorgeously shot as this 1947 melodrama. As I already have implied, the somewhat silly story (sexual panic amongst British nuns in an isolated Himalayan convent) may not hold up well under closer scrutiny, but the stunning photography by DP Jack Cardiff (there he is again!) and art direction from Alfred Junge (both scored Oscars) was made to order for the hi-def format. Criterion does their usual voodoo with extras, including an interesting commentary track featuring Powell and admirer Martin Scorsese.
Black Orpheus-Marcel Camus directed this mesmerizing 1959 film, a modern spin on a classic Greek myth, fueled by the pulsating rhythms of Rio’s Carnaval and tempered by the gentle sway of Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s gorgeous samba soundtrack. Camus and Jacques Viot adapted the screenplay from the play by Vinicius de Moraes. Handsome tram operator Orfeo (Breno Mello) is engaged to the vivacious Mira (Lourdes de Olivera) but gets hit by the thunderbolt when he meets sweetly innocent Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn). As in most romantic triangles, things are bound to get ugly, especially when Mr. Death (Ademar da Silva) starts lurking about. This is a truly unique film that fully engages the senses (not to mention the fact that Mello and Dawn have got to be the most beautiful screen couple in the history of cinema). Criterion’s Blu-ray is outstanding.
Crumb-So you thought your childhood was fucked up? Meet the Crumb family. Then shake your head in wonder that R. Crumb didn’t grow up to be a serial killer, as opposed to an underground comic icon. Director Terry Zwigoff’s propensity for championing the “outsider” (Ghost World, Bad Santa, Art School Confidential) was firmly established in this 1994 doc. Zwigoff toiled on his portrait of the artist for nearly a decade, and the result of his labor of love is at once hilarious, heartbreaking, outrageous and moving. Although the film looks to have been shot in 16mm, Criterion’s hi-def upgrade pays off most noticeably in the montages of Crumb’s classic Zap Comix panels and vivid artwork. There are some great new extras as well; most notably the 50+ minutes of deleted scenes.
Death Race 2000-At first glance, Paul Bartel’s 1975 cult film about a futuristic gladiatorial cross-country auto race in which drivers score extra points for running down pedestrians is an over-the-top, gross-out black comedy. It could also be viewed as a takeoff on Rollerball, as a broad political satire, or perhaps a wry comment on that great, timeless American tradition of watching televised bloodsport for entertainment. One thing I’ll say about this movie-it’s never boring! David Carradine is a riot as the defending race champ, “Frankenstein”. Also featured in the cast: Mary Woronov (Eating Raoul) and a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone. This Blu-ray release is part of Shout! Factory’s “Roger Corman’s Cult Classics” series, which cherry-picks from the famously “no-budget” producer’s sizable inventory of 70s and 80s exploitation vehicles. It’s debatable whether hi-def “improves” some of these titles, but most of them are great fun.
Escape from New York-Speaking of low-budget guilty pleasures…John Carpenter directed this 1981 entry, an action-thriller set in the dystopian near-future of 1997 (ah, those were the days). N.Y.C. has been converted into a penal colony (long story). Air Force One has been downed by terrorists, but not before the POTUS (Donald Pleasence) bails in his custom-built escape pod, which lands in the center of Manhattan, where he is promptly kidnapped by the “inmates”. The police commissioner (the ever squinty-eyed Lee van Cleef) enlists the help of Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a fellow war vet (special ops, of course) who is now one of America’s most notorious criminals. Plissken begrudgingly agrees to help, in exchange for a full presidential pardon. Imaginative and highly entertaining, despite an obviously limited production expenditure. Carpenter and co-writer Nick Castle even manage to slip in a little political subtext of Nixonian paranoia. Also with Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, and Isaac Hayes (the Duke of N.Y.!). Carpenter also composed that catchy theme song. Although the original cinematography was a bit murky, the Blu-ray transfer is a noticeable upgrade.
Johnny Handsome– Seconds meets Point Blank in this taut, nasty neo-noir from director Walter Hill, which is one of my favorite sleepers of the 1980s. Mickey Rourke stars as the genetically deformed Johnny, a career criminal low-life with a knack for masterminding heists. As he nears the end of a prison stretch, he is offered reconstructive face surgery by an empathetic doctor (Forest Whitaker), who eventually helps him get paroled. Johnny’s first order of business is planning some payback on his former partners, who set him up to take the fall. The trick will be how to do it while under the watchful eye of the cynical police detective (Morgan Freeman) who originally put him away, and knows a recidivist when he sees one. Lance Henriksen and Ellen Barkin are wonderfully over-the-top as a nihilistic couple who make Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers look like Ozzie and Harriet. Screenwriter Ken Friedman adapted from John Godey’s novel. The Blu-ray release should earn this underrated gem new fans.
Paris, Texas -So what is it with European filmmakers and their obsession with the American West? Perhaps it’s all the wide open space, revealing itself to the artistic eye as a blank, limitless canvas. At any rate, director Wim Wenders and DP Robby Muller paint themselves a real purty desert Southwest landscape for this enigmatic, languidly paced “scenes from a marriage” melodrama (written by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson). With Shepard on board, you know that the protagonist is going to be a troubled, troubled man-and nothing says “rode hard and put up wet” like the careworn tributaries of Harry Dean Stanton’s weather beaten face. In what is arguably his career-best performance, he plays a man who has gone missing for four years after abandoning his wife (Nastassja Kinski) and young son. One day, he suddenly reappears, with a tight-lipped countenance and a thousand yard stare that tells you this guy is on a return trip from where Jesus lost his shoes. Now it’s up to his brother (Dean Stockwell) to help him assemble the jigsaw. Stanton delivers an astounding monologue toward the end of the film that will make your jaw hit the floor and remind you what a real actor does. Criterion’s Blu-ray features a crystalline transfer, and the dynamic audio does Ry Cooder’s mournful slide guitar proud.
Walkabout-Nicholas Roeg’s 1971 culture-clash adventure looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray. As the result of a family tragedy, a teenage girl (Jenny Agutter) and her little brother (played by the director’s son, Lucien) are stranded in the unforgiving Australian outback. After several days of disoriented wanderings, and teetering on the edge of starvation and dehydration, they encounter an Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) who is on walkabout. After navigating the inevitably tricky waters of cultural/language barriers for a while, the trio begin to form a unique bond, transforming what initially feels like a harrowing survival tale into an idyll of innocence and self-discovery at its purest and most unselfconscious level. That is, until “Civilization” begins to appear on the horizon once again. There’s a lot going on in this deceptively simple tale, which is why it holds up well to repeat viewings. Criterion’s new upgraded edition is chockablock with extras.
Withnail and I– Writer-director Bruce Robinson charts the demise of England’s “swinging 60s” era via the metaphysical malaise of two impoverished actors slogging through 1969 London with high hopes and low squalor. Richard E. Grant’s turn as the alarmingly pallid, decadently wasted Withnail is the stuff of acting legend, and he is ably supported by the “I” of the title, portrayed by Paul McGann. The two flat mates, desperate for a break from their cramped, heatless apartment, take a road trip to the country, where Withnail’s eccentric uncle (Richard Griffiths, in all his creepy, corpulent magnificence) keeps a cottage. There are so many wonderfully quotable lines, one might as well bracket the entire screenplay with quotation marks. Ralph Brown nearly steals the film as Danny the drug dealer. There are two Blu-Ray versions of this title; a “region-free” Starz UK release (the version I own) and a U.S. release by Image Entertainment. From what I have researched, the UK version has a slight edge on picture and sound. I can attest that the UK Blu-ray image is a vast improvement over Criterion’s original standard DVD release.
…and here are some more noteworthy Blu-rays, due out through the end of the year:
Forbidden Planet, Tommy: the Movie, THX 1138, In Cold Blood, The Player (09/07)
The Twilight Zone Season 1, Breathless, Delicatessen (09/14)
Rock and Rule (09/28)
The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Mad Max (10/05)
The Magician (10/12)
Apocalypse Now, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Psycho, The Seven Samurai (10/19)
Paths of Glory (10/26)
Bridge on the River Kwai (11/02)
Night of the Hunter, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (11/16)
