The Film Thread

On a Wes Craven related note… Scream is missing a few seconds of footage here and there. There was briefly an unrated cut of the film floating around in the late 90s — it’s essentially the same film as the theatrical cut, except some of the gore shots are a bit longer, specifically Casey’s boyfriend’s demise in the beginning and Stu and Billy stabbing each other repeatedly in the finale.
I haven't seen Scream since the VHS era, but I certainly remember Stu and Billy repeatedly stabbing each other.

It’s very strange that it’s so hard to find this version of the film. I’ve personally never come across it on physical media, but I remember ordering it on PPV back in the day.
Like I say, I'm not convinced a lot modern studio workers who are in a position to make decisions have any idea what's in their own archives. A chap from 20th Century Fox, discussing the Disney takeover, where Disney was basically only interested in the IP and no interest in the back catalogue, talked about this only the other day on the Cereal at Midnight podcast. Disney has essentially abandoned the Fox back catalogue, not even bothering to release something like ten 4K transfers that were ready to go before the acquisition.

I found the original Elm Street very jarring with the cuts. I'm pretty sure the material is on Never Sleep Again, so it obviously exists. I guess it depends on whether the negative was cut for the MPAA-mandated changes or an interpositive was used. The Elm Street Blu-ray collection has some pretty poor sources, so I don't think they were OCN scans.
 
I have some elm street dvd’s from like 20 years back. I haven’t checked to see if they have any footage that the blu-rays are missing, but I will say that Dream Master’s picture quality is superior in the dvd version. Bold and vibrant colors, as opposed to the harsh, overly contrasted version on blu-ray (or the version of max, which I assume is from the blu-ray transfer).

On a loosely related note, I watched Friday the 13th part 1 on dvd recently, and was shocked that I could actually see Harry Crosby’s face in this version! For some reason in the blu-ray his face is usually obscured by dark contrast in most of his scenes. And the reds in the dvd were so present and big, it almost calls to mind the dialed up red in old school Peaks. The blu-ray of F13 part 1 is maybe a little too dark for my tastes. It’s such a breath of fresh air to watch the dvd and feel the lush green of the forest the characters occupy — I don’t think I ever get that feeling from the blu-ray.
 
I have some elm street dvd’s from like 20 years back. I haven’t checked to see if they have any footage that the blu-rays are missing, but I will say that Dream Master’s picture quality is superior in the dvd version. Bold and vibrant colors, as opposed to the harsh, overly contrasted version on blu-ray (or the version of max, which I assume is from the blu-ray transfer).
Yeah. I'd love to know what the source was. I think it was an interpositive. Dream Warriors was terrible quality. The Dream Child looked decent too, IIRC.

On a loosely related note, I watched Friday the 13th part 1 on dvd recently, and was shocked that I could actually see Harry Crosby’s face in this version! For some reason in the blu-ray his face is usually obscured by dark contrast in most of his scenes. And the reds in the dvd were so present and big, it almost calls to mind the dialed up red in old school Peaks. The blu-ray of F13 part 1 is maybe a little too dark for my tastes. It’s such a breath of fresh air to watch the dvd and feel the lush green of the forest the characters occupy — I don’t think I ever get that feeling from the blu-ray.
I must hunt down the 4K. I don't think it's available in the UK. The reviews are good. I received The Crow 4K a couple of days ago. Finally, a decent version! I can't wait to watch it!!
 
I really can’t speak to the Dream Warriors dvd vs blu-ray issue. Sadly my old dvd of it was rendered useless after two decades of overuse! Definitely my favorite of the series.
 
I don’t have a 4K tv. I’ve come very close to pulling the trigger and making the purchase, but then I’ll read about something like the Aliens 4K controversy and I get cold feet.
 
I don’t have a 4K tv. I’ve come very close to pulling the trigger and making the purchase, but then I’ll read about something like the Aliens 4K controversy and I get cold feet.
It depends on the disc. Alien on 4K is stunning, for example. I have no complaints about Wild Things and True Romance on 4K. Many films, arguably, don't particularly need to be 4K. Aliens is an example of a film that would have benefited from 4K. It was shot on very grainy 1980s film stock in low light. 4K, with its bigger bitrate would have handled that grain far better. Sadly, James Cameron, who hates grain, has used an upscale of the old 2K transfer with loads of weird AI shit smeared over it. That, thankfully, is not the norm.

At the end of the day, any new TV you buy will probably be 4K anyway. I have a 4K player, but my collection is overwhelmingly HD Blu-ray. The upscaling is superb. Most of my purchases are still HD Blu-rays and HD Blu-ray remains an incredible format. There are cases where I suspect 4K would improve a film at home. The Conjuring 2, for example, has scenes that are so dark that the screen is almost entirely black. HDR would probably help that. But, to be honest, in many cases where a film is £25 for the 4K or £7.99 for the HD from the same transfer, I'll probably go for the HD. It's too easy to turn down 'very good indeed' in favour of 'great' sometimes.
 
Sole Survivor (1970, dir Paul Stanley)

A real 'they don't make 'em like this anymore' film, this CBS Friday Night Movie aired at the very beginning of 1970 - January 9, so the credits on the film still say 1969. I immediately thought of The Twilight Zone when I watched this film and, indeed, when I checked, an early episode of the second season (the first of season two in production order, IIRC) was indeed based on the same historical event.

In this supernaturally-tinged drama, a team of military investigators in the late 1960s fly to the Libyan desert after discovering a crashed World War II bomber. Accompanying them is a one star general who, as a young navigator, had bailed out of the aircraft and was the... sole survivor. However, the aircraft crashed hundreds of miles further away from where the general bailed out, calling his conduct into question.

This, in itself, is a great setup for a film. However, where screenwriter Guerdon Trueblood (fantastic name!) really scores is by including the ghosts of the five airmen who perished in the flight, who have been haunting the crash site for 17 years unable to leave. The airmen have their own stories, but also act as a 'Greek chorus' of sorts, unseen by the rest of the cast.

And what a cast we have! The main investigator focused on is Major Michael Devlin, played by Vince Edwards. Devlin is haunted by a failing of his own in the past that led to tragedy, and thus becomes suspicious when he arrives at the crash site. It's not just suspicion that drives him, though. He feels an intense empathy for Brigadier General Russell Hamner, played superbly by Richard Baseheart. Hamner doesn't need ghosts to be haunted by his actions on the plane in WWII. He's a man conflicted as he reaches the crash site, desperately needing to face up to the past, equally to run from it and protect his reputation. Devlin's boss, Lt Colonel Josef Gronke (William Shatner, straight off some sci-fi show no one's ever heard of!) is stuck between his old blood-and-thunder days and becoming a third rate 'politician', placating the General and pressuring Devlin not to push the investigation.

The phantom airmen have some limited ability to move objects when out of sight of the living, but they can't make themselves known. Until their bodies are found, they're stuck by the plane. Of the airmen, the strongest character is Tony, played by Lou Antonio. Of all the ghosts, Tony is the most convinced he'll get to go back to the USA, because his body is buried beneath the tail of the plane. It's ironic that it's Tony who ultimately faces being left alone out there, undiscovered. The airmen, led by their captain, Mac (Patrick Wayne), died out in the desert. As time goes by, the airmen become increasingly frustrated, as Hamner uses his rank to force the investigators to deliver an early report...

The film is fabulous. It's maturely written, well directed and taken seriously by all of its cast. In this era of excessively fast-paced dramas, filled with glib, smart-ass one-liners to undercut the tension, it's almost a shock to be reminded how effective a more methodically-paced production can be. There are no fancy special effects here. The ghosts wander around casting shadows, they sit on the fuselage and talk, they stand next to our oblivious living characters. There are no cheesy dissolve effects or split screen effects. This is a small enough drama that you could probably adapt it for the stage quite easily. It relies mostly on the fabulous performances making the best of excellent writing.

The music score is written by Swiss-American composer Paul Glass. Glass, the son of silent film actor and producer Gaston Glass, is a serious composer who has dipped into film scores during his long career. His score is low key - I love how older productions don't plaster every scene with music, telling me how to react! The score reflects the wistful, elegiac qualities of the film, especially using a harmonica, which is beloved of one of the aircrew, Gant (Lawrence P Casey). It's not a hugely memorable score, but it does its job of assisting the drama, which I wish more musicians would do these days.

Director Paul Stanley's work is nothing showy. It would seem negative to use a term such as 'workmanlike', but this is a film where the fireworks need to come from the performances and Stanley allows everyone to shine in his role - this is a majority male film with no women in the desert location scenes. That doesn't bother me in the slightest - nowadays there would be an insistence on having a mixed cat, which I think would neither particularly have benefited nor harmed the film, although I think the casting is perfect as it is - but some people in the present day who don't respect old films would likely kick up a fuss about it.

One criticism is the day-for-night filming. I perfectly understand why it's done, but there are shadows everywhere. I've never understood why filmmakers don't use a simple trick to cover for it: use a shot of a full moon to establish the scene. If the moon is full, it explains the shadows! It's a minor quibble though, as day-for-night shot this way was common for the time.

All in all, this is a melancholy meditation on death, guilt, the mistakes we make in our lives and how we learn to live with them. Everyone in the film is haunted in some way by his past and the presence of the ghosts only enhances that, making a metaphor literal for Baseheart's Hamner.

Paul Stanley was already a prolific director (and occasional producer) and would continue to be so for many years to come, working on dozens of famous TV series. He died in 2002 at around the age of 80. Guerdon Trueblood died in 2021, aged 87. He would work on a number of low grade horror films (including the infamous Jaws 3D), as well as the the miniseries adaptation of John Jakes's The Bastard from Jakes's Kent Family Chronicles series of novels. Trueblood was the grandson of Colonel William 'Billy' Mitchell, the 'father' of the US Air Force.

The first time I saw Vince Edwards and Richard Baseheart was in the 1980s when they were both in the pilot of Knight Rider, although they didn't share any scenes. Edwards was a familiar face on countless TV shows and low budget films (I particularly remember Space Raiders, which was a Roger Corman cheapie that reused the special effects and music from Battle Beyond the Stars.) Richard Baseheart's fabulous voice was familiar to me throughout childhood as the voice of Wilton Knight on Knight Rider. Basehart was another prolific actor whose film career kicked off in the 1940s and he happily alternated between TV and cinema. He died in 1984.

Lou Antonio - an Actors Studio alumnus - appeared in Cool Hand Luke a couple of years before this film and remained a familiar face for decades to come on film and in TV. He still around in his 90s. Lawrence P Casey, another face you've seen dozens of times on film and TV, is in his 80s. Patrick Wayne (the second son of the John Wayne) has also seemingly been on our screens forever. He's now in his 80s.

Cinematographer James Crabe went on to lens, among others, Rocky, The China Syndrome and Night Shift. He received an Oscar nomination for Rocky director John W Avildsen's film The Formula.

William Shatner... I have no idea what happened to him: the guy just vanished off the face of the Earth! ;)

The real life story the film is inspired by (and the Twilight Zone episode) is that of the 1958 recovery of the B-24D Liberator Bomber 'Lady Be Good'. The plane disappeared in 1943. The crew - who had never flown together before and only recently arrived in Libya - are believed to have flown past their base in Libya during a sandstorm and continued to fly for hundreds of miles until their fuel ran out. After bailing out, they walked on until they died of dehydration. It makes you think... we all live such secure lives in the West, yet a couple of generations ago, men like us could wind up dead in a desert, our desiccated corpses left undiscovered for years.

Sole Survivor is available on Blu-ray here in the UK. The picture quality is pretty good - not reference quality and not restored in any way - but I actually like the occasional bit of dirt and hair in the gate to remind me I'm watching real celluloid film. The sound is fine for a late 1960s TV production.

The film is more than worthwhile hunting down. It's dramatic, deeply melancholy and perhaps a little cathartic too. I highly recommend it.
 
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I should mention that it's been announced that Roger Corman died a few days ago, aged 98. I'm deeply saddened to hear this news. Say what you like about the quality of some of his films, but as a director and producing impresario, I'd argue he was one of the most important and entertaining figures in 20th century cinema. The New Hollywood of the 1970s was pretty evenly split between USC graduates and Corman graduates. Without Roger Corman's patronage, we might never have seen the works or several great filmmakers and that of many youngsters influenced by his films at an impressionable age. I will always love Roger Corman's Poe films, I adored Battle Beyond the Stars and was amused (and bemused) at how many movies reused the music and special effects - even the trashy Emmanuelle in Space series used the spaceships!!

I truly feel an era has passed with Roger Corman. The world was a more fun, interesting place with him in it.
 
Reminds me of the Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts spin offs tbh.

Even if it turns out bad it looks very fun and ambitious.

Looks wild, doesn't it? And I love the colours. We live in an era where we can capture colour better than ever, yet filmmakers go out of their way to desaturate their films. Getting the 4K disc of this is a no-brainer. If I can get to the cinema, I will.
 
Shia labeouf is an amazing actor. He should definitely work with Lynch.

kimmy robertson no GIF by HULU
 
Nymphomaniac is one of my favorite films, one of a handful of what I'd call desert island picks ... and I don't know if I say that in spite of LaBeouf's inclusion. I've flip-flopped on every viewing, between him genuinely being good in his role or merely ingeniously utilized in a marriage of role and person, seeing as his character is, well, the extreme exemplification of not just a douche, but more like the douche.

As for LeBeouf himself, he put another creator of desert island picks for me, the comic artist Daniel Clowes, in his cross-hairs, plagiarizing his work and then pulling his lame postmodern stunts when called out, saying the plagiarism was, like, totally a statement on plagiarism, and using a plagiarized apology as his apology to drive the point further home. Which, har har, that's clever for what it is, but Clowes' work is ingenious and doesn't deserve that kind of negativity attached; be a shitheel to anyone else! Not to mention that only claiming it as postmodernist stunt after being caught isn't so convincing.

EDIT: should not post when sleepy, fixed weird word choices and typos.
 
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Finally, about 14 years too late, watched Cam Archer's Shit Year. Cam Archer was one of cinema's budding great impressionists, but Shit Year seemingly went over bad enough at Cannes to land him in director's jail. His first film, Wild Tigers I Have Known, takes a cracked, darkly mysterious vision of adolescence (reminiscent of Richard Kelly or Harmony Korine) and reflects it through the prism of New Queer Cinema. Shit Year essentially takes that new Anne Hathaway movie and reflects it through the prism of Inland Empire. Like so many movies that land people in director's jail, it's pretty good. It's more of a character study than a plot-driven film, showing us the emptiness and ennui of a middle-aged and recently retired actress trying to find a new direction for her life and reeling from her break-up with a much younger man. The film is beautifully shot and Ellen Barkin is excellent in the lead. It also has Bob Einstein aka Super Dave aka Larry Middleman from Arrested Development. I still prefer Tigers, but this one was pretty good as well.
 
I just decided to post the link to the new Megalopolis trailer and ask if anyone is excited about seeing the film, only to find out that the discussion is already going on 😊

It's certainly the film that I'm most eagerly anticipating this year.
 
Hmm. Not because of the clip, but anyone else worried this will be bad? Anybody seen Twixt? Has Coppola made a good film in decades? Genuinely asking. I say this as someone who likes Godfather 3.
I like The Godfather III as well.

I still haven't seen Twixt, but I've seen Tetro, which came out in 2009, and I loved it.

You never know with Coppola, but I have faith in him, and the new trailer looks very intriguing, to say the least.
 
I just decided to post the link to the new Megalopolis trailer and ask if anyone is excited about seeing the film, only to find out that the discussion is already going on 😊

It's certainly the film that I'm most eagerly anticipating this year.
There's a terrific documentary that went out on the BBC in 1992, which is where I first learnt about Vittorio Storaro's work. There's material towards the end of him working with Francis Ford Coppola, experimenting with high definition video for what has become Megalopolis. Obviously Storaro is semi-retired and not working on massive projects anymore, but it's interesting to see the early material. Someone has put the BBC version on YouTube with a couple of edits. The quality of the upload reflects the age of the material!

 
There's a terrific documentary that went out on the BBC in 1992, which is where I first learnt about Vittorio Storaro's work.
On a side note, I attended a conversation with Vittorio Storaro when he came to my hometown a long time ago, for a special screening of Il conformista... which actually isn't that odd since he comes from a neighboring country, but still, it's not that often that we host such major figures around here.

And he's still working, mostly with Woody Allen (he worked on his last five films), but yes, as you said, he hasn't worked on any massive projects for a while now.
 
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