The
Last Detail
(1973/Columbia/Sony/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Madam
Satan (1930/MGM/Warner
Archive DVD)/A Mighty Wind
(2003/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Miss
You Already
(2015/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Togetherness:
The Complete First Season
(2015/HBO Blu-ray set)/A
Violent Life (1970/One 7
DVD)
Picture:
B/C/B-/B/B/C+ Sound: C+/C/B-/B/B/C Extras: C+/D/C/C/C/D
Main Programs: B/C+/C/C/C/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Last
Detail
Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is
limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last,
while the Madam
Satan
DVD and A
Mighty Wind
Blu-ray are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Here
is a mixed group of new comedy releases that can sometimes be wild,
but not always are ones that work...
Hal
Ashby's The
Last Detail
(1973) was only the director's third film, but he was on a roll and
though this was not the hit it should have been (Columbia had a right
to think Jack Nicholson in a M*A*S*H-like
military comedy could hit), but Ashby was proving to be one of the
great, important directors of the time and a pattern started to
develop. His films are Great American Road Trip films... with a
catch. From The
Landlord
(a trip to the ghetto) to Harold
& Maude
(young and very old with little time to take their trip), this film
(a fun week with the trip ending at a military prison), Shampoo
(the counterculture trip that empties you), Bound
For Glory
(going across America... on the cheap in The Great Depression as
people are suffering, being beaten, dying and worse; reviewed on
Twilight Time Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), Coming
Home
(home is 'gone' thanks to Vietnam, so it is an empty/bad trip all
around) and Being
There
(Peter Sellers can only take happy trip's through the safety of
television) speaks to so much of the time, the rise and fall of the
counterculture and is an often brilliant record like no other of
living, especially then and still now.
Jack
Nicholson and Otis Young are two Navy men who are charged with
delivering a prisoner (Randy Quaid in one of his best roles) to jail
for crossing the line with the wife of the big honcho where they are
stationed. According to their mentor (a nice brief turn by Clifton
James), they have a week to take the man for his lock-up, but instead
of a simple trip, they decide to show the naïve kid a good time with
drinking, women and wild behavior. It is amusing how the
relationship quickly grows between the three, what they get
themselves into, the choices they make and their reflections on life
then and now.
They
get caught up with a chanting group, hookers, rednecks and more as
the film (and its raw, no holds barred dialogue) show the trip as a
real experience. Nicholson gets to reference another Marvel Comics
character (connecting intertextually to the Captain America
motorcycle in Easy
Rider
as it is early Cap ally The Human Torch who is discussed) and has
another fight with food and drink service scene that mirrors the
classic anti-conformity restaurant scene in Five
Easy Pieces
(both reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site). This
might to be for everyone, but Nicholson is in rare,effective form
here even more than usual, you buy Quaid as 'just a kid' and early
appearances by Gilda Radner, Carol Kane, Nancy Allen and Michael
Moriarty make this a film that only gets better with age.
It
is also often authentically funny, watching so many adults trying to
find more meaning in their lives when they all know deep down they
are somehow stuck and keep getting reminded of that from various
incidences and their deep cynicism, even when they turn to
spirituality, the counterculture, sex and/or the stability of
military life to make things less dead end. Thus, it has been issued
as a Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray, but worth going out of
your way for. A real gem.
Cecil
B. DeMille was long established for making big silent epics that were
big hits when sound came in, so with his clout, he tried to do
something big and different when he made Madam
Satan
(1930) for MGM. A comedy, drama, musical on a big scale, made before
the Hollywood Production Code arrived, Kay Johnson
is a married woman who finds her husband (Reginald Denny) is having
an affair with a hot brunette (Lilian Roth), but instead of going for
a divorce (whether that was acceptable or not), she decide to go get
her man at a costume party being held by more of her rich friends (we
see them having a party on a yacht in the opening) in a brand new
giant blimp!... That will be partly airborne, connected only to a
tower!
The
money is up on the screen in big production pieces, the musical
numbers sometimes come out of nowhere awkwardly because this is not a
musical outright and some of the ideas of the future and grand
production in general can range from amazing to hilariously over the
top. Still, it is a wild work worth worth seeing once with Johnson's
dismayed wife becoming the title character, who looks like a
forerunner of a few version of Batman villainess Catwoman we've seen
in the last 70 years. No, this is not a great film, but manages to
never be boring in its 115 minutes and some of this is truly funny
and entertaining, even if that is sometimes unintentionally. See it
once!
Christopher
Guest's A
Mighty Wind
(2003) wants to do for the Folk Music movement of the late
1950s/early 1960s that This
Is Spinal Tap
did for Rock Music, but there is only so much to get out of this
subject, especially since any political satire or ironic distance on
the motivations for this music succeeding to begin with in its time
(Rock's temporary decline with Elvis drafted, Little Richard finding
Jesus, Jerry Lee Lewis finding jail and The Big Bopper, Richie Valens
and Buddy Holly dying in that horrid plane accident) are never even
considered. Again in faux documentary mode, there is a reunion of
all the old acts and most of the original artists are still alive for
the event.
Through
interviews, 'vintage performance clips' and flashbacks, we see the
history of the world these people created and once inhabited.
Needless to say they go all out on this one and the cast including
Bob Balaban, Eugene Levy, John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, Catherine
O'Hara, Michael McKean, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Harry Shearer and
a way-too-brief Mary Gross play it straight and well all the way.
However, they cannot overcome the limits of the script, material or
add any new energy to things in its thankfully 92 minutes. Warner
Archive has issued this on a web-exclusive Blu-ray and considering it
was not a big hit, that makes sense.
Catherine
Hardwicke's Miss
You Already
(2015) would fall under a disease of the week film category (created
during the 1970s when TV movies hit their early stride and one too
many of those melodramas with sick people dying before your eyes got
produced), with Toni Colette befriending 'yank' Drew Barrymore early
in life as children. Now, Toni's character finds out she is very
sick and Drew's is very pregnant. Of course, we get the pregnant
part at the beginning then this unwinds in sometimes awkward
flashback with Dominic Cooper and Paddy Considine well cast as 'the
guys' except that he script is very weak and formulaic, even when it
has its Brit moments.
Hardwicke
can direct, but she is not at her best when she plays it too safe as
she does here. This may have been intended as a commercial project
to boost the careers of all, but it backfires and is a bit long at
113 minutes.
The
Duplass Brothers get into television for the worse with Togetherness:
The Complete First Season
(2015) made for HBO and helping to bring the network into a strange
lull that we hope they soon break out from. The comedy is supposed
to be about dark sexual humor, dysfunctional families and only gets
worse when one couple (Melanie Lynskey and Mark Duplass) allow two
friends (Amanda Peet and Steve Zissis) move in with them. What we
get is uninteresting, boring and even obnoxious character after
uninteresting, boring and even obnoxious character who only increase
exponentially their repellent nature when they get together.
Somehow
picked up for another season, this bore-fest (rhymes with gore-fest)
runs eight very
long
episodes that went back and forth between being annoying, almost
putting me to sleep and wanting me to reinvent the TV brick for the
Ultra High Definition era. Sadly, I like Peet at least, but even she
cannot save this ill-advised trainwreck. Breaking up is hard to do,
but they should do it immediately because this is really bad.
Franco
Citti's A
Violent Life
(1970) is the second film in only a few who ears of a story by the
legendary Pier Paolo Pasolini that was
shot in black and white in the early 1960s. This one is in color and
has the surreal story of a group of men who bring home a woman they
find on a beach who may or may not be dead. At least one of them
sees her as alive when none of them can see her at first at all
despite her being right in front of them. When the 'visionary' of
the group convinces them otherwise, they suddenly see her and bring
her back to their place.
That
is the home of two brothers (Franco Citti and Laurent Terzieff) who
come from a broken, messed-up family and this latest event brings
back the return of the repressed and other things that result in
things only getting worse. Also qualifying as part of the crime
cycle of Italian cinema of the time, I have no idea how this compares
to the original Pasolini script or first film, but it is one of the
better releases here, even if it can be uneven and does not always
work. Pasolini fans will want to see it at least once and it is
worth a look for all.
The
Blu-ray discs perform all as well as about expected with the 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on the two older feature films
Last
and Wind,
both shot on 35mm film, are better than they would be on DVD, but
Last
is a newer HD master really capturing the look, feel, composition and
smart approach by Ashby in collaboration with Director
of Photography Michael Chapman (White
Dawn,
Taxi
Driver,
Raging
Bull,
The
Last Waltz,
Scrooged,
Rising
Sun,
Hardcore,
The
Lost Boys
and (available on Twilight Time Blu-ray & reviewed elsewhere on
this site) The
Front)
in his debut work. Wow, what a way to start! It is consistently
deceptive how strong, good and involving the work is here throughout,
putting you with the characters, their situations and where they are,
where they go, with a palpability like few other cameramen could pull
off. This always had a unique look, but on this Blu-ray, you can see
what he & Ashby were also doing visually to enhance the
narrative. Serious film fans need to see this transfer.
Wind
has flaws beyond the intended ones of old faux film and video
footage, sometimes looking a little detail and even color-challenged
when it should not, but some of the fakeness is of course, intended.
That
leaves the 1080p 2.35 X 1 HD-shot digital High Definition image
transfer on Already
being consistent if nothing special, but a few shots rise above the
usual. I cannot say the same for the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High
Definition image transfer can on episodes of Togetherness,
which is as together as a flat, dull, unexciting and
competent-at-best production can be, but its flatness makes the
already unfunny show even more boring.
The
1.33 X 1 black & white image on Satan
is obviously a generation down, but even for a film this old in this
condition, you can see a certain look and money on the screen coming
through the softness and the damage and dirt on the print here and
there.
That
leaves the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Violent,
originally shot in Techniscope and issued in 35mm dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor prints. You can see the grain from the
smaller negative, but the color that you would have seen on such a
print does come through often throughout, making this part of the
disc a pleasant surprise.
All
Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, save the
DTS-MA 1.0 Mono on Last
that shows its age and that Ashby was not always concerned with the
top audio fidelity of the time, but this is as good as the film will
ever likely sound (the isolated, lossless music track is 2.0 DTS-MA
simple stereo that plays a bit better) and jeeping it just above the
somewhat weak, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on both DVDs that can be
thin, have flaws and be a bit inconsistent. Be careful of high
playback volumes and volume switching on those three theatrical mono
titles and you should be just fine.
The
newer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on Already
and Togetherness
are the best playback releases here but that tends to be by default
because there is nothing special about either, nothing impressive
beyond a consistent soundfield and in fairness to both, they are both
dialogue and joke-based, so on can only expect so much even if I
wanted a bit more. The same mix on the similar Wind
also has music of course, but the soundfield is inconsistent and I
believe it is more the soundmaster than any generation of the sound,
though some of the sound is supposed to sound old in the flashbacks
and the age of the 'original' music recordings from the 1960s in
fairness to the sound designers. Still, a bit underwhelming just the
same.
The
DVDs have no extras unfortunately, while Last
has the most and best extras with yet another quality, illustrated
booklet on the film including informative text and an another very
cinematically literate essay by Julie Kirgo, something I have noticed
lately is not being noted in listings of Twilight Time Blu-ray
releases and especially
reviews of their remarkable releases in certain corners. That's
outrageous, unprofessional and unacceptable.
Last
also adds the aforementioned Isolated
Music Score and an Original Theatrical Trailer, Wind
has a feature length audio commentary track by Guest & Eugene
Levy, trailer, full-length footage of vintage faux TV appearances and
about a half-hour of additional scenes, Already
also has a feature length audio commentary track, plus Digital Copy,
2 music videos for the film, On Set Selfies, Deleted Scenes with
optional commentary and two Making Of featurettes, leaving
Togetherness
with Digital Copy, Inside The Episode pieces, Deleted Scenes and an
Interview/Behind The Scenes
featurette with Amanda Peet and Steve Zissis with the challenging
title Amanda
& Steve!
To
order The
Last Detail
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and more great exclusives while
supplies last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
...and
to order either of the Warner Archive releases, the Madam
Satan
DVD and A
Mighty Wind
Blu-ray, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
