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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Biography > Biopic > Politics > History > Publishing > Counterculture > Law > Government > War > Murde > The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996/Sony/Columbia/Image Entertainment Blu-ray + Umbrella Entertainment Region B Import Blu-ray)/Salvador (1986/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Snowden (2016/Uni

The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996/Sony/Columbia/Image Entertainment Blu-ray + Umbrella Entertainment Region B Import Blu-ray)/Salvador (1986/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Snowden (2016/Universal Blu-ray w/DVD)



Picture: B/B/B/B & C+ Sound: B/B/B/B & C+ Extras: B/B+/B/C+ Films: B/B/B+



PLEASE NOTE: The Salvador 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 Umbrella Entertainment Region B version of The People Vs. Larry Flint Blu-ray is still available as well, only plays on Blu-ray players capable of that encoding of the format and all can be ordered from the links below.



For over four decades, Oliver Stone has been celebrated (except by those targeting him) as a great filmmaker and one of the most important U.S. filmmakers in the last half-century. He first gained notice within the industry for his documentary work, attempts at genre films and screenplay writing on Alan Parker's Midnight Express (1978), then two violent crime films that originally bombed: Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983, now a huge hit) and Michael Cimino's highly influential Year Of The Dragon (1985). By then, he was working on his political breakthrough film Salvador (1986) that put him on the map, had him (as Robert Philip Kolker rightly suggests in his brilliant book A Cinema Of Loneliness) picking up where Arthur Penn left off in his deep look at issues and events facing the U.S. and at one point, was as cutting edge as just about anyone around.


Here, we will look at one of his biggest production for another filmmaker in this period and the two films that bookend his vital political works.



Milos Forman, himself as capable of strong political filmmaking, teamed up with Stone to helm The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996) as a biopic of sorts of controversial Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt (Woody Harrelson in one of his greatest performances) getting as controversial and outrageous as possible with his sex magazine that offered gross ideas, outrageous sexual situations and more. As the title suggests, this is about censorship for starters, but more deeply shows in the early days of the rise of The Religious Right, Flynt and his magazine (which turned into a multi-media empire) were an early target and it was in a much sinister way for angrier deeper reasons.


This group, including some very powerful, connected people politically, thought Flynt would be an easy target. At this time, he lands up finding the love of his life (Courtney Love) and an attorney (Edward Norton) as this challenge arises. He is nearly assassinated and their drug use, mental illness he did not know he had, a period where he thought he was a Born Again Christian as a result and worse transpire. When he comes back after them, wheelchair and all, they are actually surprised.


It is a still-powerful statement about freedom, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, how the Far Right despised this and how the counterculture helped spur that on and in all this, there is still a very real love story. The film has sort of become lost in the shuffle somewhat as it was not the huge hit at the time it deserved to be, especially poignant as this was five years before 9/11 happened, pushing a smart work like this further in the past.


Now more than ever, the value of the film is as strong as ever, its points as priceless as ever. It is also the only time these two great filmmakers worked together, with the resulting synergy what you would expect from both at their best. If you have not seen it or not seen it for a long time, you'll be surprised how well it really works.


Extras in both editions include two feature length audio commentary tracks, one by co-writers Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, the other by co-stars Harrelson, Love & Norton and Deleted Scenes with optional filmmaker's commentary. The Umbrella Import Blu-ray adds the half-hour Behind The Scenes featurette Free Speech or Porn and documentary Larry Flynt Exposed.



Those very same Rightists were creating a new Vietnam situation when they took power in the 1980s, but this time in Latin America with the murders of all kinds of political activists, then drug dealers connected to them, anything they felt was a communist threat and more. Though a few films tried dealing with this to their credit, Stone's Salvador (1986) was the film that really hit the nail on the head, even before the madness of the Iran-Contra Affair took hold. Stone arrived ahead of the curve and this would establish his great thinking on political matters cinematically for years to come.


James Woods is a freelance photojournalist who travels to the title location with a goofy friend (James Belushi in a really good turn) thinking it will be fun or interesting, but both having no idea what they've gotten into. Stone could have left this simply a darkly comic film, but instead goes the extra way to use the duo as a mirror of the complacent 1980s audience for best impact. Beyond that is mostly spoilers, so I'll stop there, but the film turned out to be one of the biggest artistic breakthroughs in cinema history and Stone became the return of oppressed liberalism in 1980s Reagan America.


MGM has decided to issue this gem via Twilight Time as a Limited Edition Blu-ray and sent over a solid copy of the film for this release, which has been in print for a while, but supplies are likely low and with Stone back in full political form, I could see the film suddenly going out of print.


The film also stars Elpidia Carillo, John Savage, Michael Murphy, Tony Plana, Jose Carols Ruiz and Cynthia Gibb. It also began Stone's remarkable collaboration with the genius Director of Photography Robert Richardson.


Extras include an illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and yet another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray disc adds a feature length audio commentary track with Director Oliver Stone, an Isolated Score Track, "Into the Valley of Death" - The Making of Salvador, Deleted Scenes and an Original Theatrical Trailer.



Stone followed with the huge Best Picture blockbuster hit Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born On The Fourth Of July and even The Doors seemed richly political and potent riding that wave, as it was. JFK stunned the public and likely helped Bill Clinton become President, then after going for a different type of epic in Heaven & Earth (also reviewed on Twilight Time Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), stunned everyone for different reasons with his violent gritty, very darkly humorous film Natural Born Killers. He then stunned again with Nixon, possibly his best film, but revisited Killers territory with the also controversial U Turn (as well reviewed on Twilight Time Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), only to loose Richardson as his DP and took too long a break from thrillers or overly political films.


Still, hit Any Given Sunday was rightly bashed for being too friendly with the NFL, Alexander for several inaccuracies, W. for not bashing George W. Bush enough, his Wall Street sequel for being unfocused and illicit drug tale Savages for being too scattered. So did he still have it in him to pull off another strong political film that could challenge the establishment and tell deeper truths?



Snowden (2016) is finally a return to form for Stone, with the impact, mastery and strength we expect from the man who made JFK, Salvador and Nixon, in what is easily his best film since Nixon. Knowing it is just the beginning of the story, as Snowden is not the only person targeted for revealing the truth of these overreaching programs (Congress just announced what a 'bad employee' and 'cheat' just in time for this Blu-ray release that are highly belated and highly intellectually dishonest to say the least) and other key issues, Stone takes on the subject matter and holds nothing back. That makes this possibly 2016's best film, despite some strange, confused reviews by critics who missed the point of the film... or did so on purpose.


Like Flynt, this is partly a biopic to let us get to know Edward Snowden (a really fine performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who was serving his country in the military before circumstances placed him behind a desk where he lands up working fir the CIA and the rest eventually is history. With no short cuts, the film asks with adult healthy cynicism what the government is doing and how what's being done in the name of terrorism is being highly abused. He has to hide all this from his girlfriend (Shailene Woodley impressing more than you'd think) and hold it all together as the learning curve as to the madness ensuing gets more disturbing and much worse.


This s more of a drama than a thriller, but some expected some kind of spy film (even a Bond, Bourne or M:I type versus the kind of bureaucratic-type it could have only honestly been, yet Stone goes neither route) or the like, but it is the most important political drama of the last few years, adds to the Citizen Four documentary on Mr. Snowden more need to see and is still a few steps ahead of us and itself like Stone's best work. And he doesn't even ask obvious questions, especially if this program is supposed to stop terrorist attacks, why do they keep happening (Boston, Benghazi, Germany, etc.) with the same lame excuse in EVERY CASE that the suspect was 'on the radar' or 'on the map' or 'known by authorities' yet not caught, tracked or detained enough to be stopped? The programs are not perfected yet? No. Because the programs have other purposes that are highly suspect, though I will concede that at least some attacks had to have been prevented, but we'll never know the whole story... for now.


Also making the film more palpable and formidable are the great supporting cast including Nicolas Cage, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans, Joely Fisher, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Chaplin, Scott Eastwood and more we'll be seeing more of soon I hope.


Stone's return this way could not have come soon enough and as before, his film is being targeted for censorship (as usual) when he is onto something. Considering the controversial election we just had, whose results are more suspicious every day, he's back!



Extras include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other cyber capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds a great Snowden Q&A hosted with Stone, Levitt, Woodley and Snowden himself via satellite, Deleted Scenes (though some are technically Extended Scenes) and the Finding The Truth making-of featurette. For more on Snowden and his controversy, try this link to the oscar-winning Best Documentary Citizen Four...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13765/Braddock+America+(2013/First+Run+Features+DV



All three films look as good as they possibly could in 1080p, with the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on both Flynt Blu-rays coming from the same fine HD master, shot in real 35mm anamorphic Panavision and looking as good as ever. Director of Photography Philippe Rousselot (Antwone Fisher, Hope & Glory, Henry & June, Tailor Of Panama, Too Beautiful For You, Fantastic Beasts) does what I think is still some of the best work of his long career here, effective as ever and very involving.


The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Salvador can once in a spot or two show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and really shows off how great this film actually looks as lower-definition sources and bad transfers just cannot capture what DP Richardson pulled off here.


The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Snowden is Stone's first-ever all-digital HD narrative shoot and it works very well while retaining the kind of character and approach you would expect from Stone's best work. Director of Photography Anthony Dod Mantel (Rush, Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later, Millions, Dogville) makes this compelling and shows how to use the scope frame with digital HD without making it look cheap. An anamorphically enhanced DVD version is also included for convenience, but it is passable at best.


All four Blu-rays also sound great and all feature DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes that sound fine throughout, with Flynt coming out when Sony was promoting their SDDS/Sony Dynamic Digital Sound system. The sound mix on both Blu-ray versions of the film are equal. Salvador was originally a Dolby A-type analog sound release, so you may hear some limits in the recording, but this is still rich and strong just the same and is also here in a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix with Pro Logic surrounds if you want to hear it as originally intended for the purist in you. I like the 5.1 mix better.


Snowden is a brand-new film with a brand new recording and though Stone could have gone for an 11.1 mix, he sticks with 5.1 and it is still very effective, even offering detail and fine articulation in quiet moments. The DVD offers a lesser, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that I passable, but hides how good the soundmaster is.



To order the Salvador limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and other great exclusives while supplies last at these links:


www.screenarchives.com


and


http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/



and to order the Flynt Umbrella import Blu-ray, go to this link:


http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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