Revenge – Unrated Director’s Cut (DVD-Video)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C
After
having two huge commercial successes with Top
Gun and Beverly Hills Cop 2,
Tony Scott decided to direct something darker and more mature with Revenge, a 1990 adaptation of Jim
Harrison’s novella of a deadly love triangle where a retiring hotshot fighter
pilot (Kevin Costner) falls for the wife (Madeleine Stowe) of a very powerful
man (Anthony Quinn in an understated performance) and complications ensure. I did not like it at all in its original cut,
but uncensored (like the James Bond film Licence
To Kill the year prior, reviewed elsewhere on this site), it suddenly
becomes a better film.
Costner
was still a rising star and big box office at the time, just coming into his
own, but what few people never give him credit for is his ability to act well
when given the better material and when he gets ambitious about it. He is not the joke the media wants to make
him out to be, as the underrated Open
Range recently proved.
Unfortunately,
as brutal and mature as the situations can get in the film, the problem is that
this is Scott’s most explicit attempt to be Kubrickian and it does not always
work. More immediately, a comparison to
Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
shows the flaws. The film is just too
slow moving in its attempt to duplicate the fell of previous Kubrick films at
the expense on any comment about human sexuality and enough points to make the
film really work. It still drags and has
some unintentionally funny moments, but the only thing this longer cut does is
make us realize all had a long way to go to make this work. Miguel Ferrer, John Leguizamo and Sally
Kirkland also star.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in real Panavision by Jeffrey
L. Kimball, A.S.C., who was Scott’s regular cinematographer at the time. He later took his Director Of Photography
skills and became John Woo’s regular DP and underrated films like Star Trek: Nemesis and Glory Road (both also reviewed elsewhere
on this site). There is no doubt that
this film looks good and better in this new cut. Color is consistent and detail and depth are
about as good a film this age in this format is going to have, but with a new
cut comes a new print and that is a plus.
It is
arguable that Kimball’s work with Scott helped create a certain look associated
with commercial 1980s cinema and put both on the map. The attempt here is to break away from that
look while keeping certain aspects of its dynamic in tact. This does not always cohere in either
version, but it makes for an interesting watch either way.
The
original theatrical release sound was analog Dolby System sound, but while the
credits and Dolby’s records state older A-type, some sources site the then-new
analog SR (Spectral Recording) system.
Either way, this has been upgraded to Dolby Digital 5.1 and sound pretty
good for its age. Though not a full
multi-channel experience, the film has plenty of quite moments mixed in with
composer Jack Nitzsche’s best score since Personal
Best. The upgrade is decent overall.
Extras
include trailers for six other Sony releases, feature length Scott commentary
and Obsession: The Sex & Violence Of Revenge featurette. The film is also due to arrive in the high
definition Blu-ray format, but we were not able to secure a copy by street
date. However, we will look at it when
possible and come back to search for it if you are interested in how it fared.
- Nicholas Sheffo
